Kristen Stewart’s long-awaited directorial debut “The Chronology of Water” premiered at the Cannes Film Festival to a just over four-minute standing ovation on Friday night — and left many in the crowd wiping their eyes.
An emotional Stewart embraced her actors with hugs and high-fives as the ovation carried on.
She later bounded across the auditorium to give Cannes head Thierry Frémaux a long hug.
“I don’t have anything else to say; I left it all on the screen,” Stewart said. “Just thank you all for being here. Seriously, we finished the movie five minutes ago — it’s not even done. We got so lucky, and I’m so grateful to be here.”
She then gestured to her star, Imogen Poots, to take the mic, saying, “Truly, your body is the movie, I’m giving it to you.”
An emotional Poots obliged, saying only, “She’s the best director, and I hope you all liked the movie.”
Stewart’s long-gestating project, adapted from Lidia Yuknavitch’s bestselling 2011 memoir, went down well in the room, and Stewart was mobbed by her fans in the Grand Lumiere Theater, making it tough to get out of the venue.
Stewart took screenplay co-writing credits with Andy Mingo on the pic, which stars Imogen Poots in the tale of turning trauma into art that’s playing in the Un Certain Regard strand. The story follows protagonist Lidia from her earliest childhood memories in the Pacific Northwest, through explosive misfires and mistakes, children that almost-were, toxic relationships, art heroes, wins and losses. Jim Belushi and Thora Birch also star.
Stewart told the Cannes Film Festival that the movie is “about iteration. Getting up and trying again. Repossessing your body, your desires, your ambitions and your dreams. I wanted to create a form that was unruly and, again, hard to pin down.”
She also said that the eight-year-in-the-planning project “is about birth, death and rebirth, and we sort of followed that cycle. I think you can feel it in the result. At the time, it hurt a lot. The biggest wound of my ‘creative’ life so far. And by far my favorite scar.”
Stewart is no stranger to Cannes, having starred in such films here as David Cronenberg’s "Crimes of the Future" (2022), Woody Allen’s "Cafe Society" (2016) and Olivier Assayas’ "Personal Shopper" (2016) and "Clouds of Sils Maria" (2014). She won the Best Supporting Actress César Award for the latter.
"The Chronology of Water" is produced by Charles Gillibert (CG Cinema International); Yulia Zayceva, Max Pavlov and Svetlana Punte (Forma Pro Films); Michael Pruss and Rebecca Feuer (Scott Free); and Stewart, Maggie McLean and Dylan Meyer (Nevermind Pictures) and Mingo.
WME Independent is handling North American sales. Les Films du Losange has international sales and French distribution.
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