ADAM DRIVER + MARION COTILLARD
In Annette, An Operatically Strange Story
French director Leos Carax (the man behind 2012’s insanely trippy Holy Motors) has teamed up with Ron and Russell Mael (the brothers at the center of Edgar Wright’s new documentary The Sparks Brothers) to make his English-language film debut with the upcoming movie musical Annette. Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard star as provocative stand-up comedian Henry McHenry and famous soprano Ann Defrasnoux. Their lives are thrown for a spin when their daughter Annette is born with a unique gift.
You’re probably wondering what that mysterious gift is. Don’t look for any clues in the film’s recently released trailer. You won’t find any. The trailer will only serve to confuse you more. And that’s not a bad thing. If you are already familiar with Carax’s previous work, especially Holy Motors, you’ll know you are in for quite a ride with his newest film. The trailer opens with a voiceover from Driver, describing the first time he fell in love and then ran away from those feelings. However, he says that Cotillard’s Ann has changed him, but he can’t figure out what she sees in him. As he delivers this last bit of voiceover, we see him grab a large butcher’s knife and then seemingly stab something or someone in the water. Should we be intuiting that he is perhaps a murderer? A serial killer? Are we reading too much into it?
The film was supposed to screen at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, but, like with many other movies, was delayed due to the coronavirus. According to the Sparks Brothers, the film will be told almost entirely through song, like a traditional rock opera. In addition to Driver and Cotillard, the film stars Simon Helberg as The Conductor, Devyn McDowell as the mysterious Annette, and Belgian pop star Angèle.
Annette will open the 2021 Cannes Film Festival on July 6, 2021, before opening in a limited theatrical release in the U.S. on August 6. After that, it will be released on Amazon Prime on August 20, 2021.
