Leos Carax returns to Cannes with fantastical musical ‘Annette’
By Marta Garde
Cannes (France), Jul 7 (EFE).- After a nine year absence, French director Leos Carax has returned to Cannes Film Festival with Annette, a fantastical musical starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard, fulfilling the director’s dream to one day direct a musical.
“I always wanted to do a film in music, with music, but I always thought it would be impossible (…) if you don’t compose music,” Carax told a news conference.
Annette is a hypnotic and unrestrained film, which through the love story of a black-humor comedian and world-famous soprano, exposes dark themes such as sexual abuse and child exploitation.
The picture, which starts on a light note, takes an unexpected twist when the couple have a daughter, Annette, who has a unique gift.
“It (the film) is the vision of a man, a bad father, a bad man, a bad husband, a bad artist,” Carax said.
The soundtrack in Annette – Carax’s English language debut – was composed by brothers Ron and Russel Mael, members of the Sparks band.
Cotillard, who plays the role of Annette’s mother and soprano, admits the film was a challenging experience due to its musical aspect.
“Usually when you sing and when you do a musical, you record the songs in the studio and then you lip-sync. There it was live, so it means that the sound of the singing would be changed by every movement of the body and we actually have a lot of action while singing,” the French actress said.
The Mael brothers said they preferred the stars to do most of their own singing on set to avoid a too choreographed performance and achieve a more sincere performance.
