American actress Scarlett Johansson presented her first film as a director at the Cannes Film Festival. The independent film Eleanor the Great tells the story of a 94-year-old woman who meets a student journalist at the age of 94. Variety wrote about it.
The publication notes that the film Eleanor the Great caused a real sensation. It participates in the Un Certain Regard competition program. 95-year-old June Squibb and Erin May Calliman play the main roles.
In the story, 94-year-old Holocaust survivor Eleanor’s best friend dies, and she decides to rebuild her life by moving from Florida to New York, where her daughter and grandson live. There, she meets 19-year-old Nina, a journalism student with whom she begins a friendship.
The film received a five-minute standing ovation from the audience. Scarlett Johansson herself says the film’s premiere in Cannes is “a dream come true.”
The Guardian calls Johansson’s directorial debut “questionable”.
“This frankly strange film is underrated and naïve about the implications of its Holocaust subject. Its bland, TV-movie sentimental tone fails to convey the existential nightmare of the main storyline, or even the secondary question of when and whether to put your elderly parents in a nursing home,” the review says.
However, the publication notes the acting of June Squibb.