Cannes 2026 - The Electric Kiss by Pierre Salvadori

The Cannes Film Festival seems to have struggled to find a good opening film after the highlight of Annette in 2021, with some decent but forgettable comedies, including Leave One Day last year whose presence felt incongruous. This year's opening film, The Electric Kiss seemed to be of the same variety yet thankfully it turned out to be a pleasant surprise.

In The Electric Kiss, famous painter Antoine (Pio Marmaï) has been left inconsolable and unable to paint since the death of his wife Irène (Vimala Pons). He encounters Suzanne (Anaïs Demoustier), known as the “Electric Venus,” a fairground attraction whose performance relies on giving audiences the brief illusion of love and through a misunderstanding he mistakes her for the fair's medium. Believing her to possess genuine spiritual gifts, he persuades her to help him communicate with his lost love. Suzanne, trapped in a life of poverty and exploitation, initially sees the arrangement as her opportunity to escape, an arrangement that Antoine's art dealer, Armand (Gilles Lellouche), is all too happy to facilitate. 

What could easily have become a predictable romantic farce gradually reveals itself to be something far richer and more emotionally layered. As Suzanne gains access to Irène’s diaries, reading them first to sustain the deception, she unexpectedly becomes drawn into the intimacy of this doomed relationship, as Irène and Antoine’s past unfolds through a series of affecting flashbacks that increasingly blend into and mirror the present. The Electric Kiss depicts  love as a merry-go-round of illusions, guarded feelings, deception and sincerity, as the idealised lost love turns out to be not quite as perfect as Antoine remembers it, just as Suzanne finds herself overwhelmed by some unexpected feelings.

Pierre Salvadori avoids the usual pitfalls of a dusty French period film with a direction that is lively, intimate and modern without ever making the film come across as anachronistic, keeping his camera close to the action with many closeups. The period detail is rich but never overwhelming. 

Pio Marmaï delivers a complex performance in which he lets a certain mischievousness permeate his grief. Vimala Pons is the heart of the film skilfully handling the shift from an idealised character to one with more depth and flaws. Yet the film belongs to Anaïs Demoustier, who gives one of her warmest and most luminous performances in years, with much depth as she lets her guard down and is consumed by emotional turmoil. What begins as a seemingly lightweight comedy gradually reveals an unexpectedly melancholic and deeply romantic heart.

Review by Laurent de Alberti.

Official Selection, out of competition.

Star rating: ★★★★☆

The Electric Kiss. Directed by Pierre Salvadori. Starring Anaïs Demoustier, Pio Marmaï, Vimala Pons, Gilles Lellouche...