Léa Seydoux was in four films at this year's festival: Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch in Competition, Arnaud Desplechin’s out of Competition Deception,  Ildiko Enyedi’s A feleségem története (The Story Of My Wife) and France, directed by Bruno Dumont

In France,  Seydoux plays France de Meurs, a TV personality who both sees through and mirrors the superficiality of TV news reporting. Directed by Bruno Dumont in the Cannes official competition. Uniting the matrix of this film, Sedoux does well in this media circus including posting questions to the President of France  in a cameo with Emmanuel Macron. The film style has vibrant art direction, costume and makeup.

Ildiko Enyedi’s A feleségem története (The Story Of My Wife), proves that this Hungarian filmmaker is every much in command of big budget period piece productions. A film in seven acts based on a 1942 novel by the Hungarian writer  Milán Füst it was shot in Hamburg, Budapest and Malta.  Léa Seydoux plays Lizzie, a duplicitous and charming woman who accepts the invitation to marry a sea captain Jakob Störr (Dutch actor Gijs Naber). Their marriage is rocky from the beginning and Lizzie convinces almost everyone she is the devoted albeit independent wife her husband imagines her to be. A big role for Seydoux.

Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch is excellently crafted, each frame magnificently executed with a cast of thousands but it is generated by a story that falls short of compelling engagement. And so the spectator is the polite sitting one, and so was the audience at Cannes. Léa Seydoux plays a prison guard who poses nude for an inmate considered a genius - Benicio Del Toro.

Arnaud Desplechin’s Tromperie (Deception) is an adaptation of Philip Roths’s novel, a pet project he was finally able to bring to completion during lockdown. Set in London, Denis Podalydès plays Roth and Seydoux “The English Lover”. 

Seydoux did not travel to Cannes this year to promote the films following her positive Covid-19 test.In a statement issued July 14, Seydoux said:

“Sadly, I have to self-quarantine in Paris and won’t be able to attend the Cannes Film Festival this year. I wish I could celebrate the return of cinema to my favorite festival, but it is in everyone’s best interest to err on the side of caution and do my part to keep everyone safe and healthy. I applaud all four of my directors and the cast ensembles for their remarkable achievements. From a distance and in thoughts, I am with you with all my heart.”

©Moira Jean Sullivan, Filmfestivals.com July 31, 2021

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Photos ©Festival de Cannes