Many Serious Actors looking to gain more Serious respect have likely aspired to try their hand at a little — *takes long drag on cigarette* — French cinéma. But perhaps few imagine their big Cannes moment to include full-throated singing into their co-star's vagina. Apparently, thanks to Adam Driver, now they can.
Annette, a new comedy-drama musical starring Driver and Marion Cotillard, premiered the first night of the 2021 Cannes Film Festival. The trailer promised a wacky, avant-garde ride, but now we've gotten even more intel into the kinds of antics that director Leos Carax has in store for audiences thanks to a slew of extremely mixed reviews.
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ANNETTE: Leos Carax made a Sparks musical about how self-loathing men can’t accept love and Adam Driver sings into Marion Cotillard’s vagina (twice!) and then she gives birth to a marionette baby and I was just deeply bored by every dour, self-amused, batshit second of it.
— david ehrlich (@davidehrlich) July 6, 2021
Je sors d'Annette, je suis tout flagada
— compte fan (@cjfzcfhb) July 6, 2021
Etrange film que #Annette, entre moments chelous et scènes flamboyantes. Adam Driver est impérial.
— CloneWeb (@cloneweb) July 6, 2021
I THINK I loved Leos Carax's ANNETTE & all its quirky & infectious peccadillos.
— Clayton Davis (@ByClaytonDavis) July 6, 2021
Adam Driver carries the way you'd expect one of the great actors of his generation to do.
Simon Helberg is GLORIOUSLY pure & my favorite supporting turn this year yet.#Annette #CannesFilmFestival pic.twitter.com/sRdL8UuLBE
The film follows on Henry (Driver), a stand-up comedian, and Ann (Cotillard), a world-famous opera singer, who fall in love and have a daughter named Annette, who possesses a mysterious gift.
According to an interview with Cotillard in the movie's official Cannes Press Pack, one of the most challenging aspects of the film is that the actors had to sing the original songs live à la Les Misérables, instead of pre-recording and lip-syncing to songs.
"It added to the complexity of the set: we found ourselves singing in very complicated positions, doing back-crawling or mimicking cunnilingus; acrobatic positions that technically modify your song [the way you sing]," she said in French. "But that was the effect Leos was looking for: he wanted the voices are modified, thwarted, by the real [situation]."
Yes, you read that right. That means that Driver will be singing directly into Cotillard's *foghorn noise*.
In fact, Cotillard added that audiences will also see "sexual tickling" and other unconventional movie-musical things things that would make Singin' In The Rain blush. "We strangely never see people fucking or doing trivial things in musical comedies," Cotillard said. But the actress said that she was game for anything, as Carax left an indelible mark on her growing up.
"He's the artist who made me dream when I was young, and the person who was very much talked about," said Cotillard. "The first thing that struck me about him is his humour [...] He has a great vitality to him."
Whether history repeats itself and, like Les Mis, this film sends the stars to the Oscars remains to be seen. But at least Cotillard and Driver can take comfort in the fact that their, err, talents will definitely go down (sorry) in movie-musical history.