Nicolas Cage was having fun as his new trippy psychological thriller, “The Surfer,” scored a six-minute standing ovation at a Cannes Film Festival midnight screening on Friday night.
Cage appeared to be having a ball, beaming from ear to ear and waving across the room as cheers erupted around the Palais. At one point he took the mic to ask how to say “eat the rat” in French — a line from the film — roaring “mangez le rat!” to the delight of the crowd. He also claimed that he’d asked Thierry Fremaux if his acclaimed 2021 drama “Pig” could screen in Cannes (it didn’t).
“The Surfer”, directed by “Vivarium” helmer Lorcan Finnegan, stars Cage as a man who “returns to the idyllic beach of his childhood to surf with his son, but is humiliated by a group of powerful locals and drawn into a conflict that rises with the punishing heat of the summer and pushes him right to his breaking point.”
“The Surfer” also stars Julian McMahon, Nicholas Cassim, Miranda Tapsell, Alexander Bertrand, Justin Rosniak, Rahel Romahn, Finn Little and Charlotte Maggi.
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Oscar winner Cage has previously been at Cannes Film Festival for David Lynch’s 1990 romantic crime drama “Wild at Heart,” in which he starred opposite Laura Dern. The film ended up winning the festival’s prestigious Palme d’Or, which was a controversial choice at the time. The 2016 Paul Schrader film “Dog Eat Dog” saw Cage back on the Croisette alongside Willem Dafoe when it premiered in the Directors Fortnight section of the festival.
Despite teasing last year that he plans to retire from film after “three or four more movies,” Cage has a stacked upcoming film lineup, including the horror film “Longlegs” and the newly announced Western “The Gunslingers.” Cage previously said he wants to focus more on TV, and he will be doing just that in his return to the Spider-Man Noir role with the character’s own live-action series at MGM+ and Amazon Prime Video.
