{"id":482517,"date":"2026-05-13T12:01:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T12:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/482517\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T12:01:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T12:01:18","slug":"cannes-2026-glamour-sheer-excruciation-and-the-vanishing-irish-shot-film-bucking-fastard-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/482517\/","title":{"rendered":"Cannes 2026: Glamour, sheer excruciation and the vanishing Irish-shot film Bucking Fastard \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

As ever, the opening ceremony of this year\u2019s Cannes film festival<\/a>, on Tuesday, was a confusion of glamour, weirdness and sheer excruciation. <\/p>\n

Its host, the actor Eye Ha\u00efdara, began with one of the passionate \u201codes to cinema\u201d that Cannes so loves. While images of greats appeared behind her, she attempted impersonations of everyone from Robert De Niro<\/a> in Taxi Driver to Julia Roberts<\/a> in Notting Hill. <\/p>\n

Shortly after that we moved on to a presentation of an honorary Palme d\u2019Or for the film-maker Peter Jackson<\/a> that ended with him perched on a stool listening to the duo Theodora et Oklou sing a tortuously slowed-down version of The Beatles\u2019 Get Back. <\/p>\n

Things picked up, happily, at the end when Jane Fonda<\/a> and her fellow actor Gong Li popped up to announce the festival open. All very French. All very odd. And all over in about 40 minutes.<\/p>\n

As Cannes kicks off, news emerges about the absence of a much-anticipated Irish-shot production. The Irish Times was among many predicting<\/a> that Werner Herzog\u2019s<\/a> juicily titled Bucking Fastard would be a late addition to the official selection. <\/p>\n

Partly filmed in Dublin last year, the feature stars the sisters Kate and Rooney Mara as twins \u201cdigging a tunnel through an entire mountain range\u201d (very Herzog). Domhnall Gleeson<\/a> and Simon Delaney are among the Irish cast. <\/p>\n

So where is it? \u201cBucking Fastard was invited as an official selection at the 2026 Cannes film festival which the film-makers declined,\u201d a spokesperson for the film said mysteriously. <\/p>\n

Variety is now reporting that the producers turned down the request as they were offered only an \u201cout of competition\u201d slot and Herzog wanted the Rooneys to be up for awards.<\/p>\n

Coincidentally, the story echoes that of another Irish-shot feature from 2025. Jim Jarmusch\u2019s Father Mother Sister Brother<\/a> was also expected to be in the official selection, but, on the morning of the announcement, there it was not. <\/p>\n

\"TheThe opening ceremony of this year\u2019s Cannes film festival was a confusion of glamour. Photograph: AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

\u201cWe were told, \u2018It\u2019s not selected for competition. We might put it in a different section,\u2019\u201d Jarmusch explained. \u201cTo which I responded, \u2018I haven\u2019t made a film in five years. I\u2019ve been in Cannes many times. That\u2019s not appropriate to me.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

Father Mother Sister Brother went on to win the Golden Lion at Venice<\/a>. Herzog may take this as a good omen.<\/p>\n

On his first trip to Cannes, a few years ago, Eamon Hughes, producer of Tin Castle, an Irish documentary playing in this year\u2019s Critics\u2019 Week, quickly realised it\u2019s a different experience for different people.<\/p>\n

\u201cA buyer of films is going to have a very different week to a producer who\u2019s going to have a very different week to a programmer,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cA programmer will be just watching as much as they possibly can, thinking about their own festival. The buyer is going to be thinking, \u2018Will this play to my Croatian audience?\u2019 or wherever they\u2019re buying from. <\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a producer\u2019s perspective, because we come early to a project, I might be meeting a writer who\u2019s got a synopsis that they want to share with me. I could be meeting a director in order to catch someone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TinTin Castle, a documentary about Irish Travellers by Alexander Murphy <\/p>\n

Or he could be talking about the current project. Alexander Murphy\u2019s Tin Castle follows the O\u2019Reillys, a large Traveller family living lives rooted in tradition. <\/p>\n

Those who haven\u2019t sweated at this busy event will wonder what benefit comes from inclusion.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, there is prestige that you might get for getting it in there,\u201d Hughes says. \u201cIt\u2019s a real business opportunity. There is a sales agent on it who will be taking the film and showing it to the press and the distributors and buyers. It really is the moment where these films can go out to the world and be seen in different territories across Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n

A great deal of expense is involved.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cost does get shared, which is nice,\u201d he says. \u201cScreen Ireland are wonderful, in that they support us and they give us some money to attend. They give us some money for marketing materials or a publicist. But an Aperol and an ice cream is \u20ac20. You have to fund that out of you own pocket,\u201d he laughs.<\/p>\n

There is a lot of talk these days about the intersection between film and politics. At his opening conference, Thierry Fr\u00e9maux, the head of the festival, was eager to defend Wim Wenders from criticism about remarks the film-maker made as head of the Berlin film festival jury in February. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are the counterweight to politics,\u201d Wenders said. \u201cWe are the opposite of politics.\u201d Fr\u00e9maux was oblique. \u201cWhat he wanted to say is that, as president of the jury, politics is on the screen,\u201d he remarked. \u201cThat\u2019s what we see in Cannes.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"PaulPaul Laverty during the opening ceremony of the 79th annual Cannes Festival. Photograph: Andreas Rentz\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

Whatever that may mean, there was little chance that the screenwriter Paul Laverty, a member of this year\u2019s Cannes jury, was going to stay silent on the issues of the day. He used the image of Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis that adorns this year\u2019s poster as inspiration. <\/p>\n

\u201cCan I just leave one tiny thing?\u201d Laverty, who wrote Palme d\u2019Or winners I, Daniel Blake and The Wind that Shakes the Barley, told the press. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Cannes film festival has a wonderful poster. Yes, and isn\u2019t it fascinating to see some of them, like Susan Sarandon, Javier Bardem, Mark Ruffalo, blacklisted because of their views in opposing the murder of women and children in Gaza? <\/p>\n

\u201cShame on Hollywood people who do that. My respect and total solidarity to them. They\u2019re the best of us. I look up to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where is The White Lotus? For all the talk of a lower than usual Hollywood presence at Cannes this year, the 2026 event is set to become the centre of a mainstream-TV juggernaut. <\/p>\n

The fourth series of the luscious high-life murder mystery is set around Cannes, with key scenes being shot at the festival itself. H\u00f4tel Martinez, a vast art-deco palace on the Promenade de la Croisette, looks to be welcoming cast members such as Vincent Cassel, Steve Coogan and Laura Dern. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt shows that Cannes is no longer just a festival,\u201d Iris Knobloch, the Cannes president, said. \u201cIt has become part of global pop culture and imagination.\u201d <\/p>\n

We will report back on any red-carpet sightings.<\/p>\n

First Look Cannes review: The Electric Kiss\"TheThe Electric Kiss: Madeleine Baudot and Ana\u00efs Demoustier in Pierre Salvadori’s film <\/p>\n

The Electric Kiss<\/strong> <\/p>\n

\ue9d9 \ue9d9 \ue9d9 \ue9d8 \ue9d7<\/strong> <\/p>\n

Director:<\/strong> Pierre Salvadori<\/p>\n

Cert:<\/strong> None<\/p>\n

Starring:<\/strong> Pio Marma\u00ef, Ana\u00efs Demoustier, Gilles Lellouche, Vimala Pons<\/p>\n

Running Time:<\/strong> 2 hrs 2 mins<\/p>\n

Over recent years the opening film of the Cannes Festival \u2013 once a blockbuster such as The Great Gatsby or Up \u2013 has been taken over by smallish French films that are often never distributed in Ireland or Britain. The Electric Kiss doesn\u2019t feel like a radical shift from that strain, but it is a rather lovely thing that has decent fun untying a pretty romantic knot.<\/p>\n

In the years immediately after the first World War the mournful Suzanne (Ana\u00efs Demoustier) works in an eclectically themed sideshow for a believably unscrupulous shyster. Through a series of amusing mishaps, a young painter named Antoine (Pio Marma\u00ef) mistakes her to be a clairvoyant and hires her to contact his late wife, Ir\u00e8ne. <\/p>\n

A lot more happens before Suzanne finds the dead woman\u2019s diary and, when not using it to swindle Antoine, constructs parallels between its tragic story and her own increasing affection for the mark. <\/p>\n

You knew that was going to happen, did you not?<\/p>\n

A lot of work has gone into making a complex story fizzle. In the second half we sneak back in time to encounter the excellent Vimala Pons as poor Ir\u00e8ne messing about Paris\u2019s art scene. <\/p>\n

The set direction and costumes shamelessly romanticise an era that was surely a bit more grubby than the idyll here. For all that, the picture does have a strain of bitterness running through it that saves it from sentimentality.<\/p>\n

One cannot help but think of mid-level Woody Allen. Not least, perhaps, as he opened Cannes film festival on three occasions. A record likely to stand for some time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As ever, the opening ceremony of this year\u2019s Cannes film festival, on Tuesday, was a confusion of glamour,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[268],"tags":[11519,434,33770,18,117,2220,19,17,47672,27219,55595,70879,25311,34499],"class_list":{"0":"post-482517","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-cannes-film-festival","9":"tag-celebrities","10":"tag-domhnall-gleeson","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-france","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-jane-fonda","17":"tag-jim-jarmusch","18":"tag-peter-jackson","19":"tag-robert-de-niro","20":"tag-werner-herzog","21":"tag-wim-wenders"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116567165907005555","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}