George Miller’s Visual Feast ‘Three Thousand Years of Longing’ Earns Six-Minute Standing Ovation in Cannes
Zack Sharf George Miller electrified the Cannes Film Festival with “Three Thousand Years of Longing,” his first directorial effort since “Mad Max: Fury Road.” Miller’s latest, starring Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba, earned a six-minute standing ovation after its world premiere at Cannes’ Palais theater.A love letter to storytelling and its tropes and parables passed down through history, “Three Thousand Years” follows a solitary academic (Swinton) and a burdened genie (Elba) she finds in a bottle in the markets of Istanbul. His history unfolds in the stories of those who had found him before.While his memories were relayed in dazzling ancient locations with heavy special effects, half of the film is spent in a hotel room (the same that Agatha Christie lived in when she wrote “Murder on the Orient Express,” a bellhop tells Swinton).