Pierre Salvadori’s La Vénus électrique to Open the 79th Festival de Cannes

The Festival de Cannes will begin this year with romance, chaos, elegance, and laughter. Pierre Salvadori’s new feature La Vénus électrique has been selected as the opening film of the 79th Festival de Cannes and will premiere on May 12 at the Grand Théâtre Lumière, immediately following the opening ceremony hosted by Eye Haïdara.

In a fitting tribute to the communal spirit of cinema, the film will simultaneously screen in theaters throughout France, transforming the festival’s opening night into a nationwide celebration. Supported by the Fédération Nationale des Cinémas Français and broadcast in partnership with France Télévisions and Brut, the initiative aims to bring audiences together around what promises to be one of the year’s most enchanting French films.

For Salvadori, whose cinema has consistently balanced emotional vulnerability with comic sophistication, the selection carries deep personal meaning.

“Cannes celebrates everything I love about cinema,” the filmmaker said. “Direction, boldness, freedom, and filmmakers. Cannes discovers them, supports them, and celebrates them. In its own way, my film embodies all the faith and love I have for my craft.”

A defining voice in modern French comedy, Pierre Salvadori arrives at Cannes with his 11th feature film across a remarkable 34-year career. Yet La Vénus électrique marks a fascinating evolution in his filmography. For the first time, Salvadori ventures into a period setting, transporting audiences to the bustling Paris of the early 20th century — a world of artistic exuberance, cabaret energy, illusionists, and spiritualist fantasies.

Still, despite the historical backdrop, the themes remain unmistakably Salvadori. Lies, misunderstandings, emotional disguises, and fragile human longing continue to drive his storytelling. The director once again explores the complicated dance between truth and performance, weaving melancholy and absurdity into a romantic comedy filled with movement and emotional uncertainty.

The spirit of the Roaring Twenties permeates the film, but so too does the legacy of the classic Hollywood comedies Salvadori has long admired. Echoes of Ernst Lubitsch, Billy Wilder, and Blake Edwards can be felt throughout the project: rapid-fire pacing, sophisticated confusion, shifting identities, and dialogue balancing elegance with emotional chaos. Yet Salvadori’s cinema never feels nostalgic or imitative. His films possess a deeply human quality, grounded in social reality and populated by bruised, vulnerable characters searching desperately for happiness.

As always, the filmmaker surrounds himself with a remarkable ensemble cast. Pio Marmaï leads the film in his fourth collaboration with Salvadori following Dans la cour, En liberté!, and La Petite Bande. Alongside him is Anaïs Demoustier, one of contemporary French cinema’s most luminous performers, whose recent Cannes appearances include Le Comte de Monte-Cristo and Le Temps d’aimer.

She reunites onscreen with Gilles Lellouche after their memorable collaboration in Fumer fait tousser. Lellouche, whose presence has become increasingly prominent on the Croisette in recent years, continues to move effortlessly between large-scale crowd-pleasers and auteur-driven cinema. The cast is further enriched by the singular talents of Vimala Ponsand Gustave Kervern, performers uniquely capable of balancing comedy with emotional gravity.

Behind the camera, Salvadori continues his long-standing creative partnership with producer Philippe Martin of Les Films Pelléas. Their collaboration stretches back to Salvadori’s 1992 short film Ménage and has accompanied the filmmaker through every stage of his career, beginning with his debut feature Cible émouvante.

The selection of La Vénus électrique also confirms Cannes’ continued embrace of opening films that combine accessibility with auteur identity. Following Amélie Bonnin’s debut feature Partir un jour, which opened the 78th edition, this year’s opener promises another celebration of French cinematic vitality — this time through the lens of burlesque romance and poetic chaos.

The opening night of Cannes has always carried symbolic importance. It sets the emotional tone for everything that follows. With La Vénus électrique, the festival appears determined to begin not with solemnity, but with movement, imagination, tenderness, and laughter.

On May 12, audiences inside Cannes — and across France — will step into Salvadori’s Parisian dream world together. And if the film delivers on the promise of its title, the Croisette may once again be electrified by the magic of cinema.