FRED’s Matt Micucci interviews Etienne Faure, director of BIZARRE from the 60th Cork Film Festival, which premiered earlier this year at the Berlinale.
Faure tells us that the initial inspiration came from a real bar, populated by very colourful individuals. We also ask him about themes of sexuality in BIZARRE, and he tells us the story of how he came across his leading actor.
BIZARRE: Maurice (Pierre Prieur) is a young French man with a mysterious past. He arrives in Brooklyn, New York, with no money and no place to stay. After a chance encounter, he is given room, board and a job at Bizarre, an underground club which hosts outrageous and transgressive cabaret acts. With owners Kim and Betty (Raquel Nave and Rebekah Underhill) and fellow bartender Luka (Adrian James), Maurice begins to feel like he is part of a family. But with the increasing uncertainty of the club’s future, he realises that this new life is about to disappear and violence erupts as Maurice begins to unravel.
For the first time in its history, the Cannes Film Festival reveals two official posters for its 78th edition, inspired by Claude Lelouch’s 1966 Palme d’Or-winning masterpiece A Man and a Woman.
Alice Rohrwacher has been appointed President of the Caméra d’or Jury at Cannes 2025. Known for her poetic and visionary cinema, Rohrwacher will award the best first feature at the festival’s closing ceremony on May 24.