Cannes's Latest Booing Victims
Friday, May 20, 2016 at 8:00AM 
It wouldn't be Cannes without the reports of boos from the always feisty crowd. While reviews and early word from the festival's first days were mostly positive, the jeers are just starting to begin. This year's unluckiest victims have been Personal Shopper and The Neon Demon.
If the reported response to The Neon Demon is to be believed, it may be one for future Cannes lore. The most vocal detractors were hurling obscenities at the screen and many responses were repulsed by the film's more twisted, violent elements and shallow veneer. But the question remains: What else did they expect from a Nicolas Winding Refn horror film? Perhaps the boos themselves could have been expected as well, given the reaction to his previous effort Only God Forgives.
Personal Shopper reunites director Olivier Assayas with his Clouds of Sils Maria star Kristen Stewart as an assistant suffering from ghostly visitations. Its many early fans have defended it as misunderstood, ambiguous, and difficult to categorize, and Stewart has garnered some Best Actress buzz for the festival. By my estimation, the film has inspired some of the best writing of the festival, like Richard Lawson's aching take over at Vanity Fair. The first international trailer promises something unique indeed:
Neither film needs to worry: they join the long tradition of films that have been booed at the festival, including Taxi Driver, Marie Antoinette, The Tree of Life, and Inglourious Basterds. Not every film booed at Cannes turns out like Vincent Gallo's The Brown Bunny - so consider our excitement for both Shopper and Demon increased.
Have you ever experienced booing in the cinema?
Reader Comments (22)
I wish the multiplex audience would boo. More often if a movie is really bad they'll just groan.
The Brown Bunny is great, for the record
At the film festivals in DC, the crowds are overly polite. Every film gets at least a mild clap from the audience. It's quite BS-y.
Worst theater response to a film was the original Cloverfield. You could audibly here sighs at the end and someone shouted, "You have got to be kidding me!) at the screen.
^Ha, I had a similar experience with Cloverfield. Also, I distinctly remember after Spider-Man 3, "Well, that fuckin' SUCKED":
Also, update on the Cannes booing, Sean Penn's new film The Last Face is apparently so damn bad, its made Xavier Dolan's latest bomb look good in comparison.
I'm sure it's happened at least one other time for me, but I can definitely remember the audience groaning at the screen during the Meg Ryan fecalfest In the Cut. Dreadful film.
I can't stand Sean Penn, so I would have enjoyed booing The Last Face. Let's face it, it's a long time coming.
I'm with Cal Roth. The Brown Bunny is a great film.
The only time I recall experiencing wide-spread audience groans/booing was for The Village. There was a guy sitting beside me, and we hadn't spoken a word or acknowledged each other for the duration of the film. When it was over, he calmly stood up, looked at me, and said, "Well, that's the worst movie I've ever seen." I didn't quite agree with his hyperbolic statement but I couldn't argue with it.
I saw Batman and Robin opening weekend when I was a teenager. It garnered both boos and groans, particularly anything dealing with Arnold.
I've had it where people were loudly complaining after the movie was done (Cache comes to mind), but the only time I remember someone ever booing was when a villain (usually a real-life villain) did something terrible, so it was appropriate.
Weirdly the most electric experience I ever had in a theater was watching Milk with a near all-gay audience. Anita Bryant got booed, and there was a standing ovation (during the movie) when Minneapolis was announced as the first city to abolish LGBT workplace discrimination (I saw the movie at the Uptown Theater in Minneapolis). It was one of the only times I cried in a movie BECAUSE of the audience, I was so moved by the audience's passion for the film.
I've never been in a theater where people openly booed. Clapped and cheered, yes, but never booing. I did have to laugh at the large number of people in my Civil War theater who shook their heads "no" when Cap and Sharon kissed. That was funny.
Booing? No. Vocal complaints as people leave the theater? Yes. Most noticeably for Signs and Spider-Man 3
At the film festivals I usually attend in Lisbon, there's no booing. Actually, almost every film receives polite clapping at its end. I remember when I recently watched a film in competition at an Independent Film Festival, and I was absolutely staggered at the end when no one clapped. It was the most hostile reaction I've ever experienced in that circuit apart from people walking out of the theatre during the screening.
Personally, I'm not a great fan of vocal audiences, Outside of the festival circuit I've watched several films in the company of people who feel they are entitled to react vociferously to anything that happens on screen that displeases them.
Only mid-movie booing, as described by John T above.
Now, booing and screaming and altercations during live performances? Why, only last weekend...
What does everyone think of the booing that happens at film festivals? I find it kind of odd. I mean I've seen some really awful movies in theaters, but I usually reserve my opinion until after the movie is over. Also, I feel like watching films require a certain amount of silence from the audience, with exceptions of course.
@Brian: Yeah, Im not really a fan of booing, even for movies I dislike. Especially at film festivals tho, where the people making/starring in the film are right there in the audience. That seems purposefully rude.
Booing is such an interesting phenomenon, and as some critics have mentioned the majority of the time it happens due to political reasons, or at least that was the case for something like "Marie Antoinette", which dared to present a sympathetic portrayal of a contentious historical figure; other times it seems like booing is simply predetermined due to backlash, which I personally think was the case when "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me" got destroyed back in 1992, mainly because I can't see how anything as compassionate and as aesthetically compelling as that film could create moral confusion; now on to moral confusion, which seems to be a pretty common reason to boo as well, it's my impression that films like "Taxi Driver", "Crash" or the recently screened "The Neon Demon" leave the audience wondering about their feelings towards graphic violence and sexuality, and we all know audiences and journalists don't really like to be left with a big question mark; and yet one would think they would know better....
No me gusta Kristen Stewart.
Not yet. I believe a boo at Cannes is a badge of honor, unless you're The Brown Bunny (which was OK but Vincent Gallo's penis in the film was fake) and even worse.... Southland Tales. I'm so glad Sean Penn's new film is getting torn to shreds. Serves him right for being an overbearing activist that thinks highly of himself. All he needs to do is go back to his fucking mansion and fuck off.
I find the idea of booing at a movie to be really disruptive and rude. Even if I hated something I wouldn't want to detract from the experience of someone else who enjoyed it.
And I loved "In the Cut"! It's definitely flawed, but I have a serious soft spot for that film.
I've never encountered an audience booing during a paid screening. I've only encountered very vocal, very opinionated and very entitled individuals at film festivals where the admission is free.