For this Saturday, May 16, the fourth day of competition, the schedule was packed with screenings and films. You find yourself wanting to watch as many films as possible so as not to miss the essentials of this 79th edition of the festival. So much so that it becomes a real organizational headache: squeezing in as many screenings as possible while trying not to neglect your sleep, the task is arduous!
For this fourth day of competition, I wanted to share with you the four screenings I was able to see today. I started my day at 8:30 a.m. with a press screening to watch Guillaume Canet’s upcoming film, Karma, then followed at 1:00 p.m. with Géraldine Nakache’s film, Si tu penses bien. I then continued with John Travolta’s Propeller One-Way Night Coach at 4:00 p.m., to end the day on a high note at 9:30 p.m. with Marie Kreutzer’s Gentle Monster, a film in the official competition.
Karma (Guillaume Canet) – Out of Competition
The film tells the story of the sectarian drifts of a religious group in the southeast of France, between control and confinement.
Marc (Denis Ménochet) as a priest on the left cutting Jeanne’s (Marion Cotillard) hair
Guillaume Canet delivers here the darkest film of his filmography, where all the codes of the thriller are present (oppressive music, anxiety-inducing rhythm, and dark images), and all this three years after the release of his film Astérix et Obélix : L’Empire du Milieu. If you were expecting something similar, it is quite the opposite!
The film features Jeanne, a young woman in her forties trying to rebuild her life in a village in northern Spain with Daniel. She spends her days with Mateo, her six-year-old godson, who mysteriously disappears. A frantic race to find out the truth follows.
It is worth noting the performance of Denis Ménochet as a demonic patriarch guru, as well as those of Marion Cotillard (Jeanne, completely possessed) and Leonardo Sbaraglia (in the role of Daniel).
Karma was presented at the Cannes Film Festival on May 15, 2026.
Technical specifications
Original title: Karma Runtime: 149 minutes Year: 2026 Country: France Director: Guillaume Canet Screenplay: Guillaume Canet and Simon Jacquet Rating: 5/10
Si tu penses bien (Géraldine Nakache) – Cannes Première
The film addresses the subjects of mostly male control within the couple, a theme that is always important to show. This is the fourth film by actress-director Géraldine Nakache, who focuses here on the woman’s place in the couple, but also in religion, and the control that men can exert.
Gil (Monia Chokri) and Jacques (Niels Schneider) at the aquarium
This control, full of nuances, manifests itself insidiously, little by little. The film handles this subject well: we progressively see Gil confine herself to the role of wife, to the point of being isolated from her loved ones and her family. Control thus appears, as it often does, in a progressive manner.
It involves distancing from loved ones (friends and family), creating a form of self-sufficiency, and locking the other person in a “cocoon”. Even when boundaries are crossed, it can transform: appearing more fragile, softer, to coax the other person or make them forget everything.
The film relies on a strong duo, Monia Chokri (who plays Gil) and Niels Schneider (unrecognizable in the role of Jacques). We find here a very beautiful flower of Quebec actors, reminiscent of Xavier Dolan’s Les Amours imaginaires, in another register…
The story, told through ellipses over six years, slightly blurs perception and can harm the clarity of the storyline (the starting point is not sufficiently developed to create a strong anchor before the numerous flashbacks).
Si tu penses bien was presented at the Cannes Film Festival on May 15 and 16, 2026.
Technical specifications
Original title: Si tu penses bien Runtime: 94 minutes Year: 2026 Country: France / Belgium Director: Géraldine Nakache Screenplay: Géraldine Nakache and David Lambert Rating: 7/10
Propeller One-Way Night Coach (John Travolta) — Cannes Première
Propeller One-Way Night Coach is the first film by actor-producer John Travolta, who decided to adapt his novel into a film. If you love John Travolta, you are going to love this film. He directs, adapts, acts, and has his daughter as well as his mother act in it. This does not make it a bad film though; we see above all a pleasure film, a little whim, a desire to direct (to put into pictures after putting on paper) a story and a subject close to his heart.
Jeff (Clark Shotwell) on the left as the young John Travolta and John Travolta in the role of a retiring pilot
This film tells the story of John Travolta’s first time on an airplane, at the age of 8, in the 1960s. We follow a young boy, Jeff, and his mother, departing from New York for Los Angeles. Through the planes, passengers, and flight attendants, stories are created, and the magic keeps growing for this child passionate about aviation.
The most striking thing in the film remains the difference in the quality of food in planes compared to today: in the 1960s, they had cordons-bleus as meals (a negative point for John, who much prefers hot dogs without mustard rather than enjoying a good old cordon-bleu…). Propeller One-Way Night Coach is available right now on Apple TV.
Propeller One-Way Night Coach was presented at the Cannes Film Festival on May 15 and 16, 2026.
Technical specifications
Original title: Propeller One-Way Night Coach Runtime: 61 minutes Year: 2026 Country: United States Director: John Travolta Screenplay: John Travolta Rating: 7/10
Gentle Monster (Marie Kreutzer) – In competition
The Austrian director and screenwriter, known for Corsage (2022), which won Vicky Krieps the Best Actress award in the Un Certain Regard section, continues here a style of cinema that is still too little known in France. She offers a feminist reimagining of intimate relationships, attentive to the invisible tensions that run through them.
Lucy (Léa Seydoux)
We follow Lucy, a renowned pianist whose life is turned upside down when the police investigate her husband Philip. Confronted with the possibility that he is hiding a dark side, she seeks to protect her son while trying to understand the truth. Meanwhile, Philip struggles to save their marriage as doubt sets in.
Gentle Monster explores the fragility of certainty in a relationship and questions the image we build of the other person, which is often reduced to a mere projection. The film is built on the idea that we believe we know someone, until everything collapses.
Among its qualities, we can highlight the narrative structure—the succession of psychological stages the heroine goes through—but also the explosion and deterioration of this love, of the bonds that unite them.
Gentle Monster was presented at the Cannes Film Festival on May 15 and 16, 2026.
Technical specifications
Original title: Gentle Monster Runtime: 114 minutes Year: 2026 Country: France / Austria / Germany Director: Marie Kreutzer Screenplay: Marie Kreutzer Rating: 6.5/10
