In Die, My Love, Jennifer Lawrence plays a mother spiraling into madness, directed by Cannes regular Lynne Ramsay. The intense drama, based on an Argentine novel, is one of the most talked-about films in competition this year.
Jennifer Lawrence gives a raw, unflinching performance in Die, My Love, screened Saturday night in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. The American actress plays a mother losing her grip on reality, opposite British actor Robert Pattinson.
The film marks the eighth Cannes appearance for Scottish filmmaker Lynne Ramsay, a festival favorite.
Ramsay is known for her haunting work, from We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011), starring Tilda Swinton, John C. Reilly, and Ezra Miller as the mother and troubled teen behind a school massacre, to You Were Never Really Here (A Beautiful Day), which earned the Best Screenplay award at Cannes in 2017 and featured Joaquin Phoenix as a traumatized hitman.
Die, My Love has drawn attention not just for its director, but for its high-wattage cast—two of Hollywood’s most in-demand actors in their thirties—delivering emotionally charged performances.
The film is based on Crève, mon amour, a novel by Argentine writer Ariana Harwicz. It follows a young couple with angelic faces who settle into an idyllic countryside home. She’s a novelist searching for inspiration. He follows her lead, offering quiet support.
Madly in love, they give into their eccentricities—crawling through wild grass, playing on the kitchen floor. But when their baby is born (mostly kept off-screen), things begin to crack. Small details reveal deep fractures. The gentle madness slips into melancholy, then violence. Pattinson’s character, often absent, seems to drift away as the tension builds.
The outside world offers little help. A neighbor (played by Lakeith Stanfield), with whom Lawrence’s character appears to have at least a fantasy affair, and a distant, unhelpful mother-in-law (Sissy Spacek), only add to her isolation.
Unfolding in a haze, the film never lays out all the answers. Instead, it joins a wave of recent films that unflinchingly explore motherhood—stripped of idealism, sacredness, or sentimentality.
A Wave of Female-Directed Stories
Many of these bold takes on motherhood have been led by women filmmakers, such as If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, by American director Mary Bronstein with Rose Byrne, a hit at both Sundance and Berlin. On the French side, Full Time (À plein temps), starring Laure Calamy, earned honors in Venice.
At 34, Jennifer Lawrence—best known to mainstream audiences for The Hunger Games, X-Men, and the Netflix hit Don’t Look Up, opposite Leonardo DiCaprio—has rarely presented films at Cannes.
But with her intense, nearly omnipresent performance in Die, My Love, she could be on track for a Best Actress award next Saturday. Lawrence won the Oscar for Best Actress in 2013 for her role in the romantic dramedy Silver Linings Playbook (Happiness Therapy), opposite Bradley Cooper.
Co-star Robert Pattinson, 39, is no stranger to the Cannes red carpet, having previously attended with director David Cronenberg. After Die, My Love, he’ll head to the set of Christopher Nolan’s ambitious new adaptation of The Odyssey, alongside a star-studded cast that includes Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, and Zendaya. He’s also set to reprise his role as Batman in Matt Reeves’ next installment of the franchise.
By François BECKER / AFP
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