This bizarre film defeated Johnny Depp’s 7-minute ovation at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival
Guillermo del Toro’s “Pan’s Labyrinth” holds the record with a 22-minute long applause after its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival
Following the opening ceremony of the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, the film “Jeanne Du Barry”, starring Johnny Depp, drew attention when a large audience in the theater stood up and applauded for more than 7 minutes. Seeing this, Depp couldn’t contain his emotions and shed tears in response to everyone’s affection.
However, Johnny Depp’s 7-minute long applause is still rather modest in the history of the Cannes Film Festival. In fact, the French cinematic event is famous for standing ovations that can last the duration of a short film, causing those unfamiliar with this traditional aspect of the festival to even find it strange.
In the end, no matter how proud the artist is of their work, standing while the audience cheers and applauds for more than 20 minutes can be a bit daunting.
As of the moment, the longest standing ovation recorded in the history of the Cannes Film Festival was at the premiere of director Guillermo del Toro’s “Pan’s Labyrinth” in 2006. Guillermo del Toro is one of the pillars of the cinematic scene, who is behind the success of many successful works, such as “Pacific Rim”, “Hellboy”, “The Shape of Water”, and so on.
According to critics, the length of the ovation sometimes doesn’t correlate with the quality of the film. Most of the audience at the festival’s premieres are colleagues and friends of the team. However, the quality of “Pan’s Labyrinth” was deemed worthy of the somewhat “overdone” applause.
“Pan’s Labyrinth”, which is set in Spain in the 1940s, follows the young girl Ofelia (played by Ivana Baquero), who discovers that she is a princess of the underworld stuck in the human world. She has to go through various challenges to achieve immortality and return to her true homeland.
Although it belongs to the genre of fairy tales – fantasy, “Pan’s Labyrinth” is not a film for children. Beneath the magical exterior, the film is also a deeply profound and humane project which carries a lot of messages. The story is told in parallelly, showing both the real world and the underworld to create a sense of intertwine.
At the same time, the film’s setting coincides with the Spanish Civil War, where the innocent Ofelia suffers through months of agony after moving to live with her fascist stepfather. Meanwhile, in the world of the dead, our protagonist also faces strange and cruel creatures.
Through the film’s mythological elements, Guillermo del Toro was able to depict a raw and harsh reality in an intriguing manner. Overall, “Pan’s Labyrinth” seems to be saying that only human love for each other can make the world – whether real or imaginary – brighter.
The film’s visuals, which exudes a strong mystical feel, heavily influenced by horror works, is also a highlight. The underworld’s characters embrace eerie yet intricate designs that draw in the adults, yet can make young audiences cry. Overall, each frame from the movie is filled with the distinctive style of Guillermo del Toro.
Bizarre monsters in “Pan’s Labyrinth”
Setting a record with the longest standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival, “Pan’s Labyrinth” couldn’t win the Palme d’Or – the most prestigious award of that year’s event. However, the film was later compensated with three Oscars in the categories of Art Direction, Cinematography, and Makeup. These achievements also helped “Pan’s Labyrinth” earn over $37 million in the US and $83.9 million globally – a remarkable feat for an art film.
Photo: IMDb
Source: k14
