Cannes Report Day 6: Sean Penn Trashes Trump, ‘Compartment No. 6’ Surprises

Life is a great adventure.

Sean Penn recently made headlines refusing to return to the set of “Gaslit” until all of the cast and crew have been vaccinated. MGM Studios have seemingly capitalized on this media attention surrounding Penn, as they’ve released a brand new trailer for his latest directorial effort “Flag Day” that the studio scooped up during the Cannes Film Festival.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentVenice Film Festival organizers are closely monitoring the possible impact of the spread of the Delta variant, but sounded an upbeat note on Monday with artistic director Alberto Barbera saying he was confident “the situation will be much less complicated than Cannes.”Venice is organizing free COVID tests on site in a number of different locations, but daily testing will likely not be mandatory.

The prize paradeAccording to the awards that have been handed out in Cannes, the festival’s top films this year have been “A Chiara,” “Magnetic Beats,” “Feathers,” “Unclenching the Fists” and the short films “The Salamander Child” and “Cicada.”That, at least, is according to the honors that have been announced in the last few days in the Un Certain Regard, Directors Fortnight, Critics Week and Cinefondation sections.

Check out TheWrap’s digital Cannes magazine issue here. You can find all of TheWrap’s Cannes coverage here.How busy has Tilda Swinton been this Cannes? She’s got five movies in the festival, she became an Internet meme along with her “French Dispatch” co-stars, and on Friday she picked up the coveted Palm Dog Award. The prize is a makeshift award created by journalists in 2001 to celebrate the best canine performers in the festival.

Check out TheWrap’s digital Cannes magazine issue here. You can find all of TheWrap’s Cannes coverage here.Sean Baker’s “Red Rocket” proved to be another highlight in this year’s Cannes Film Festival, but the person earning real raves is the film’s star, Simon Rex.

The Robert Bresson quote that opens the anthology film “Year of the Everlasting Storm” — “you don’t create by adding, but by taking away” — makes a tidy adage of the time-honored idea that deprivation breeds innovation.

It would be disingenuous not to begin this review by mentioning that, yes, Panah Panahi is indeed related to the titan of Iranian cinema, Jafar Panahi.

Check out TheWrap’s digital Cannes magazine issue here. You can find all of TheWrap’s Cannes coverage here.While we argued at the halfway point of the Cannes Film Festival that a single film hadn’t quite emerged as the runaway favorite for the Palme d’Or, Asghar Farhadi’s latest “A Hero” is now making a strong case for frontrunner status, with critics calling the Iranian director’s film his best since “A Separation.” Farhadi has been in the running for the Palme d’Or three times, and he’s picked

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentLea Seydoux, one of France’s biggest stars who was expected to be the toast of Cannes with four films in competition, issued a statement on July 14 saying that she won’t be able to attend the festival as she is currently self-isolating after testing positive to Covid. “Sadly, I have to self-quarantine in Paris and won’t be able to attend the Cannes Film Festival this year.

bumming around with Robert De Niro in 1984 to presiding over the jury.But his last visit was rocky. Penn's film, 2016’s “The Last Face,” flopped with critics in way that would make some filmmakers gun shy about returning.Penn, though, didn’t hesitate.

Check out TheWrap’s digital Cannes magazine issue here. You can find all of TheWrap’s Cannes coverage here.Oliver Stone headed to the Cannes Film Festival this week 30 years after the release of his dramatic saga “JFK,” this time with a documentary about the John F. Kennedy assassination murder that aims to get more answers about the 1963 event.

Check out TheWrap’s digital Cannes magazine issue here. You can find all of TheWrap’s Cannes coverage here.We’re entering Week 2 of Cannes, and as people eagerly await Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch,” strong reviews continue to roll out of the festival, including for recent premieres “Bergman Island” and “Drive My Car.” “Bergman Island” from director Mia Hansen-Løve turns out to be very Swedish, drawing much of its energy not just from legend Ingmar Bergman, but also a dance sequence set to

Jodie Turner-Smith is seeking help for an alleged theft.

Just a few days on the heels of “Stillwater,” another American entry in the Cannes Film Festival main competition section explores the complicated relationship between a father and daughter rooted in down-home Americana and close brushes with the law. “Flag Day” marks Sean Penn’s latest directorial return to Cannes since the critically-lambasted “The Last Face” from 2016.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film WriterIn the midst of debuting a new movie at the first pandemic-era Cannes Film Festival, director Sean Penn had strong words about the Trump administration’s handling of the global health crisis.The longtime artist and activist — who donned a mask when not speaking at a Sunday press conference — discussed the past year he’s devoted to COVID-19 testing and vaccinations in underserved communities.“We were — not only as a country, but as a world – let down and openly

bumming around with Robert De Niro in 1984 to presiding over the jury.But his last visit was rocky. Penn's film, 2016’s “The Last Face,” flopped with critics in way that would make some filmmakers gun shy about returning.Penn, though, didn’t hesitate.

Sean Penn made the screening at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday a family affair. The actor posed on the red carpet with both his 30-year-old daughter, Dylan, and his 27-year-old son, Hopper.Penn, 60, both directed and stars in, and his real-life kids appear in the film as his character's children.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film CriticAs a filmmaker, Sean Penn has always had a flinty integrity, but the movies he directs work so hard to channel the values of ’70s films — they’re moody and fatalistic, with furrowed brows, and move at a pace of drop-dead deliberation — that early on, in the days of “The Indian Runner” (1991) and “The Crossing Guard” (1995), you could just about feel the sweat of his downbeat virtue.

Lea Seydoux’s Trip to Cannes in Flux As Actress Tests COVID PositiveAccording to multiple media reports, the French actress tested positive for COVID and may have to cancel her trip to Cannes despite having four films, three of which are in competition, at the festival. While a spokesperson for Seydoux has not yet responded to TheWrap’s request for comment, Variety reported that she is asymptomatic and has been self-isolating for over a week at her Paris home.