Mister Lonely

Colour, 35 mm
United Kingdom, France, Ireland, USA, 2007, 112 min
Section: Open Eyes

About the film

The main character of this film (Diego Luna) knows he is Michael Jackson. As far as he remembers he has always been Michael Jackson, but the song and dance work he does on the streets of Paris unfortunately does not meet with anything like the success that his idol attained. One day he meets the beautiful Marilyn Monroe (Samantha Morton) who captivates him entirely. Marilyn convinces him to go away with her and become part of a community of people each of whom live the life of someone else – her husband is Charlie Chaplin (Denis Lavant), her daughter is Shirley Temple (Esme Creed-Miles), and Madonna, James Dean, the Queen of England, Little Red Riding Hood, and others are there too. They grow vegetables, herd sheep, rehearse scenes to entertain the people in the village nearby, and first and foremost, do everything they can to be as close as possible both physically and mentally to the dream idols they want to be... A charming story about loneliness, love, and the desire to become someone else.

About the director

Harmony Korine (b. 1973, Bolinas, California) is without a doubt one of the most interesting directors on the American independent scene. He grew up in Nashville and New York, and abandoned his studies in film school after only a semester. At the age of 19 he wrote the screenplay for the shocking, critically acclaimed movie Kids (1995) by Larry Clark. The success of this film allowed Korine to make the feature-length film Gummo (1997), which drew attention at the festival in Venice and was also presented a year later at the Karlovy Vary IFF, as was his next film, julien donkey-boy (1998). Korine is the author of the novel A Crack-Up at the Race Riots (1998). His long-anticipated Mister Lonely, which he made after an eight-year pause during which he worked in television, was among the most controversial films accepted at this year’s festival in Cannes.