Inside ‘May December,’ the Most Fun Film at Cannes

At the Cannes Film Festival premiere of “May December” this week, one thing occurred within the first couple of minutes that put director Todd Haynes comfy. It passed off on the finish of the film’s second scene, as Gracie (Julianne Moore) will get prepared for a household barbecue that shall be attended by Elizabeth (Natalie Portman), a well-known actress who’s making ready to play Gracie in a movie.

As Gracie crosses her kitchen and opens her fridge, Haynes zooms in on Moore and performs a dramatic music cue. The viewer is on excessive alert: Something important is about to occur! Instead, Moore publicizes mildly, to nobody specifically, “I don’t think we have enough hot dogs.” And the Cannes viewers burst out laughing.

That’s precisely the response Haynes hoped for. Though loads of viewers will learn “May December” in an easy means, the subject material is so juicy that Haynes greater than welcomes a playful interpretation.

“I was encouraged that the audience felt permission to enjoy the film,” he informed me over espresso, “and appreciate it at the same time.”

Haynes could also be understating issues: “May December” is probably the most enjoyable film that’s performed at Cannes this yr, a well-reviewed leisure that fest-goers have been quoting nonstop since its premiere. There is a whiff of tabloid scandal at its core, since Gracie is loosely based mostly on Mary Kay Letourneau, the instructor convicted in 1997 of raping her sixth-grade scholar Vili Fualaau, whose child she gave beginning to in jail and whom she later married. Gracie and her husband, Joe (Charles Melton), have the same again story, however when Elizabeth travels to their Savannah, Ga., residence to shadow them for every week, they current her with a picture-perfect picture of long-married home bliss.

Still, the power of their union relies on by no means really revisiting its origin, and as Elizabeth pokes, prods and asks invasive questions, theirs is a wedding underneath siege. Gracie will do no matter she has to in an effort to hold her household collectively, however Elizabeth is simply as decided to crack her facade, and as each ladies face off in a sequence of electrical encounters, the self-interest that motivates them is usually so craven which you can’t assist however giggle.

“As we were cutting it, it felt funnier than I really knew even reading or shooting the movie,” Haynes mentioned. “We didn’t play it for laughs — it just has a sardonic wit about it.”

Does Haynes agree with the critics who’ve known as the movie campy? “That was never, ever a term I applied to the script or style of shooting,” he mentioned, although he understood why writers may be tempted to make use of the phrase: “‘Camp’ is maybe a too catchall term these days for an excited state of reading things, where you’re encouraged to read something against itself at times. And that’s exactly what I hoped would happen, especially with a sense of pleasure involved, and amusement.”

In the competition’s greatest bidding warfare, Netflix prevailed with an $11 million value that ought to presage a significant awards marketing campaign for Portman, who makes Elizabeth’s totally dedicated insincerity so compelling.

“She was so invigorated and excited — like mischievously so — to play with the expectations that people would bring to the movie,” Haynes mentioned. “At first you think Elizabeth will be our comfortable way in to this sordid back story, and then you start to really re-examine who she is and feel that she is not a reliable narrator.”

The movie is also an awards breakout second for Melton, whose Joe involves the fore within the ultimate act as he movingly scrutinizes the life path he was locked into because the boy on the middle of a tabloid scandal. “We were so lucky to find him for this,” Haynes mentioned of the actor, beforehand greatest identified for “Riverdale.” (Between Melton and the “Elvis” star Austin Butler — final yr’s Croisette breakout — the CW-to-Cannes pipeline has change into an actual factor.)

Haynes has been juggling his duties on “May December” with a profession retrospective in Paris that has highlighted movies like “Carol,” “Far From Heaven” and “Safe” (the latter two additionally starring Moore), and he has welcomed every as a distraction from the opposite. “One has to filter it a bit just to survive it all, and it’s heady looking back at my whole creative life and history,” he mentioned. “I would be in pools of tears otherwise.”

The retrospective will quickly finish with a screening of “May December,” and that feels becoming: This is probably the most mainstream movie Haynes has but made, however it’s nonetheless full of thematic layers, and Haynes welcomes any interpretation you’ve acquired, be it severe or humorous.

“If there’s a thinking process that runs parallel to watching the movie, that’s superb,” he mentioned.