The Cannes Film Festival presented Grand Tour by Miguel Gomes, Motel Destino by Karim Aïnouz and – out of competition – The Count of Monte Cristo by Matthieu Delaporte & Alexandre de la Patellière.
Festival de Cannes 2024 : the Festival enters the final stretch towards the awards with the screening of Grand Tour, the sixth feature film by Portuguese director Miguel Gomes, Motel Destino by bresilian filmaker Karim Aïnouz and – Out of Competition – The Count of Monte Cristo by Matthieu Delaporte & Alexandre de la Patellière, the third adaptation of a novel by Alexandre Dumas following the screenwriters-directors’ first two successes with the Three Musketeers.
Grand Tour ©DR
A Romantic Grand Tour of Asia
Miguel Gomes is a Portuguese filmmaker. He has attended the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight since 2008 with Ce Cher Mois d’Août, Les Mille et Une Nuits in 2015 and Journal de Tûoa (co-directed with Maureen Fazendeiro) in 2021. His film Tabou won the Silver Bear, Alfred Bauer Prize and FIPRESCI Prize at the 2012 Berlinale.
Grand Tour is his first film (in black & white) in Competition. Edward (Gonçalo Waddington), a British Empire civil servant stationed in Rangoon, Burma in 1917, goes on the run on the day he is due to marry his fiancée Molly (Crista Alfaiate). Determined to get married, Molly sets off in search of Edward and follows in the footsteps of his Grand Tour across the Asian continent.
Motel Destino © Santoro
Motel Destino, a fight for life
Since Madame Satã (2002), Un Certain Regard, Karim Aïnouz has enjoyed success at Cannes. In 2011, La Falaise argentée was presented at the Quinzaine des Cinéastes, and Eurídice Gusmão’s La Vie invisible won the Un Certain Regard prize. Then came the Official Selection with Marin des montagnes (2021) and Le Jeu de la Reine in 2023. In Motel Destino, the Kabyle-born Brazilian director directs a sensual thriller about characters seeking to satisfy their passion and forge their own destiny through the love story between Heraldo (Iago Xavier), a young rebel, and Dayana (Nataly Rocha), a woman who dares to defy society’s injunctions. Their meeting at the Motel Destino triggers an all-consuming passion that calls into question the well-planned future that society had in store for them.
The Count of Monte Cristo ©DR
From the Château d’If to Cannes
Alexandre Dumas is still a big hit: The Count of Monte Cristo, the third novel to be adapted for the cinema following the resounding success of the two films featuring the legendary Three Musketeers by Alexandre de La Patellière and Matthieu Delaporte, was presented Out of Competition on 22 May, starring Pierre Niney as Edmond Dantès, unjustly imprisoned and seeking revenge in the guise of the wealthy Count. In 2023, The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan and its brilliant sequel, The Three Musketeers: Milady, amassed 6 million cumulative admissions. Alongside Pierre Niney is the excellent Anaïs Demoustier (Mercédès Herrera), already nominated for a 2008 César in the Best New Actress category for her role in Les Grandes personnes, Laurent Lafitte, Bastien Bouillon, Vassili Schneider and Anamaria Vartolomei.
The Red Carpet of The Count of Monte Cristo
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