Posted on 05/20/2024 3:35:14 PM PDT by nickcarraway
"There is no nice metaphorical way to deal with the rising wave of fascism," director Ali Abbasi said when asked why he wanted to make the film about the former president's rise to power in 1980s America. "I think it's time to make movies relevant. It's time to make movies political again."
One of the most anticipated moments of the 77th Cannes Film Festival finally arrived Monday night with the world premiere of the Donald Trump drama The Apprentice, starring Sebastian Stan as a young version of the real estate mogul in his pre-MAGA days.
Only Francis Ford Coppola’s wildly ambitious swan song Megalopolis had inspired more pre-premiere chatter and curiosity at this year’s edition of the glamorous French film festival. Ahead of its unveiling, virtually no one had seen The Apprentice, as the movie reportedly was finished only days before its premiere.
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Directed by acclaimed Iranian-Danish filmmaker Abbasi and written by Gabe Sherman, The Apprentice explores Donald Trump’s rise to power in 1980s America under the influence of the firebrand rightwing attorney Roy Cohn. Succession star Strong co-stars as Cohn, along with Martin Donovan (Tenet) as Fred Trump Sr. and Oscar and Golden Globe nominee Maria Bakalova (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm) as Ivana Trump.
Several shocking moments late in the film — a scene depicting Trump’s alleged rape of his first wife Ivana and a surgery room sequence showing Trump getting liposuction — drew audible gasps from the Cannes premiere crowd. As the final credits rolled, the Cannes crowd starting clapping in time to the sound of Baccara’s “Yes Sir, I Can Boogie” playing on the soundtrack.
After the screening, Abbasi warmly hugged his cast members and Cate Blanchett, sitting just in front of the director and crew, was the first to jump up and applaud, embracing Bakalova. The loudest applause was for Stan for his transformative performance as Trump. The crowd enthusiastically cheered and clapped, staying on their feet for nearly eight minutes, though many were spotted ducking out of the theater by the four-minute mark. Abbasi kept the crowd going, applauding and pointing randomly to people in the audience. Abbasi also held up his cell phone to the cameras during the standing ovation to show a shirtless selfie of Strong in costume and seemingly backstage from his play in New York. The moment drew big cheers and Abbasi kissed the screen of his phone.
When addressing the crowd, Abbasi commented on the current world events such as the war in Ukraine and the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, explaining how “in the time of turmoil there’s this tendency to look inwards” and “to bury your head deep in the sand and look inside and hope for the best.”
“The storm is not going to get away. The storm is coming. Actually, the worst times are to come,” he added. “But you can pretend it’s not here. You can also deal with it.”
Abbasi then addressed being questioned why he wanted to make a movie centered on Trump and argued that films need to be “relevant” again. He explained, “There is no nice metaphorical way to deal with the rising wave of fascism. There’s only the messy way. There’s only the the banal way. There’s only the way of dealing with this wave on its own terms, at its own level and it’s not going to be pretty, but I think the problem with the world is that the good people have been quiet for too long. So, I think it’s time to make movies relevant. It’s time to make movies political again.”
By Monday night, The Apprentice still didn’t have a U.S. distributor in place, although it sold earlier in the Cannes festival to StudioCanal for the U.K. and Ireland, where it will be released theatrically later this year.
Rocket Science is handling international sales on the project, which was financed by Kinematics, Head Gear Films, Screen Ireland, Film i Vast, the Danish Film Institute and National Bank of Canada.
The movie is produced by Daniel Bekerman for Scythia Films, Jacob Jarek for Profile Pictures, Ruth Treacy and Julianne Forde for Tailored Films and Abbasi and Louis Tisné for Film Institute. Executive producers are Amy Baer, Mark H. Rapaport, Emanuel Nunez, Josh Marks, Grant S. Johnson, Phil Hunt and Compton Ross, Thorsten Schumacher, Niamh Fagan, Sherman, Lee Broda, James Shani, Andrew Frank and Greg Denny.
As always the left is good at making stuff up, it’s what they do, from Russia gate, to adam shits phone Ukraine phone call script, to the crazy lady in the department store dressing room. All fantasy, all the time.
The Deep State’s “Jud Suss”.
Could be.
Sebastian Stan was Bucky Barnes, Captain Americas best friend!
The joke will be on this director when the audience starts cheering every time Trump is onscreen.
It’s like Oliver Stone, who was mortified that Gordon Gekko became such a popular and iconic figure.
“What bothers me is the idea they can say anything they like
in the effort to destroy Trump.”
What SHOULD bother you is that we lack a strategy to take power and do it to them.
How convenient her being dead. She can't deny this scene now, can she?
That does bother me also.
Under Trump’s first term, even the Republicans refused to
stand up and fight.
That was the most egregious four years in our nation’s
history.
I plan on not seeing it several times.
Dozens of Trump hating billionaires.
Thread winner!
Waiting for this azzhole to make a movie about a President who showers with and possibly sexually abuses his daughter, who fondles little girl’s breasts, swims and prances around naked in front of female SS agents, and who rapes Tara Reade.
How convenient her being dead. She can’t deny this scene now, can she?
******************
I think she later recanted.
Corrupt out of touch ‘elites’ hate Trump. Wow, where have we heard that before?
Yawn.
That’s because they know who stands behind them, and that they will have their back. Thus, there is no downside for them. In the case of E. Jean Carroll is, for the moment, rolling in the dough. This is communism at work, and none of the other two branches are even weighing in. I honestly think the fight is over, and that we have lost our country. But I am still maintaining faith that good will defeat evil in the final outcome.
Lets just say Trump actually did get liposuction—are they criticizing him for this? The Hollywood Plastic People who have probably had their faces liposuctioned and a million otehr procedures, are focusing on Trumps’ supposed liposuction??? Maybe they also had their brains lipo’ed.
Oh, and do they even know what the word “fascist” even means?
Before? They loved him, partied with him, played golf with him, stayed in his hotels and bought his housing and bowed down and kissed his ring a la Mitt Romney. Then it became uncool to do so as Trump was toxic due to RussiaGate. A shallow, fickle bunch.
It is amazing what the left can manufacture in election years to produce narrative and talking points for the media and create the questions asked of Republicans.
The movie ended to shouts of HEIL and Nazi salutes. Good fun for all.
You left out the playing of The Horst Wessel Song.
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