Dernsie, Mike Mendez’s Bruce Dern documentary, received a six-minute standing ovation at its Cannes Film Festival premiere Wednesday night.
The Cannes Classics film — full title: Dernsie: The Amazing Life of Bruce Dern — follows the eponymous actor as he looks back over his 65-year career, working with such greats as John Wayne, Elia Kazan, Lee Strasberg, Alexander Payne, Alfred Hitchcock and Bette Davis.
Laura Dern, who is featured in the documentary, was beside her father at the premiere — she is currently in production on The White Lotus Season 4, which is shooting close by, at both Cannes and just down the road in Saint-Tropez. In this upcoming new season of Mike White’s HBO Max show, the hotel Airelles Château de la Messardière in Saint-Tropez will serve as the White Lotus du Cap, joined by the Hôtel Martinez on the Cannes Croisette as the White Lotus Cannes.
The crowd at today’s Dernsie screening was in it from the start — giving Dern a two-minute standing ovation before the lights even went down. “It means that you all give a sh*t,” Dern joked in pre-screening remarks.
Bruce Dern at the ‘Dernsie: The Amazing Life Of Bruce Dern’ photocall in Cannes
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Ahead of the premiere of their documentary, Dern and Mendez joined Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast and explained that a “Dernsie” is a very specific term that was actually coined by Jack Nicholson.
Dern has thus far been nominated twice for an Academy Award — in 1979 for his supporting role in Coming Home, and again in 2014 for Lead Actor in Nebraska.
Dernsie also includes appearances by Payne and Quentin Tarantino, with the screenplay from Ben Epstein and cinematography by Robert L. Lucas.
Patrick Hipes contributed to this report.
