Baz Luhrmann’s long awaited dazzling adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s great novel, The Great Gatsby, was chosen to open the 66th Festival de Cannes, a moment that audiences in Canada and the United States eagerly anticipated. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead, with Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan and Isla Fisher in supporting roles. It arrives with a soundtrack curated by Jay-Z, weaving modern hip hop and R&B into a visually opulent, 1920s New York setting. The movie follows the rise and fall of Jay Gatsby and his longing for Daisy Buchanan, a luminous romance set against a time of glittering extravagant parties, shifting fortunes, and the fragility of dreams. The Cannes premiere underscored the festival’s appetite for audacious reimaginings of classic American literature, and it highlighted Luhrmann’s ability to create immersive worlds that feel both timeless and contemporary. The film’s stylistic choices—bold wardrobe, extravagant production design, and a driving musical score—aim to transport audiences into Gatsby’s Roaring Twenties while resonating with modern audiences across North America.
Starring DiCaprio, Mulligan, Maguire and Fisher, The Great Gatsby blends luminous visuals with a contemporary sonic landscape, offering a fresh lens on Fitzgerald’s tale of desire and social aspiration. The score’s fusion of period ambiance with current musical energies is designed to amplify the emotional stakes and the era’s tension between surface glamour and inner longing. Viewers in Canada and the United States can expect a revival of Gatsby’s legacy through Luhrmann’s cinematic syntax, one that invites both nostalgia and new interpretations of a well-known story. The film’s arrival promises a bold cinematic experience that appeals to fans of literary adaptations as well as general audiences seeking a dazzling, music-infused spectacle.
“It is a great honor for all those who have worked on The Great Gatsby to open the Cannes Film Festival,” Luhrmann said. “We are thrilled to return to a country, place and festival that has always been so close to our hearts, not only because my first film, Strictly Ballroom, was screened there 21 years ago, but also because F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote some of the most poignant and beautiful passages of his extraordinary novel just a short distance away at a villa outside St. Raphael.” This sentiment reflects a long-standing connection to the Cannes stage and to the way Fitzgerald’s prose continues to inspire new visual interpretations. The director’s remarks underscore a shared passion for cinema as a verb—an active conversation between screen and page, between past and present, between the screen’s glow and the audiences that respond to it.
The Great Gatsby will open in theatres on May 10, and until then, audiences can watch the trailer below. For readers who haven’t yet explored Fitzgerald’s novel, the book remains a compelling companion that enriches the film experience with its lyrical reflections on wealth, longing, and the American dream. Critics and fans in North America will no doubt compare the cinematic rendition with Fitzgerald’s language, discovering how Luhrmann’s vision translates the novel’s atmosphere into a living, electric experience on the big screen.