{"id":456573,"date":"2026-05-19T11:58:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T11:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/456573\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T11:58:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T11:58:12","slug":"cannes-2026-cate-blanchett-john-travolta-eric-cantona-and-six-more-talked-about-moments-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/456573\/","title":{"rendered":"Cannes 2026: Cate Blanchett, John Travolta, Eric Cantona and six more talked about moments \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

1. Cate Blanchett strikes back<\/p>\n

Cate Blanchett<\/a> says Hollywood<\/a> hit the brakes on #MeToo with undue haste. Speaking during a forensic public interview at Cannes film festival<\/a>, the Australian<\/a> star claimed the movement \u201cgot killed very quickly\u201d, adding that film sets are still overwhelmingly male nearly a decade later. Blanchett said she still walks on to productions where there are \u201c10 women and 75 men\u201d, remarking that the same old male-driven environment gets \u201cboring for everybody\u201d. The double Oscar winner, long outspoken about gender equality, also revealed that she\u2019s teaming up with the director Brady Corbet<\/a> for a new \u201cX-rated\u201d 1970s-set film alongside Selena Gomez<\/a> and Michael Fassbender<\/a>. The film will span 150 years.<\/p>\n

2. Jordan Firstman kisses\"CannesCannes film festival: US director and screenwriter Jordan Firstman and Mexican actor Diego Calva. Photograph: Valery Hache\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

The outlandishly queer and funny provocateur Jordan Firstman has, inevitably, made an outlandishly queer and funny autobiographical film. Fresh from his recent scathing takedown of Heated Rivalry<\/a> (that\u2019s \u201cnot how gay people f**k\u201d), he writes, directs and stars in Club Kid, the hottest ticket of the festival\u2019s opening days. Firstman shared a playful kiss with his costar Diego Calva during the new film\u2019s photocall, making headlines (and TikToks) around the world. After a reportedly testy bidding war, A24 acquired Club Kid for $17 million. <\/p>\n

3. Halsey jets in\"CannesCannes film festival: Halsey at the screening of Her Private Hell. Photograph: Amy Sussman\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

Halsey<\/a>, the alt-pop superheroine, has doubled down on her Helen of Troy-styled entrance at last year\u2019s Venice film festival<\/a>. Arriving with her fiance, Avan Jogia, Halsey took Cannes by storm with a series of co-ordinated outfits and a big announcement. The planet\u2019s prettiest couple are making a psychosexual horror, starring Halsey as a Montreal DJ. Executive producer Lilly Wachowski is comparing Jogia\u2019s script to \u201cthe films I grew up on: David Cronenberg, Alex Cox, Tony Scott, John Carpenter\u201d.<\/p>\n

4. Adam Driver dodges\"CannesCannes film festival: Adam Driver, who stars in Paper Tiger. Photograph: Valery Hache\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

Adam Driver<\/a> might have played Kylo Ren in Star Wars<\/a>, but the press conference for James Gray\u2019s<\/a> excellent thriller Paper Tiger suggests he might have fared better as one of the boring politicians in The Phantom Menace. He responded to Lena Dunham\u2019s<\/a> explosive allegations in Famesick, her memoir, the most Adam Driver way possible: with real-life emotional unavailability. Asked about claims involving screaming, chair-throwing and trailer-wall punching, Driver calmly joked that he was \u201csaving\u201d his side for his own memoir. There are no plans for an Adam Driver memoir. <\/p>\n

5. Gillian Anderson\u2019s curls\"CannesCannes film festival: Gillian Anderson at the La Vie D’Une Femme screening. Photograph: Amy Sussman\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

Prepare for a wave of perms not witnessed since Liverpool FC\u2019s 1978 line-up. For decades the kink-haired community have been promised that their time will come. Deliverance has arrived in the cascading form of Gillian Anderson\u2019s<\/a> disco curls. The 1990s poster girl for ceramic straightening irons walked \u2013 or rather bounced \u2013 to the photocall for Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, Jane Schoenbrun\u2019s delirious metahorror, generating a flurry of fashion headlines.<\/p>\n

6. John Travolta cries\"CannesCannes film festival: John Travolta is going all out to fit in with the locals. Photograph: Aurore Marechal\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

John Travolta<\/a> has officially entered his \u201cmysterious French art teacher\u201d era, and Cannes seems delighted. Sporting first a white beret, then a black one, he\u2019s going all out to fit in with the locals. But it was his tears that really stole the spotlight. After receiving an honorary Palme d\u2019Or at the premiere of his family film, Propeller One-Way Night Coach, the Hollywood star appeared genuinely overwhelmed, telling the crowd: \u201cThis is the last thing I expected.\u201d Fans on social media were instantly heartstruck. Seeing Grease\u2019s Danny Zuko cry in France is too much.<\/p>\n

7. Michael Fassbender returns\"CannesCannes film festival: Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander. Photograph: Olivier Chassignole\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

After roles in Kneecap<\/a> and Black Bag<\/a>, Na Hong-jin\u2019s Hope confirms Michael Fassbender\u2019s<\/a> return to acting as a day job. The former Le Mans racer walked the red carpet with his wife and Hope costar, Alicia Vikander<\/a>, on Sunday night. It\u2019s their first project together, albeit playing gigantic CGI alien monsters<\/a> in the (reportedly) most expensive Korean movie ever made. It\u2019s the Kerry actor\u2019s first science-fiction role since bowing out of the X-Men franchise, in 2017. Speaking at the press conference, Fassbender attributed the development to marital duty: \u201cAlicia told me to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Cannes First Look review: Hope \u2013 Na Hong-jin\u2019s sci-fi horror has an astonishing opening hourOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

8. Cantona Cantonas\"CannesCannes film festival: Eric Cantona and David Tryhorn. Photograph: Gareth Cattermole\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

Cantona, the much-admired new documentary portrait of the former Manchester United star, predictably opens with quotes from Baudelaire\u2019s Les Fleurs du Mal and soon after cuts to Eric Cantona<\/a> speaking to camera in a church. Its British directors, David Tryhorn and Ben Nicholas, get great insights into the odd bromance between King Eric and Alex Ferguson. But Cantona\u2019s duality is the real star, as he lunges from Baudelaire\u2019s Spleen et Id\u00e9al (\u201cI am the wound and the knife\u201d) to the infamous karate kick at Selhurst Park: \u201cI should have kicked him even harder,\u201d he says of the crowd member he aimed at, \u201cbecause he deserved it.\u201d<\/p>\n

9. David Lean: Great film-maker, rubbish husband<\/p>\n

Barnaby Thompson has an absorbing new documentary in Cannes. Maverick: The Epic Adventures of David Lean provides a thrilling primer into the life and work of the director of The Bridge on the River Kwai and Great Expectations. Celine Song<\/a>, Denis Villeneuve<\/a> and Francis Ford Coppolla<\/a> are among the starry cast rightly paying tribute. But if you thought that the films were grandiose, sit tight for the sheer scale of Lean\u2019s disastrous home life. His co-writer and producer, Norman Spencer, estimated that Lean \u201chad almost 1,000 women\u201d. He was married six times, had one son and two grandchildren, and appears to have cut ties with them all. \u201cAnything that is finished is finished,\u201d he wrote, justifying his abandonment of his first family. One letter, dismissing his longest-serving mistress \u2013 a stint coinciding with his longest and unhappiest marriage, to Leila Matkar \u2013 would make the toughest HR executive blush. \u201cThere must be a better way to treat you than this letter.\u201d Apparently he couldn\u2019t think of any. As a film-maker? Unequalled. As a romantic prospect? More red flags than a May Day parade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"1. Cate Blanchett strikes back Cate Blanchett says Hollywood hit the brakes on #MeToo with undue haste. Speaking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[59096,68802,109416,10532,800,321,198117,93,198116,44607,184573,61,60,59106,63381,12648,165806,8596],"class_list":["post-456573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-adam-driver","tag-alicia-vikander","tag-brady-corbet","tag-cannes-film-festival","tag-cate-blanchett","tag-celebrities","tag-david-lean","tag-entertainment","tag-eric-cantona","tag-gillian-anderson","tag-halsey","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-james-gray","tag-john-travolta","tag-lena-dunham","tag-michael-fassbender","tag-selena-gomez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}