This archive report was first published on 13 July 2021.
Published on July 13, 2021, Wes Anderson's highly anticipated film 'The French Dispatch' finally premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, a year after its initial planned debut due to the pandemic.
The star-studded comedic anthology, featuring a cast including Timothée Chalamet, Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Benicio Del Toro, and Owen Wilson, was met with a massive response from the audience at the Grand Théâtre Lumière.
As the credits rolled, the audience erupted into a nine-minute standing ovation, a spectacle that is one of the festival's most iconic quirks. But what makes a Cannes standing ovation so unique, and how does it sustain itself for such an extended period?
Let's break down the anatomy of a Cannes standing ovation, using last night's standing ovation for 'The French Dispatch' as our model.
At 1 second in, the credits end, and the lights go on, prompting the cheering audience to get to their feet. A cameraman scurries towards the middle of the theater, where Anderson and his cast are sitting, filming them as the image is simultaneously broadcast on the Lumière's big screen.
At 6 seconds in, though Anderson has risen from his seat, the rest of his cast pointedly stays seated, wanting Anderson to have his own moment where he can be singularly applauded for his work.
As the ovation continues, the cameraman moves to sustained close-ups of each actor, allowing the audience to give each of the performers their own round of applause. This is why Cannes films with a large ensemble tend to get longer ovations.
At 2 minutes and 20 seconds in, while the camera is panning from a close-up of Mathieu Amalric to Lyna Khoudri, Adrien Brody races from his place at the very end of the cast lineup and heads to where the action is, hugging Amalric and the camera pulls back to cover him.
As the ovation reaches its climax, the cast begins to improvise, with Chalamet hiding his face with a 'Tilda Swinton' sign, only for Swinton to snatch it from his hands and tape it onto his back again. The audience is in stitches as the cast members engage in a series of comedic antics.
At 7 minutes and 15 seconds in, Anderson is handed a microphone and begins to speak to the audience in French, calling the premiere 'un honneur pour moi.' However, after seven seconds of that, he turns to Chalamet and cracks in English, 'I don't know what else to say.' The audience laughs, and Anderson adds, 'I hope we come back with another one soon. Thank you so much.'
The crowd surges back to its initial levels, and the ovation continues until its eventual conclusion.
