Photo: Andreas Rentz/Getty Images
To experience the Cannes Film Festival, one cannot merely read about it. You have to watch Mr. Bean’s Holiday, too. Seriously folks, the media maelstrom of Cannes is wild, and this fest is particularly known for wildin’ out in one particular way: weirdly long standing ovations. (Also booing, but we’re focusing on the positive right now.) Some think it’s a fun tradition, and a nice way for filmmakers to get their flowers before they die. Others feel the standing ovation observation industry is “total bullshit.” Be that as it may, clocking the standing O’s for Cannes premieres has become a pastime of cinephiles, one more stat to throw into the Cinematrix. According to IndieWire, the longest ovation to date was a staggering 22 minutes for Pan’s Labyrinth. How will this year’s offerings fare? We’ve ranked the recorded ovations, shortest to longest. Cannes you believe it?
On Twitter, Variety’s resident standing ovalogist Ramin Setoodeh clocked the standing O for The Second Act (a French comedy about AI invading film) at a “robotic” 3.5 minutes. This is the color commentary we need! Did it feel perfunctory, or were people trying to flip their seats in a frenzy of cinephilia?
Oooh, the girls (the trades) are fighting! Deadline, Variety, and The Hollywood Reporter all gave different times for the length of Furiosa’s ovation. To Deadline, George Miller’s epic prequel got “nearly 8.” Setoodeh put the ovation at a mere 6 min. And THR split the diff at 7 minutes. So what is the truth?
