Anyone who checks into a hotel room in Istanbul where Agatha Christie wrote “Murder on the Orient Express” should not be surprised at the high tension. For a literature professor named Alithea Binnie, staying in Christie’s room becomes a thriller. When she opens a glass jar while brushing her teeth, a genie escapes from the bottle – also known as a jinn.
At first glance, the Djinn is a little reminiscent of the Marvel monster Hulk, but then it shrinks to the size of a hotel room and settles on the edge of Alithea’s bed. There he tells the amazed professor his story.
The unpredictable Australian George Miller, who last shook up Cannes with “Mad Max: Fury Road”, returned to the Croisette with his “One Thousand and One Nights”-esque fantasy trip: In “Three Thousand Years of Longing” (theatrical release: 2. 9.) he locks the incomparable Tilda Swinton in a hotel room with the no less impressive Brit Idris Elba and lets them talk.
Idris Elba, the attractive genie from the bottle, tells Alithea regarding his (love) adventures, which technology freak George Miller brings to life in violet wafts of fog with a great deal of enthusiasm for the trash look. At the heart of his colorful B-movie orgy lies a declaration of love – to the art of storytelling and what it means to us humans.
The films that have been shown in Cannes so far answer the question of the power of storytelling in very different ways. The French director Mia Hansen-Løve, for example, known for her enigmatic narrative style as most recently in “Bergman Island”, chose a clear form for her biographically colored father-daughter drama “Un beau matin” (“One Beautiful Morning”).
French star Léa Seydoux plays a single mother whose father is suffering from dementia. As she begins to say goodbye to him inwardly, a new man enters her life.
