Netflix startled audiences on Tuesday night when it revealed that it will be participating with the opening film of the Cannes Film event 2024, despite a very public boycott of the event.
Le Deuxième Act (The Second Act) is a dark and satirical comedy directed by Quentin Dupieux and starring No Time To Die Bond actress Léa Seydoux, as well as fellow French actors Louis Garrel and Vincent Lindon.
It was shown in the first outside competition slot during a spectacular turn of events that included Hollywood superstar Meryl Streep receiving an honorary Palme d’Or before to the screening.
Festival director Thierry Frémaux made the announcement in response to criticism and protests from cinema owners that Netflix’s last two candidates had skipped the French cinema distribution.
So, why did it appear on Tuesday that Netflix has reversed its public stance of not screening any of its films at Cannes?
Despite the branding, the new film is not a Netflix original or a co-production.
We understand that the streamer’s branding was included in the opening credits because it was a pre-buy for the French market exclusively.
It was exhibited alongside all companies engaged in the film’s production, finance, and distribution, including Canal+, which has the first distribution window.
For those keen to see prolific and secretive director Dupieux’s latest – which was praised as ‘a bubbly apéritif’ by Deadline and a ‘cheerfully mischievous, unrepentantly facetious fourth-wall-badgering sketch’ by The Guardian – it will be on Netflix sooner rather than the three-years-later. But fans still face a bit of wait.
The Second Act will be available on Netflix’s French service. Metro.co.uk knows that 15 months after its theatrical release by Diaphana Distribution, which occurred on Tuesday, the same day as its premiere.
It is also not the first picture to be pre-purchased by Netflix in France after being shown at recent Cannes film festivals.
Other examples are Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom, Boléro, Vermines (Infested), and Johnny Depp‘s controversial comeback picture, Jeanne du Barry.
A source informed Metro.co.uk that Cannes has specific guidelines that Netflix follows. According to these rules, Netflix films are not eligible to be broadcast in competition.
So it appears that there is no end in sight to the streamer’s declared boycott of its original films of both domestic and outside competition.
‘We want our films to be on fair ground with every other filmmaker. There’s a risk in us going in this way and having our films and filmmakers treated disrespectfully at the festival,’ he told Variety.
‘They’ve set the tone. I don’t think it would be good for us to be there.’
Sarandos also called the then-new rule ‘completely contrary to the spirit of any film festival in the world’ as they, in his mind, are there ‘to help films get discovered so they can get distribution’.
‘Under those rules, we could not release our films day-and-date to the world like we’ve released nearly 100 films over the last couples of years – and if we did that, we’d have to hold back that film from French subscribers for three years under French law.’
The platform therefore said it meant their films ‘are not qualified for the Cannes Film Festival competition’, and so they would stay away completely.
The Second Act is a meta-comedy about a young woman who brings her lover to see her father, despite the fact that he is trying to pass her off to someone else.
The film features performers who constantly break character to quarrel and gripe about their lines while filming a cheesy romantic comedy.
