Plus, the festival releases its latest guidelines to make the event more eco-friendly.

Opening with The Second Act

On Wednesday, the Festival de Cannes announced that it will open with Quentin Dupieux’s latest film Le Deuxième Acte (The Second Act), starring Léa Seydoux along with Vincent Lindon, Louis Garrel and frequent Dupieux collaborator Raphaël Quenard. Seydoux can currently be seen playing Margot Fenring in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two.

Dupieux is an unconventional filmmaker, known for his earlier work, which he produced in the US, as well as his latter projects which are French productions. The Parisian filmmaker is also known by his musical stage name Mr. Oizo, for his work in electronic music, and DJ. Dupieux when spinning records.

Le Deuxième Acte (The Second Act), the latest film from the prolific French director and screenwriter, will open the forthcoming Festival de Cannes. Presented Out of Competition, the film will world premiere on the Croisette on Tuesday, May 14. On the same day, this four-part comedy will be released in French cinemas. Which is not unusual for Cannes opening films.

Last year, the festival kicked off with Jeanne du Barry, a historical drama directed by Maïwenn, also starring the French filmmaker and actress, along with American star Johnny Depp — who caused a bit of an uproar. The film was also in French theaters the same day.

To launch the festivities of the 77th edition, Dupieux is an interesting choice. He will walk the red carpet at the Grand Théâtre Lumière, surrounded by his entire team. As the festival describes him, he is “a filmmaker who embraces freedom – in tone, form and subject – Quentin Dupieux has freed himself from convention through an already extensive body of work (13 feature films in 17 years), establishing the absurd as a genre in its own right and shaking up all the others – of which The Second Act is a perfect case in point!”

The Second Act shows itself to be a new mise en abyme — which in film theory and literary theory refers to the technique of inserting a story within a story — around acting, which the filmmaker already made one of the central themes of both Yannick and Daaaaaali! His last two films. His most famous work is probably Deerskin starring Jean Dujardin, which was screened in the Quinzaine sidebar in 2019.

The Second Act follows Smoking Causes Coughing, which was presented in 2022 in the Official Selection, Out of Competition.

The future (of Cannes) looks green!

On Thursday, the festival also announced that we, as members of the press, should pre-order our catalogue as that will help cut down on unwanted copies and help the festival organization come up with the right number for the printing presses. The announcement read as follows:

“Aware of its impact and responsibilities, the Festival de Cannes has for several years been committed to a global, proactive and pragmatic environmental approach. This commitment is built around 3 main principles: REDUCE carbon emissions and waste production, RECOVER residual resources, SUPPORT environmentally virtuous projects through a carbon contribution in conjunction with a committee of experts (2.2 M donated in 3 years):

- Encouraging the use of soft mobility and public transport (free for festival-goers),

- Reducing the use of materials and resources, with, for example, a 50% reduction in the volume of the red carpet (100% re-used) since 2019, or the total elimination of plastic water bottles in favor of water fountains (don't forget your water bottle!),

- The overall recycling of waste and the deployment of selective sorting garbage cans,

- A fleet of official cars made up of 100% electric vehicles.”

It also provided a link where we could pre-order the program and advised us it won’t be sent to our home, we would still need to collect it.

In closing, the festival wrote the following: “Every gesture counts, and each and every one of us is an agent of change. It's up to all of us to play our part!” Couldn’t have put it better myself.

This year’s Cannes Film Festival will take place from May 14th to the 25th, 2024. For more info, check out their website.

Images courtesy of the Festival de Cannes, used with permission.