Do the French like anything? So far the only reports I’ve read out of Cannes seem to revolve around how much the audiences there hate every film they’re seeing. Richard Kelly’s Southland Tales was hated so much people walked out. Now word is circulating that Sofia Coppola actually got booed.
Variety says that just a few hours before the film was set to premiere with a red carpet gala, Coppola’s Marie-Antoinette was met with a loud chorus of boos at an advance press screening attended heavily by the local press. What prompted such a sudden outpouring of total contempt for the movie? Apparently the French press are offended by Coppola’s sugary approach to their former Queen. I guess they think Antoinette is worthy of more respect. Maybe they should have thought of that before they had her executed.
Most of the reviews for the film have been positive, so the catcalls are actually sort of a surprise. I’d shrug this off as the usual bad natured, ill-mannered behavior you’d expect from the French. They hate everyone and everything. What else is new? You can’t take anything that happens at Cannes seriously, unless you’re debuting a French language, black and white indie film about a revolution against whoever it is that happens to be in power in France at that moment, you’re probably doomed.
