Whistles and walkouts: the Ron Howard movie hated by the Cannes Film Festival
As one of the most vocal, unforgiving, and opinionated crowds in cinema, the Cannes Film Festival has become just as famous for booing and walkouts during screenings as it has extended standing ovations, with Ron Howard discovering the former to his detriment.
Although it’s long since been regarded as one of the most prominent festivals on the annual calendar, Hollywood blockbusters have been pitching up at Cannes for their first public screenings with increasing regularity, even though many of them don’t fit the template typically associated with the event.
Adventure sequel Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, comic book adaptation X-Men: The Last Stand, animated follow-ups How to Train Your Dragon 2 and Shrek 2, and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith have all held their maiden showings at Cannes, but when Howard rocked up with a rather controversial mystery thriller, the response could generally be described as muted.
Leading man Tom Hanks may have conceded that it was absolute “hooey”, but The Da Vinci Code nonetheless ruffled the feathers of religious groups around the world, leading to criticism, calls for a boycott, and even protests against Howard’s page-to-screen translation of author Dan Brown’s bestselling novel.
When Robert Langdon and his floppy hair made their big screen bow at Cannes, the audience didn’t respond with anywhere near as much enthusiasm as the average ticket-buying patron. According to reports, there was some booing, plenty of derogatory whistling, a smattering of walkouts, and even laughter at moments intended to be of the utmost dramatic importance.
Arguably, the worst thing that can happen to a film at Cannes is the deafening sounds of silence when the credits come up, a fate that befell The Da Vinci Code when it ended. It’s not a very good movie, to be fair, so there must have been at least some awareness on the part of Howard and studio Sony that it was far from guaranteed to bring the house down after presenting a butt-numbing 149 minutes of meandering mediocrity to a gathered throng who have no issues letting it be known when they don’t care for whatever’s being put in front of them.
It may have been a shrewd move from a publicity standpoint, but from the outside looking in, The Da Vinci Code never stood a chance of being a movie that would have Cannes eating out of the palm of its hand. Still, those in attendance at the premiere proved to be very much in the minority in the long run after the preposterous intercontinental epic went on to make a killing at the box office.
By the time it exited cinemas, Howard had the last laugh and then some after steering The Da Vinci Code to a staggering haul of $760million at the box office, more than sequels Angels & Demons and Inferno would manage to earn combined.
