Cannes 2026 – Karma: when Guillaume Canet returns to the thriller (review)

He who had won a César for Tell No One signs his darkest film, carried by the striking interpretation of the duo Mario Cotillard-Denis Ménochet, associated for the first time on screen.

After the transparency Him and a Asterix which despite its 4.6 million admissions earned it a critical volley of green wood, Guillaume Canet necessarily played big with Karma. Not a double or double but almost. And, although this is not the case within Première where Karma divides strongly, the first reactions seem to show that he is on the verge of winning his bet for his return to the thriller (a genre which earned him the Director’s César for Don’t tell anyone) with his darkest film, diving with twists and turns (which we obviously won’t spoil for you) in the world of sectarian excesses

Its heroine is a Frenchwoman exiled in Spain from whom we understand quite quickly, notably by the swigs of alcohol she drinks in secret, that something is wrong with her. An inability to expel from her memory a traumatic past which will very quickly catch up with her, as we will discover over the course of 2h30 thoughts like a page turner, even if Canet does not succumb to the obsession with efficiency. The duration here is a way for him to take the time to establish his plot and dig into his characters so that the violence which will unfold throughout the story is never gratuitous but arouses plural emotions, beyond fear and disgust.

With KarmaCanet changed almost everything, from floor to ceiling. New co-producer and co-writer with Simon Jacquet, known until now as an editor (My king, The Great Bath, Love phew…). New cinematographer with Benoît Debie, Gaspar Noé’s long-time accomplice, who has the heavy responsibility of creating this oppressive and increasingly unbreathable atmosphere, constituting a character in his own right in the story. But, in the middle of this reset, one element remains intact. The place that Canet leaves to his actors, more often than not sacrificed in certain thrillers in the name of the effectiveness of the story or the director’s desire for a show of force. The opposite of the gesture of Canet who wrote this film for Marion Cotillard whom he has obviously already directed but never in such a strong and complex role which takes care of the suspense and the twists and turns of the story.

And even though we are used to it, we remain captivated each time by his way of giving body and soul to a role. To embody his characters in the first sense of the term, as if his life depended on it, without fear of going to extremes in cries, tears, rage. A total letting go, without fear of ridicule, and in permanent generosity with his partners, the different children, the Argentinian Leonardo Sbaraglia (who we will find this week as the hero of the new Almodovar, Autofiction) and the immense Denis Ménochet, in a totally crazy physical composition. He and Marion Cotillard had never toured together. In a single film, they make up for lost time, in a perfect marriage of instinct and great technicality. Unlike the film, they will be unanimous. Even at First.

By Guillaume Canet. With Marion Cotillard, Denis Ménochet, Leonardo Sbaraglia… Duration: 2h29. Released October 21, 2026