5 Things We Learned on Day Two of Cannes

“[Cannes] is the only red carpet thing I look forward to,” Kristen Stewart said yesterday at a lunch for her film Café Society, which opened the 69th annual film festival here on Wednesday night. “Because you never have to take pictures alone—you’re always with your cast—so it doesn’t ever feel like you’re selling [something].” In this case, that’s true: Woody Allen’s latest project is already bought and paid for by Amazon, which has no less than five films here this year, more than any other studio. (“The figure they were offering was so tremendous,” Allen said at the same lunch, “that even the people from Sony [Pictures Classics, his usual distributor] said, ‘You have to take that.’ ”) With Cannes off and running and going into day three, here are a few notes on the festival.

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1. If the world is made up of good Woody Allen movies and bad Woody Allen movies, this one is pretty good. Amazon gave Allen about twice his normal budget and the result is beautiful, thanks in great part to veteran Italian cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, who shot Apocalypse Now. The first half of the film is a love letter to 1930s Los Angeles in the way that we’ve seen Allen movies similarly treat Rome and Paris; the second half finishes in the familiar territory of Manhattan. The protagonist is played by Jesse Eisenberg—probably the most suitable stand-in for Woody Allen that there ever was or ever will be—who is rejected by an L.A. ingenue (Kristen Stewart) and marries a Waspy New Yorker (Blake Lively), only to realize years later that he’ll always be in love with Stewart’s character. I left thinking that Eisenberg could end up having a career a little like Woody Allen’s, too.

2. While Café Society was perfectly delightful, the opening night ceremony itself was something of a debacle. Emceed by actor Laurent Lafitte, the hour-long affair featured an inexplicable cameo by Catherine Deneuve; a room-silencing rape joke about Woody Allen (especially cringe-y because of the Ronan Farrow op-ed in The Hollywood Reporter); and a calamitous rendition of “Purple Rain” that was more of an insult to Prince than a tribute. The whole thing felt like something dreamed up by Pedro Almodóvar, who happens to have a film premiering next week.

3. Festival director Thierry Frémaux has dubbed Kristen Stewart the “Queen of Cannes.” Not only does she star in Café Society, but she will appear once again on the red stairs next week for the debut of Personal Shopper, her second collaboration with director Olivier Assayas. Their first film together, Clouds of Sils Maria, earned Stewart the first César to be won by an American actress, so expectations are high for this premiere on Tuesday. While most actors are planning their quick escapes from the South of France, Stewart is settling in for the long haul. “Yeah, I practically live here,” she said at lunch.

4. The big movie yesterday was Money Monster, the first truly commercial and thoroughly entertaining movie from Jodie Foster that played here out of competition. The plot centers on a Jim Cramer–like television financial guru (George Clooney) whose studio is threatened by a man armed with a pistol and explosives (Jack O’Connell), who has gone broke after following the show’s investment strategy. Julia Roberts plays a TV producer at the end of her rope, and newcomer Catriona Balfe gives a memorable performance near the film’s climax.Money Monster opens in theaters today, but it gave Cannes a reason to double down on glamour—Clooney! Julia! Where’s James Corden?—right from the start.Roberts even went barefoot on the red carpet.

5. Money Monster also provided Clooney with a press conference opportunity to denounce presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. “There’s not going to be a President Trump,” Clooney said, sounding a little like a candidate himself. “Fear is not going to be something that drives our country.” The on-the-nose plot of Money Monster reflects the kind of anger that has given Trump so much momentum, but according to George, everything is going to be all right. Exhale. And now onto day three.

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