James Gray's 'Paper Tiger' Earns 10-Minute Cannes Ovation as Scarlett Johansson Misses Her Own Standing Cheer

Level 2 — Elementary

On Saturday night, May 16, the 79th Cannes Film Festival showed the new film 'Paper Tiger' for the first time. It was screened in the Grand Théâtre Lumière, the biggest theatre on the festival's Croisette. About 2,300 people in evening dress were in the audience.

The film is by the American director James Gray. It stars Adam Driver as Eli Vogel, a tired analyst inside the U.S. Department of Defense in the late 1980s, and Scarlett Johansson as a Soviet defector he is asked to interview. The story turns on what each of them is willing to lie about.

When the credits started, the audience stood up and clapped for ten minutes. So far, that is the longest standing ovation at this year's festival. Adam Driver looked moved and thanked the cast and crew on stage.

Scarlett Johansson was not in Cannes. She is in New York shooting a new 'Exorcist' film. James Gray tried to FaceTime her from his seat so she could see the cheers, but the call did not go through. Bookmakers in London moved 'Paper Tiger' up to joint third favourite for the Palme d'Or, the festival's top prize.

screen: to show a film to an audience

theatre: a building where plays and films are shown to people

Croisette: the long seafront boulevard in Cannes where the festival's main venues stand

audience: the people who watch or listen to a performance

analyst: a person whose job is to study information and explain what it means

defector: a person who leaves their own country, often for political reasons, to live in another

ovation: long, loud clapping by an audience

Palme d'Or: the top prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival

Level 3 — Intermediate

The 79th Cannes Film Festival reached its first real awards-season inflection point on Saturday night, May 16, when James Gray's 'Paper Tiger' premiered in the Grand Théâtre Lumière and received a ten-minute standing ovation from the black-tie audience of roughly 2,300 — the longest reception so far this edition, eclipsing the seven minutes given to Pawel Pawlikowski's 'Fatherland' and the seven-minute reception for Javier Bardem's 'El Ser Querido.'

The film, Gray's first since 2022's 'Armageddon Time' and his ninth selection in the main Cannes competition, is set in the chilled-out final months of 1989. Adam Driver plays Eli Vogel, a mid-career Pentagon analyst who is asked to debrief a Soviet GRU defector — Scarlett Johansson's Irina Levchenko — whose intelligence on a covert nuclear-warhead inventory appears, at every successive checkpoint, fractionally too neat. Gray, working again with cinematographer Darius Khondji, shoots on 35mm anamorphic in muted teal and sodium-amber, a colour register that brings to mind 'The Conversation' and 'Three Days of the Condor' without imitating them.

Driver, who arrived to whistles and applause on the red carpet and remained on stage throughout the curtain call, fielded the cheers largely alone. Johansson — currently in pre-production on a Mike Flanagan-directed 'Exorcist' reboot in Brooklyn — was unable to fly in. Gray attempted to FaceTime her from the front row so she could see the response; the call rang for almost a minute before it went unanswered, a moment Variety captured live from the orchestra. The director shrugged on stage and joked, 'Scarlett — call your director.'

The reception immediately reshaped the festival's award narrative. Bookmakers William Hill and Betfair moved 'Paper Tiger' to joint third favourite for the Palme d'Or behind Pawlikowski's 'Fatherland' and Asghar Farhadi's 'Parallel Tales,' and to second favourite for the Best Actor prize, with Driver now level with Bardem in their pricing. A24 reportedly closed on a North American distribution deal in the festival's American Pavilion within an hour of the lights coming up; trade-press readouts mentioned 'Manchurian Candidate'-tier comparisons more than once.

inflection point: a moment at which a clear change of direction takes place

main competition: the official lineup of Cannes films eligible for the Palme d'Or

debrief: to question someone about an experience or operation in order to gather information

GRU: the Soviet (and now Russian) military intelligence agency

covert: kept secret, especially for political or military reasons

anamorphic: a film format that horizontally compresses the image during shooting and stretches it back during projection for a wide picture

colour register: the overall palette and tonal mood of a film's images

American Pavilion: the Cannes industry tent that hosts U.S. trade meetings and distribution announcements

Level 4 — Advanced

The 79th Cannes Film Festival reached its first decisive critical inflection point on the evening of Saturday, May 16, when James Gray's 'Paper Tiger' premiered in the 2,300-seat Grand Théâtre Lumière and was met with an unbroken ten-minute standing ovation — the longest of the edition so far, surpassing the seven-minute receptions for Pawel Pawlikowski's 'Fatherland' and Javier Bardem's 'El Ser Querido' two evenings earlier. Variety, Deadline and Le Figaro all filed within the hour to call it the most assured Gray opening since 'The Lost City of Z' bowed at the New York Film Festival in 2016.

Gray's ninth competition title is an icily lit espionage chamber piece set across thirty-eight days at the close of 1989. Adam Driver plays Eli Vogel, a fortyish Pentagon Russia analyst whose career has stalled on the eve of perestroika, abruptly assigned to debrief a GRU walk-in: Scarlett Johansson's Irina Levchenko, who claims to have smuggled out an inventory of late-Soviet tactical-nuclear warheads in which the totals do not quite add up. Working again with Darius Khondji, Gray shoots on 35 mm Panavision anamorphic with a palette of teal interiors and sodium-amber Washington street exteriors — a tonal register that consciously references Pakula's 'Klute,' Schlesinger's 'Marathon Man' and Pollack's 'Three Days of the Condor' without succumbing to pastiche. Howard Shore's score, brittle and string-led, has been singled out by Variety's Owen Gleiberman as 'the most disciplined writing of his last decade.'

The night's most-circulated moment was a meta one. Johansson, currently in pre-production on Mike Flanagan's 'Exorcist' reboot at Steiner Studios in Brooklyn, was unable to fly in. Gray FaceTimed her from his orchestra seat at the height of the ovation; the call rang for almost a full minute before disconnecting unanswered, broadcast in real time onto the festival's giant tracking monitors and immediately captured by the agency rota. The director shrugged at the lectern and quipped, 'Scarlett, call your director' — a line that was the lead pull-quote in every English-language trade report by midnight.

The competitive and commercial consequences arrived almost as quickly. William Hill and Betfair moved 'Paper Tiger' to 4-to-1 joint-third favourite for the Palme d'Or behind 'Fatherland' (5-to-2) and 'Parallel Tales' (3-to-1), and to second favourite for Best Actor, with Driver now level with Bardem at 7-to-2. Within ninety minutes of the curtain falling, A24 closed a North American distribution deal in the upstairs library of the American Pavilion for a reported $14 million plus P&A, edging out Neon and Searchlight; Studiocanal retained Continental Europe; and Universal Pictures International picked up the remainder of the world for low eight figures. With awards night on May 23 still a week away and three of the festival's most-anticipated titles — Lynne Ramsay's 'Die, My Love,' Wes Anderson's 'The Phoenician Scheme' and Jia Zhangke's 'Last Quarry' — yet to screen, the Palme d'Or race has at last acquired a visible spine.

competition title: a film that has been chosen for the official Cannes main competition and is eligible for the Palme d'Or

perestroika: the 1980s Soviet programme of political and economic reform launched by Mikhail Gorbachev

walk-in: in intelligence usage, an unsolicited would-be defector who presents themselves to a foreign agency

tactical-nuclear warhead: a relatively small nuclear weapon intended for battlefield rather than strategic use

Panavision anamorphic: a high-end anamorphic lens system long associated with widescreen prestige cinematography

pastiche: a work that openly imitates the style of an earlier era or filmmaker, sometimes affectionately and sometimes derivatively

P&A: prints and advertising — the marketing budget a distributor commits to a theatrical release in addition to the acquisition price

Studiocanal: a French production and distribution company that frequently retains Continental European rights to prestige features

Level 1 — Absolute Beginner

Level 2 — Elementary

Level 3 — Intermediate

Level 4 — Advanced

James Gray's 'Paper Tiger' Earns 10-Minute Cannes Ovation as Scarlett Johansson Misses Her Own Standing Cheer

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