‘The Electric Kiss’ Director Pierre Salvadori Talks Joy & Terror Of Opening Cannes; Love Of Lubitsch & Why His Brand Of Comedy Is Not A Cynical Ploy

Pierre Salvadori opens the 79th Cannes Film Festival this evening with Roaring Twenties Paris art world-set romantic tragicomedy The Electric Kiss starring Pio Marmaï, Anaïs Demoustier, Vimala Pons and Gilles Lellouche.
 
Taking time out of the mixing room to talk to Deadline just days before the premiere, the French director admits to feeling a mixture of elation and terror as he gears up for his first time in Official Selection across a 30-year career.
 
“It’s funny because there was talk of the film being in competition but for me, it isn’t a competition film and I didn’t want to be in competition,” says Salvadori.
 
He suggests other works in his filmography – such as The Apprentices (1995), with Marie Trintignant, François Cluzet and Guillaume Depardieu; or the Berlinale-selected In The Courtyard starring Catherine Deneuve (2014) and The Trouble With You (En Liberté!), which screened in Directors’ Fortnight in 2018 – would have been better suited as Palme d’Or contenders.

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