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- Adam Driver attended the Cannes Film Festival for the premiere of "Annette."
- The actor stars as a stand-up comedian in the musical film.
- According to a journalist in attendance, the standing ovation for the movie went on over five minutes.
- Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
The standing ovation for "Annette" at Cannes went on for so long that its star Adam Driver started smoking a cigarette.
Driver attended the premiere of the movie "Annette," which kicked off the Cannes Film Festival 2021 on Tuesday. "Annette" is French director Leos Carax's first movie in almost 10 years. Clearly, the audience found the film impressive and rewarded the filmmaker with a five-minute standing ovation.
New York Times awards season columnist Kyle Buchanan tweetet that the applause exceeded five minutes, at which point Driver lit up a cigarette.
-Kyle Buchanan (@kylebuchanan) July 6, 2021
One clip on Twitter showed Driver being handed a lighter by the director Carax and another was a close-up on Driver smoking straight into the camera. The cigarette Driver used was also handed to him by Carax who smoked a cigarette earlier during the applause, according to Variety.
-taylor 🎬 (@empressrey) July 7, 2021
Cannes Film Festival is no stranger to a lengthy standing ovation. In fact, Pan's Labyrinth received a record 22-minute standing ovation in 2006. According to Vox, longer applauses signify how much the audience liked the movie, however, it may not dictate the quality of said movie.
"Annette" also stars Marion Cotillard as Driver's partner. The musical is about a stand-up comedian (Driver) and a famous opera singer (Cotillard) and how their life changes with the birth of their exceptional daughter.
The film has already made headlines for including a scene where Cotillard and Driver had to sing live whilst simulating oral sex. Cotillard said in the movie's official Cannes Press pack interview, "On most classic musicals, you record your songs in advance and then you do playback on the set. But there, Leos wanted everything to be completely live."