In a press conference, Robert De Niro said almost nothing, Leonardo DiCaprio barely more. Around Martin Scorsese, everyone preferred to let the two representatives of the Osage Indian people express themselves, the actress Lily Gladstone who plays Molly, the heroine of the film, and the chief Standing bear, who served as advise on the realization of Killers of the flower moon, presented out of competition on Saturday evening in Cannes. “There is no better way than such a film to tell the world what happened,” says the young actress of Native American origin. And for that we needed allies like Martin, Robert or Leo. For his part, the Indian chief thanked Martin Scorsese for having “took the trouble to speak Osage on the set”.
It is the series of murders that the Osage people suffered in Oklahoma in the 1920s, against a backdrop of intrigues to recover their oil-rich lands, that is discussed in Killers of the flower moon. “We could have told this story from the point of view of the FBI, of which it was the beginning, but we preferred to favor Molly’s point of view, respecting as much as possible the values of love and benevolence for nature and for the land of the Osage people. The question is not who is guilty, but rather who is not guilty in this story…”
“Underlining what is human, even in the most cruel characters”
A true, terrible, shameful story, adapted from a book by journalist David Grann, The American Note, released in 2018. Fascinated by this little-known part of the History of the United States, Leonardo DiCaprio immediately bought the rights before proposing to Martin Scorsese to direct the film. “Martin Scorsese manages to underline what is human, even in the most cruel characters, referring to the uncle of his character played by De Niro. It’s a film, whatever the public will think of it, which is faithful to what happened. Hearing his name associated with a character whose actions he would be “very incapable of justifying”, Robert De Niro came out of his torpor. “It’s like with Trump. There are people who think he can do a good job. Imagine how crazy it is, ”said this notorious opponent of the former American president.
It is also a film which finds all its coherence in the filmography of Martin Scorsese. If the filmmaker had never shot a western, we find here some of his favorite themes such as organized crime, the family or the border between good and evil. The film scores above all with its relentless film noir mechanics.
Eight minutes of a triumphant standing ovation followed the 3 hours and 26 minutes of film which did not come to the end of the patience of the festival-goers who, on the contrary, demanded “more” from the director palmé d’or at Cannes in 1976 for Taxi Driver. Killers of the flower moon will be released on October 18 in theaters before being broadcast on the Apple TV + platform, the tech giant being the only one to have agreed to take the risk of financing this fresco which will have cost more than 200 million dollars.