The feature film “Eddington ”Generated political debate inside and outside the cannes festival, where it was screened on Friday (16). The film, starring Joaquin Phoenix (“Joker”) and Pedro Pascal (“The Last of Us”), is directed by Ari Aster (“Hereditary” and “mysommar”).
Criticism of the feature film range from the “tedious” and “annoying” to “funny” and “I creepy”. Nevertheless, Aster revealed at a press conference at the Cannes Film Festival, this Saturday (17), who has not yet seen any of the published reactions about his film.
“I’ve been deliberately avoiding the debate about the movie,” he told CNN during the press conference. “I will probably dive my head in the swamp and see what the hell is happening there, or something, but I haven’t done it yet.”
In addition to Phoenix and Pascal, “Eddington” is starring Emma Stone (“La La Land”) and Austin Butler (“Elvis”) and takes place in a small town of New Mexico during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Phoenix’s sheriff is perplexed with masquerade policies and the apparent hysteria among residents, while Pascal’s mayor follows the line (while also doing dubious business with large technology companies to build a data center around the city).
His disagreements are prior to the pandemic, rooted in his relationships with the sheriff’s wife, a distant and clearly depressed Emma Stone.
The drama of the small town is expanded by news events, especially the death of George Floyd and the following protest movement. Aster fits all kinds of controversial themes: identity policy, social networking bubbles, fake flag attacks and the fascination with conspiracy theories, all facilitated by the widespread erosion of truth in the digital age.
The movie is proving a powerful Rorschach test. Less than 24 hours after its debut, there is a lot of online discussion about where “Eddington” is politically positioned, with commentators of all the strands – some without even seeing it – arguing that the film speaks for them.
“I wanted to paint a portrait of the society we live in now,” said Aster. “And I didn’t want to bind myself to an ideology, a story or a system of beliefs, because it is very limited. This is not the point, you know? The film is designed to be ambiguous in certain ways.”
“For me, the movie is about what happens when people who are so isolated and living in their own realities come into conflict with each other,” Aster explained. “When you start bumping into each other, a new logic is created, and from that people begin to amplify the fears of each other.”
“I wrote this movie in a state of fear and anxiety about the world,” he said. “I wanted to try to retreat and just describe and show what it’s like to live in a world where no one can agree on what is real.”
“I feel that in the last 20 years we have fallen into this era of hyperindidalism … that social force that used to be central to mass liberal democracies – which is an awake version of the world – this is gone now,” he added.
“Covid seemed to be the moment when this bond was finally cut for good,” Aster said. “I wanted to make a movie about how America seems to me and how it seemed to me at that time.”
Journalists pressured the actors and the director more than once on the current state of America. One questioned whether the actors were afraid of reprisals for making movies with political messages.
“Fear is the way they win,” Pascal said. “So keep telling the stories, keep expressing yourself and keep struggling to be who you are. And what the people who try to scare you, you know? And fight back. This is the perfect way to do it, telling stories. And don’t let them win.”
Pascal, answering the other question about Latin American migrants, recalled his youth: “My parents are refugees from Chile. I was a refugee myself. We fled a dictatorship. And I had the privilege of growing up in the US after asylum in Denmark. And if it wasn’t for that, I don’t know what would have happened to us.” “And so I defend these protections, always.”
Another journalist even asked if “there was nothing but a civil war waiting for America.”
“I don’t speak English,” he joked aster before finally answering. “I think we’re on a dangerous path, and I feel that we’re living an experiment that is going wrong – it’s been wrong. It’s not going well and it seems that there is no way out… [Isso] It should probably be interrupted or paused because it is not working, but of course no one is really interested in stopping it. ”
Cannes is no stranger to the mixture of art and politics. The historic 1968 edition presented protests led by director Jean-Luc Goddard, who forced the closing of the festival. Time has proven to be kind to Goddard, of course, that it will be revered once again in Cannes this year with Richard Linklater’s “Nouvelle Vague”, who rebuilds the efforts of Nouvelle Vague director to make the movie “A Bout de Souffle” in 1960.
The 78th edition, the first since the return of President Donald Trump to office, has maintained, and perhaps inevitably, an eye on the news. On the opening night, Robert de Niro, receiving a hole of honorary gold, criticized Trump, calling him “Philistine President.”
“In my country, we are struggling hard for the democracy we once took as guaranteed,” he told an audience formed by big names in the international film community.
Stars attend the red carpet of “Eddington”
This content was originally published in “Eddington” lights political debate by debuting at the Cannes Film Festival on CNN Brazil.
Source: CNN Brasil
I’m Robert Neff, a professional writer and editor. I specialize in the entertainment section, providing up-to-date coverage on the latest developments in film, television and music. My work has been featured on World Stock Market and other prominent publications.
