Annette (2021)

French wild man director Leos Carax (Pola X, The Girl on the Bridge) went nearly a decade after making his Palme d'Or winning film Holy Motors (2012) but he came roaring back with another one of a kind piece of work titled Annette (2021). This romantic drama isn't a musical so much as it is an opera—meaning every single line of dialogue in the film is sung rather than spoken—and centers on stand-up comedian and professional provocateur Henry McHenry (Adam Driver) who announces to the world that he is engaged to be married to world famous soprano Ann Desfranoux (Marion Cotillard), despite the couple having only just gone public with their relationship. Shortly thereafter, Ann gives birth to a daughter named Annette—who is played in the film by a marionette puppet—and the child disrupts their marital bliss, leading to a tragedy aboard a cruise ship that sets the film's major plot in motion. Wild rumors about the film began to circulate once it premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, getting Skin fans the world over excited for the film's release! Once again, this pre-release hype turned out to be nothing more than exaggeration as a rumored scene where Adam Driver sang a song directly into Marion Cotillard's vagina turned out to be a bit of wishful thinking on the part of those who saw the film early. The act may indeed occur in the scene in question at the 27 minute mark, but there's no way of knowing because it happens off screen. There is, however, a brief look at Marion's mams ten minutes later as Driver goes down on her, though the scene transitions directly into her giving birth, so the glimpse is fleeting!