On December 8, 1980, John Lennon and Yoko Ono sat down to talk to a small crew from San Francisco’s KFRC radio station in their Dakota Building apartment in New York. It was the only radio interview they gave to promote their album Double Fantasy, released three weeks earlier. For two hours and 45 minutes they spoke calmly, optimistically and, in Lennon’s case, in an almost messianic voice, about life. That night, returning home, Lennon would be shot dead by Mark David Chapman. Given the circumstances, the interview could be viewed as prophetic, which is Steven Soderbergh’s angle in his documentary John Lennon: The Last Interview, presented at Cannes in a special session.

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Last December, John Travolta told Thierry Frémaux, the general delegate of Cannes, that he had finished his first film as a director, Propeller One-Way Night Coach, which premieres on Apple TV on May 29. “But I don’t know…,” he hesitated. “Send it to me,” the Frenchman shot back. A few days later, Frémaux called him and said: “For the first time in the history of Cannes, I’m going to do this. I’m selecting it for the festival myself — and don’t touch it. It’s perfect. But let me protect it.”

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There will be no Tom Cruise reveling in low‑level flyovers along the beach at La Croisette by the French Air Force’s aerobatic team, as happened at the 2022 premiere of Top Gun: Maverick. Harrison Ford — or a similar star — will not climb the steps of the Palais des Festivals to the beat of an iconic theme, as he did in 2023 when bidding farewell to the whip‑cracking archaeologist in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. There will be no screenings of major animated films from Pixar, Disney, or Universal. There will be no parade of models and celebrities set to songs by the King of Rock, as in 2022 with Elvis. Quentin Tarantino will not arrive to showcase his vast film knowledge, as he did in 2019 with Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood.

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It’s time for the interview and Dubliner Jim Sheridan, 77, has not yet appeared. The press pack have been warned. That morning, in the Madrid hotel where he is staying, there was no tortilla. And after asking at reception, he has sought out a pincho with his wife in the neighborhood. “He said that he loves it and wanted to get his hands on a good one,” the press was told. Through the windows of the hotel, you can see the man who made My Left Foot, The Field, In the Name of the Father, The Boxer, and In America, walking at a leisurely pace, which is reflected in his delivery during the interview. He likes to talk but calmly.

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