Leo DiCaprio's new film gets 9-minute standing ovation
If a 9-minute standing ovation is anything to go by, then claims that Martin Scorsese’s new project Killers of the Flower Moon is the “film of the year” may just be on to something.
The movie - which stars the likes of Hollywood legends Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, and Lily Gladstone - received exactly that: 9 whole minutes of applause after its world premiere at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.
Its stars were all in attendance, from Leo who was last present with Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood, to 80-year-old Scorsese, who was returning to the festival for the first time since 1985, when he was there for After Hours.
The near-three-and-a-half-hour film - which shares its name with the David Grann book it was adapted from - takes place in 1920s Oklahoma, and shares the story of a dark period in American history, depicting the serial murders of members of the Osage Nation.
Prior to its screening, the film had already been dubbed by some as the festival’s “most anticipated film” - it even saw Apple CEO Tim Cook swing by, as the company is one of the film’s distributors.
And as soon as it concluded, the applause broke out - with some suspecting that it may have continued on beyond the 9-minute mark, had Scorsese not been asked to address the crowd.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone land a 9-minute standing ovation for ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ — the biggest and loudest of #Cannes2023 so far. pic.twitter.com/1Gxp4cED1T
— Ramin Setoodeh (@RaminSetoodeh) May 20, 2023
“Thank you to the Osages,” Scorsese said upon reaching the mic. “Everyone connected with the picture. My old pals Bob and Leo, and Jesse and Lily. We shot this a couple of years ago in Oklahoma.
“It’s taken it’s time to come around but Apple did so great by us. There was lots of grass. I’m a New Yorker. I was very surprised. This was an amazing experience.
“We lived in that world with the Osage, we really did, and we really miss it.”
As former Osage tribal leader Jim Gray said of the experience, “the dignity and care for the Osage perspective was genuine and honest throughout the process and the Osage responded with the kind of passion and enthusiasm that met this historic moment.
“For those of us who were watching from the sidelines while our best and brightest among us auditioned, sewed, catered, painted, acted and advised the filmmakers, it’s going to be hard not to feel our presence in helping to tell.”
Lily Gladstone - who plays an Osage woman betrayed by her husband in the movie - had more to add, telling Variety that “the work is better when you let the world inform the work. That was very refreshing how involved the production got with the [Osage Nation] community. As the community warmed up to our presence, the more the community got involved with the film.
“It’s a different movie than the one [Scorsese] walked in to make almost entirely because of what the community had to say about how it was being made and what was being portrayed.”
And alongside praise for the film came praise for the performances within it, with many convinced Gladstone is set for attention during awards season for her work, and one reviewer even going so far as to call this “Leonardo DiCaprio’s best performance yet”.
Images: Getty