"Doing a Macron": Todd Haynes is amused by the age gap of the presidential couple

The touch of humor was variously appreciated by the audience. Asked at the Cannes Film Festival about the somewhat nebulous title of his latest film, May December, American director Todd Haynes explained that it was a reference to the couple's age difference. of his movie. A seasonal wink in short, between spring and winter. "Some people in France call it doing a Macron!" Added the filmmaker on Saturday, provoking contrasting reactions at a press conference as well as among his actors.

The good word thus caused the hilarity of the room and the actress Julianne Moore, who embodies the eldest of the couple of the film. According to a recording of the press conference shared by the specialized media Deadline, at least one person would have been shocked by the projection, while Natalie Portman, also on the poster of May December, was content to display a smile a bit tense.

The new feature film by Todd Haynes (Dark Waters, Far From Heaven) is loosely based on the true story of an American couple who made headlines in the late 1990s. At the time, Mary Kay Letourneau, a teacher, had been sentenced to more than seven years in prison for rape of a minor, following her relationship with one of her students, Vili Fualaau, 12 years old at the time of the events. After serving her sentence, Mary Kay Letourneau eventually married Vili Fualaau in 2005. The couple separated in 2017. Mary Kay Letourneau, meanwhile, died of cancer in 2020 at the age of 58 years old.

Presented in official competition, May December takes place twenty years after the beginning of the affair between its main characters, played by Julianne Moore (62 years old) and Charles Melton (32 years old). Their daily life is interrupted by the arrival in their life of an actress, played by Natalie Portman, who wishes to meet the celebrity before embodying her in a film. “The genesis of this relationship is problematic, which favors the outbreak of a conflict years later. And yet, the fact that this relationship lasted is also significant,” Todd Haynes said of the May December couple. No release date has yet been indicated.