Gather ’round, children, for the prophecy has borne fruit at last: Timothée Chalamet has just been crowned our brand new King Of Claps!
That’s right: Chalamet—who already crashed our timelines earlier today when he walked the red carpet at the Venice Film Festival in an eye-catching backless top, and then opined some thoughts on social media’s role in our ongoing “societal collapse”—has now claimed his rightful space as the Emperor of Applause at the ongoing festival, where his new film with Luca Guadagnino, Bones And All, earned, per Variety, an 8.5-minute standing ovation from the crowd.
For those of you keeping track of Venice ovation times—the only way to know which films are the best, or at least the best at inspiring bizarre public gesture that we have to assume have to start feeling pretty weird at like the 5-minute mark, right?—that’s the longest such applause break we’ve seen this year. The ovation beats out Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Bardo (4 minutes), and the Cate Blanchett-starring Tar (6 minutes), and absolutely trounces the pathetic, why-even-get-your-hands-moving 150-second response to Noah Baumbach’s White Noise.
And if the sheer number of times that critics felt moved to slap one of their hands with the other isn’t convincing for you, rest assured: The film has also gotten strong notices from the verbal side of viewers’ brains. The film—a “cannibal romance” that both Guadagnino and Chalamet have sworn wasn’t inspired by any of their Call Me By Your Name collaborators you might be thinking of—has drawn strong reviews for its blend of gore and emotion.
Of course, the hands of Venice film-viewers are unpredictable; who knows what might come along later this week, moving them to stand there clapping for an even longer period of time? Resisting the urge to look around at each other, hoping to get the signal to stop? Trapped there for an apparent eternity, hands slapping at each other in an endless rhythm of ritual adulation? It’s an exciting time to be a movie fan, for sure!
