In Leos Carax’s new film, Annette, which premiered at Cannes, Adam Driver’s character, Henry, carries on crooning while he performs cunnilingus on Marion Cotillard’s Ann in a sweaty love scene, giving her what might be called “good vibrato.” The song that Driver is singing is one of many composed for Carax’s brooding pop opera by musicians Ron Mael and Russell Mael.
The film originated in a musical that the Maels’ two-man band, Sparks, was considering for a concert tour. The brothers met Carax, French cinema’s ex–enfant terrible, at Cannes in 2012. The director was there presenting his acclaimed Parisian road fantasy, Holy Motors, which features the Sparks song “How Are You Getting Home?,” and the Maels subsequently sent him their script. Carax chose to direct it as his first English-language film, and the two zanies appear throughout—most alarmingly as private-jet pilots.
