For his first English language film, Holy Motors director Leos Carax made a musical starring Marion Cotillard and Adam Driver with a soundtrack from the cult band Sparks. My French is a little rusty, but I believe the word I’m looking for is: “Oui!”
Annette is about Henry (Driver), a “stand-up comedian with a fierce sense of humor,” and Ann (Cotillard), “a singer of international renown,” who seem like the perfect couple. But “the birth of their first child, Annette, a mysterious girl with an exceptional destiny, will change their lives.” You wouldn’t know any of that trailer from the above, though. Instead, you get Driver screaming “WHAT’S YOUR PROBLEM?!” while wearing a bathrobe and no shirt, which is more effective marketing than “the plot,” anyways.
who’s ready to watch adam driver sing and dance around in a green robe?
pic.twitter.com/sPfptdqS2U
— M
(@m_bee4) April 19, 2021
“We think it’s a really special film,” Sparks duo Ron and Russell Mael told IndieWire about Annette. “It’s uncompromising in all sorts of ways, it’s Adam Driver and it’s a full blown musical. Adam Driver is singing more often than he’s not singing, as well as Marion Cotillard. It’s a unique story and we’re proud it managed to get made”:
“Every Leos Carax film is an event,” Pierre Lescure, President of the Festival de Cannes, said in a statement. “And this one delivers on its promises. Annette is the gift that lovers of cinema, music, and culture were hoping for, one that we have been yearning for during the past year.”
Annette will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on July 6 before being released in the United States on Amazon Prime Video and in theaters in late summer.