Fifteen minutes of applause for his or her film may make the celebrities activate the waterworks, however it actually doesn’t suggest it is any good
Everybody’s been crying at this yr’s Venice Movie Competition. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, greatest often called the muscly famous person of the Quick and the Livid sequence, wept as a 15-minute standing ovation happened on the premiere of his first “severe” film, WWE drama The Smashing Machine. Elsewhere, Emma Stone teared up throughout seven minutes of clapping for her newest movie Bugonia, and in a clip that has since gone viral, Jacob Elordi sobbed as viewers members stood for 13 minutes to applaud Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein, during which Elordi performs the monster. Simply take into consideration that: 13 minutes is a very long time to face trying grateful.
Because the clapping went on and on, the tears dried up and Elordi, beginning to look a bit of awkward, made unusual little Charleston-esque knee swings together with his lengthy legs, as his diminutive co-star Oscar Isaac giggled self-consciously. Del Toro then again appeared, unsurprisingly, like a professional. His 2006 fantasy-horror Pan’s Labyrinth nonetheless holds the file for the longest competition standing ovation: a whopping 22 minutes at Cannes. That’s almost the identical size as most sitcom episodes.
What does it imply? I’m afraid, mainly nothing. Standing ovations are two a penny at Cannes and Venice, and have grow to be totally nonsensical. Venice, typically seen because the unofficial launch of awards season (everyone seems to be now speaking about Johnson as an Oscar contender), is a competition the place if folks don’t stand and clap for an embarrassingly very long time at your film you may surprise in the event you’re doing one thing improper.
It’s not even about whether or not the movie is any good: in spite of everything, Blonde, given simply two stars by this newspaper and with a Rotten Tomatoes positivity rating of simply 43 per cent, received a 14-minute standing ovation at Venice in 2022. Even the much-maligned Indiana Jones and the Dial of Future received 5 minutes at Cannes in 2023, though leisure magazine Selection described the applause as distinctly “lukewarm”. Its star Harrison Ford nonetheless managed to muster just a few tears, although.
And this, actually, is what it’s about: the celebrities. I’ve been a movie critic for over a decade, and, in contrast to at premieres, you by no means get standing ovations at press screenings, as a result of standing ovations don’t have anything to do with essential opinion and are fully concerning the forged and crew.
A producer buddy, Kaleem Aftab, whose well-reviewed mockumentary Reminiscence of Princess Mumbi is at the moment screening at Venice, described standing ovations as “a bit like clapping your children on the college play”. It’s a method of applauding participation, not the movie. And the longer it goes on, the extra cringeworthy it feels, bashing your palms collectively till they damage and questioning if you’re allowed to cease (no person desires to be first).
To me, it appears like a gross advertising ploy, even when it’s spontaneous. Certainly, there’s speak at Venice this yr of hiring paid applause suppliers, so cynicism isn’t unwarranted. My most up-to-date expertise of 1 was on the premiere of Depraved at London’s Royal Competition Corridor final November. Individuals don’t are inclined to time clapping outdoors Venice and Cannes, however it will need to have gone on for a lot of minutes as Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo stood graciously because the credit rolled to rapturous applause. I beloved the movie however on the finish, my non-media buddy who had simply been clapping with nice enthusiasm turned to me and stated: “Really, I don’t even actually like musicals.”
Venice and Cannes are very glam, however it isn’t the identical in any respect movie festivals. On the London Movie Competition, which I’ve been to many occasions, such prolonged shows are uncommon, reserved for the odd second the place the applause feels prefer it’s for one thing bigger than the precise movie – this was the case for Steve McQueen’s glorious 2013 slavery epic 12 Years a Slave, which went on to win three Oscars.
The Berlin Movie Competition is, in my expertise, equally muted. Is there one thing in our extra cynical British/German sensibility that makes us much less eager on the lionisation of celebrities? Tricia Tuttle, who ran the LFF for 5 years, now runs Berlin and instructed Selection earlier this yr: “Everybody I do know who likes cinema can not stand the clap-o-meter as a result of it’s simply absolute nonsense.” Celebs themselves typically really feel the identical. In 2021, Annette star Adam Driver appeared to get so bored throughout the movie’s Cannes standing ovation that he smoked a cigarette.
So, the following time you see a TikTok video of interminable clapping at a movie competition, simply bear in mind, it doesn’t imply that movie is destined for greatness, extra that there’s some alchemic mixture of star wattage and an viewers too well mannered to cease.
And the movie star most likely feels each bit as awkward because the clappers, questioning after they’re allowed to loosen up that rictus grin, flip off the waterworks, and go dwelling.
