At the Cannes Film Festival premiere of “May December” this week, something happened in the opening minutes that put director Todd Haynes at ease. This took place at the end of the film’s second scene, as Gracie (Julianne Moore) prepares for a family barbecue attended by Elizabeth (Natalie Portman), a famous actress who is set to play Gracie in a film.
As Gracie walks through her kitchen and opens her fridge, Haynes zooms in on Moore and plays a dramatic musical cue. The viewer is alert: something big is about to happen! Instead, Moore quietly announces, to no one in particular, “I don’t think we have enough hot dogs.” And the Cannes public bursts out laughing.
This is exactly the reaction Haynes was hoping for. Although many viewers will read “May December” plainly, the subject matter is so juicy that Haynes welcomes more than a playful interpretation.
“I was heartened that the audience felt permission to enjoy the film,” he told me over coffee, “and to enjoy it at the same time.”
Haynes may be understating things: “May December” is the funniest film to screen at Cannes this year, a well-reviewed entertainment that festival-goers have been citing endlessly since its premiere. There’s a whiff of tabloid scandal at its core, as Gracie is loosely based on Mary Kay Letourneau, the teacher convicted in 1997 of the rape of her sixth-grade student Vili Fualaau, whom she gave birth to in prison and whom she later married. Gracie and her husband, Joe (Charles Melton), have a similar story, but when Elizabeth visits their home in Savannah, Georgia to observe them for a week, they present her with a perfect picture of a long-married servant. . happiness.
Yet the strength of their union lies in never truly revisiting its origin, and while Elizabeth pushes and pushes and asks intrusive questions, theirs is a beleaguered marriage. Gracie will do whatever she has to to keep her family together, but Elizabeth is just as determined to break her facade, and as the two women go head-to-head in a series of electric encounters, the self-interest that drives them is often so loose. that you can’t stop laughing.
“While we were cutting it, it was funnier than I really knew it was, even reading or shooting the movie,” Haynes said. “We didn’t play him for laughs – he just has a sardonic wit about it.”
Does Haynes agree with critics who called the film campy? “It was never, ever a term I applied to the script or the style of filming,” he said, though he understands why writers might be tempted to use that word: “‘ Camp’ is perhaps too catch-all term these days for an avid reading state of things, where you’re sometimes encouraged to read something against itself. And that’s exactly what I was hoping for, especially with a sense of pleasure and amusement.
In the festival’s biggest bidding war, Netflix prevailed with an $11 million prize that should presage a big awards campaign for Portman, which makes Elizabeth’s fully committed insincerity so compelling.
“She was so invigorated and excited — like mischievously — to play with the expectations that people would bring to the movie,” Haynes said. “At first you think Elizabeth will be our comfortable path through this sordid story, then you start to really re-examine who she is and you feel like she’s not a reliable narrator.”
The film could also be a watershed moment for Melton, whose Joe comes to the fore in the final act as he emotionally scrutinizes the life path he was locked into as a boy at the center of a tabloid scandal. “We were so lucky to find him for that,” Haynes said of the actor, previously best known for “Riverdale.” (Between Melton and “Elvis” star Austin Butler — last year’s Croisette breakout — the CW-Cannes pipeline has become a reality.)
Haynes juggled his duties on “May December” with a career retrospective in Paris that highlighted films like “Carol,” “Far From Heaven” and “Safe” (the latter two also starring Moore), and he welcomed each as a distraction from the other. “You have to filter it just a bit to survive it all, and it’s exhilarating to look back at my whole creative life and story,” he said. “Otherwise I would be in pools of tears.”
The retrospective will soon end with a screening of “May December”, and that seems fitting: it’s the most mainstream film Haynes has ever made, but it’s still filled with thematic layers, and Haynes welcomes any interpretation you have, whether serious or funny.
“If there’s a thought process parallel to watching the film, that’s great,” he said.
