Director Joachim Trier has developed quite a relationship with the Cannes Film Festival over the years. Two of his films, 2011’s “Oslo, August 31st” and 2015’s “Louder Than Bombs,” have premiered at the festival, and he also served as the Jury President for the 57th Independent Critics’ Week at Cannes in 2018. Now, his new film, “The Worst Person In The World,” has premiered at Cannes this week, in competition for the coveted Palme d’Or.
Billed as the third in his “Oslo” trilogy after 2006’s “Reprise” and the aforementioned “Oslo, August 31st,” Trier’s latest takes a look at a young woman as she grabbles with her existential angst and romantic travails. It sounds like a big winner, too; our review from Cannes from Iana Murray described it as “a pure delight… laugh-out-loud funny and heartbreaking in equal measure.”
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Here’s the official synopsis from Cannes:
Julie is turning thirty, and her life is an existential mess. Several of her talents have gone to waste, and her older boyfriend, Aksel – a successful graphic novelist – is pushing for them to settle down. One night, she gatecrashes a party and meets the young and charming Eivind. Before long, she has broken up with Aksel and thrown herself into yet another new relationship, hoping for a new perspective on her life. But she will come to realize that some life choices are already behind her.
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‘World’ stars Anders Danielson Lie, Renate Reinsve, and Herbert Nordrum. The cast also includes Maria Grazia Di Meo, Hans Olav Brenner, and Silje Storstein.
The film finds Trier working with longtime collaborate Eskil Vogt on their fifth feature film together. Vogt co-writes the screenplay, as he has for each of Trier’s directorial efforts. Vogt also has a movie of his own premiering in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes: “The Innocents,” a supernatural thriller about a group of children with mysterious powers. That sounds like something in the vein of Trier and Vogt’s last collaboration, 2017’s “Thelma.”
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Thanks to “Thelma,” Trier’s new films premiered with lots of anticipation as it vies for Cannes’ top prize. How will Trier fare against the likes of “The French Dispatch,” “Titane,” and “Memoria?” Follow The Playlist’s coverage of the festival to find out after “The Worst Person In The World” has premiered already, so make sure to check out our review. Watch the first two clips from the film below. Update: Now, two clips are available.
Follow along with our complete coverage from the 2021 Cannes Film Festival here.
