Asghar Farhadi, the Iranian master whose films have twice won the best international feature Oscar (2011’s A Separation and 2016’s The Salesman) and twice won prizes at the Cannes Film Festival (The Salesman and 2021’s A Hero), premiered his latest work, Parallel Tales, at Cannes’ Grand Théâtre Lumière on Thursday night.
The French-language drama, which is playing in competition at this year’s fest, was greeted with a five-minute standing ovation — which is, by Cannes standards, polite but not especially enthusiastic.
Adapted by Farhadi and his brother, Saeed, from a chapter of Krzysztof Kieślowski’s 10-part project for Polish television, Dekalog (1989-1990), Parallel Tales is a study in voyeurism and the sometimes blurry line between fantasy and reality. It boasts an all-star French cast that includes Isabelle Huppert, Virginia Efira, Vincent Cassel and, in a small role, Catherine Deneuve, all of whom do fine work.
But, as The Hollywood Reporter’s chief film critic David Rooney noted in his review, the film becomes a bit meandering and arduous over the course of its two-hour-twenty-minute runtime. And by the time the credits rolled at 11 p.m. local time, many audience members were drained.
