Harrison Ford and Martin Scorsese have somehow never worked together, but the film icons were on the same emotional page during their recent business trips to France.
As the 2023 Cannes Film Festival winds down, there’s a lot to reflect on from the nearly two-week event, which has seen fewer acquisitions and sales than usual, due to the ongoing WGA strike, and yet, has still provided controversy, breakouts, and a couple of legends being adorable. Here are some of the highlights—and lowlights—from the glamorous beach fest.
Harrison Ford: the tears of destiny
Over the last few years (or decades), Harrison Ford wouldn’t necessarily be described as the warmest and fuzziest character, but the 80-year-old actor was in all of his feels after the world premiere of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. While the reviews for the fifth installment in the beloved franchise have been mixed, Ford is clearly feeling the love, between receiving a standing ovation (let’s please stop counting the lengths of these), being awarded an Honorary Palme d’Or, and earning new fans with his surprisingly delightful performance on Apple TV+’s Shrinking, for which he’s an Emmy favorite.
Marty gets his flowers
Like Ford, Martin Scorsese hit the beaches of Cannes to drop his highly-anticipated new film and was greeted with a rapturous reception. But, unlike the average Indy reviews, Killers of the Flower Moon has been hailed by many as the latest Scorsese classic. The 80-year-old filmmaker spent the early promotional tour for Flower Moon coming to grips with how close he’s getting to the end of his career. “I wish I could take a break for eight weeks and make a film at the same time,” he said to Deadline. “The whole world has opened up to me, but it’s too late. It’s too late.” It wasn’t too late for the Cannes attendees to pay their respect to the master director, and they gave him the killer reaction that he deserved. Is a second Best Director Oscar incoming?
Move over legends, these fresh faces are stealing scenes
Martin Scorsese! Leonardo DiCaprio! Robert De Niro! Killers of the Flower Moon has an unmatched pedigree, but it’s Lily Gladstone who steals the show, both in the film and at Cannes. The Native actress is reportedly the heart of Scorsese’s epic, which centers on a series of Oklahoma murders in the Osage Nation during the 1920s. “Lily has amazing presence and strength,” DiCaprio, who plays her onscreen husband, told THR. “She became a source of guidance for all of us.” The cheers from the Cannes crowd—and costar Jesse Plemons—says it all.
Elsewhere, in a film led by Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore, Riverdale and Bad Boys for Life star Charles Melton is being hailed as the breakout of Todd Haynes’s May December, with some even making Austin Butler comparisons and suggesting an Oscar nomination could be in play. The Melton hype is here in May, now let’s see if it stays all the way until December (or whenever May December premieres on Netflix).
Johnny Depp and controversy opened Cannes
Cannes has been going on for so long that it’s easy to forget that the festival kicked off with controversy, as period drama Jeanne du Barry premiered on opening night, serving as a bit of a comeback for embattled star Johnny Depp. The film from writer, director, and leading lady Maiwenn marks the biggest project for Depp since the conclusion of his very public defamation trial that pitted Depp against his ex-wife Amber Heard. The jury sided with Depp, but Heard’s accusations of abuse have been enough to make some in Hollywood and the public wary of the former A-list movie star—but apparently not in Cannes, where he earned a standing ovation following the screening of Jeanne du Barry. Is this the beginning of his return to prominence? Or does the audiences at Cannes just clap for anyone? Time will tell, but the latter seems more likely.
A Less Beloved Idol
Almost a week after her dad stepped into the spotlight at Cannes, Lily-Rose Depp picked up the controversy baton to debut her buzzy new HBO drama The Idol. Hailing from Euphoria creator Sam Levinson and music superstar Abel Tesfaye (who recently dropped his stage name The Weeknd), The Idol features Depp as an up-and-coming pop singer who falls under the spell of a charismatic self-help guru and cult leader, played by Tesfaye. Back in March, Rolling Stone published an investigation that painted the show’s production as chaotic and troubling, with complaints of disturbing scripted sexual violence. Levinson and Tesfaye were visibly choked up post-Idol premiere, but their work is being ripped as “regressive,” “gratuitous,” and “more toxic and way worse than you’ve heard.” Audiences can decide for themselves when the series drops on June 4.