Cannes competition film "Moulin": László Nemes' Resistance drama opens in France
French theaters have been showing "Moulin" since Oct. 28, a film about the last days of Resistance leader Jean Moulin starring Gilles Lellouche, with Lars Eidinger as Klaus Barbie.
Photo: John Sears / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
Video: YouTube · Festival de Cannes · youtube.com
Hungarian director László Nemes ("Son of Saul") unveiled "Moulin" in May in competition at the 79th Cannes Film Festival, where it premiered May 17. The film opened in French theaters Oct. 28. It follows Resistance leader Jean Moulin, who was sent into occupied France to unite the Resistance groups under Charles de Gaulle, was betrayed and fell into the hands of the Gestapo in Lyon under Klaus Barbie. Gilles Lellouche plays Moulin and Lars Eidinger plays Barbie; the cast also includes Louise Bourgoin and Félix Lefebvre.
To mark the release, the festival published an interview with Nemes. "I wanted the viewer to be like one of Jean Moulin's comrades and witness his ordeals and his sacrifices," he said. "We wanted to make a paranoid movie." He said he told Eidinger "that he had to be like Max Von Sydow in Bergman's films," adding that he wanted Barbie to retain "a kind of absolute surgical coldness" rather than become a caricature.
The film was produced by Pitchipoï Productions and Montmartre Films with TF1 Films Production and shot on 35mm; according to Film New Europe, it was the only film at Cannes screened from a 35mm print. It runs 130 minutes and is in French and German. No German release date has been announced. The 80th Cannes Film Festival runs May 11–22, 2027.