In one of the most stimulating films of the Cannes 2024 edition, Ali Abbasi retraces the beginnings of a certain Donald Trump as the latter, in the 1970s, took his first steps in the jungle of New York business. This caustic film stands out in a competition cluttered with numerous disappointing and opportunistic fictions.
Cosmopolitanism is its happy trademark. Of Iranian origin and Danish nationality, Ali Abbasi began his career in fantasy cinema and stood out at Cannes in 2018 with the astonishing Border where he was interested in the very particular case of a customs officer with an exceptional sense of smell. Brutal change of direction in 2022 with The nights of Mashhad
fiction inspired by a true story which recounted the bloodthirsty “exploits” of an Iranian serial killer targeting prostitutes, with the quasi-complicity of religious authorities.
READ ALSO: “The Nights of Mashhad”: the terrifying story of the Iranian serial killer crazy about God
The filmmaker dives back into the deep end of reality with The Apprenticesince he is interested in the beginnings of the career of a certain Donald Trump in the 1970s when New York, his hometown, was in complete decline and Richard Nixon, in power, was preparing to abandon the House White after the Watergate scandal.
READ ALSO: Cannes 2024: “Megalopolis” by Coppola, a psychedelic nightmare without head or tail
Shy and as if embarrassed by himself, young Donald works for his father, a crooked real estate developer, at war with justice (he is criticized for not wanting to rent apartments to black people). Donald collects rent in unsanitary homes managed by his father and is received like a dirty person.
But the humiliations only last for a while. Anxious to make his mark in the business world, Trump Junior (Sebastian Stan, impeccable) meets a man who will change his life: the charismatic and formidable Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong, impeccable itou), a sulfurous lawyer who, among his titles of glory, “worked” on behalf of Senator McCarthy in the worst hours of the witch hunt.
Squeaky as hell
Ultra-rightist, visceral anti-communist and full-time cynic, Roy Cohn (to whom the French journalist Philippe Corbé had devoted a remarkable and chilling biography), who, moreover, leads a dissolute personal life, takes the young Trump under his wing and teaches the latter, stunned, to emerge from the basket of New York crabs. His lessons are broken down into three points: never compromise before politicians or judges and constantly attack them, impose your truth in the eyes of the world rather than “the” truth, always claim your victory whatever the circumstances. The student, we know, will learn the lesson.
Ali Abbasi, with devastating irony and a merciless look at America in the 1970s and 1980s, depicts the irresistible rise of Trump who, having become an expert in shenanigans and intimidation, surpasses his model and builds his financial empire by taking advantage of opportunities offered by triumphant neoliberalism which is sometimes strangely confused with “pure” gangsterism.
READ ALSO: Accusations, defense of the ex-president, risk of prison… Donald Trump’s trial opens in New York
In a style that evokes the B series of the 1970s, the filmmaker shows the journey in his time of an ambitious man who, intoxicated by his successes, becomes a megalomaniacal and uninhibited monster frolicking in the brackish waters of corruption. The film ends when Ronald Reagan begins his first term. A time when the world, taken aback, wondered how a second-rate Hollywood actor could have become the president of the world’s leading power. The world hadn’t seen anything yet.
In Cannes, the ball of opportunists…
The devastating humor and precious originality of The Apprentice are rare commodities in the 2024 Cannes competition, which is generally disappointing, despite some notable successes like Limonov, the balladby Kirill Serebrennikov or Birdthe beautiful, harsh film by British director Andrea Arnold about a teenager entangled in social misfortune.
Apart from that, what disappointments are due to great failed filmmakers: Francis Ford Coppola (Megalopolis
), David Cronenberg (The shrouds), Audiard (Emilia Perez), Paul Schrader (Oh, Canada) ! And so many opportunistic films which only seem to have been selected for their conformity to the ideological standards of the time!
READ ALSO: Cannes 2024: “Megalopolis” by Coppola, a psychedelic nightmare without head or tail
In this respect, the prize goes to The Substance, the horror film shot in the United States by French director Coralie Fargeat. By telling the story of an ex-Hollywood star (Demi Moore) victim of youthism and machismo who uses a revolutionary method to split her personality, the filmmaker activates the levers of the thrilling gore film and warlike neofeminism while not shying away from anything. excess. In 2021, Julia Ducournau checked the same boxes and won a Palme d’Or with Titane. The worst cannot therefore be ruled out.
