Verified source report

The Electric Kiss review – belle époque seance comedy struggles to summon real magic

Cannes film festival: Pierre Salvadori’s whimsical period farce about a fake medium and a grief-stricken painter has charm and elegance, but its romantic fantasy never quite ignites This year’s Cannes menu begins with something left over from the sweet trolley: a gooey, glutinous and slightly flat confection, a comedy about art for which not everyone has the palette or the palate. A fake spiritualist at the time of France’s picturesque belle époque pretends she is in contact with the dead lover of a grieving and creatively blocked artist – but she has been secretly put up to it by the painter’s wily agent, convinced that his client’s ecstatic contact with this amour from beyond the grave will inspire him to recommence the production of hugely expensive paintings. The film is directed and co-written by Pierre Salvadori and the result is something like a moderate mid-period Woody Allen or

Image for The Electric Kiss review – belle époque seance comedy struggles to summon real magic
Source image associated with the linked report from The Guardian.Credit: Image via The Guardian Source-hosted image; rights remain with the publisher or credited rights holder. Image source Image selected from source-page metadata and displayed with attribution and link back; VINI does not copy the image into local storage unless rights are cleared.

What happened

According to The Guardian’s source item, The Electric Kiss review – belle époque seance comedy struggles to summon real magic, Cannes film festival: Pierre Salvadori’s whimsical period farce about a fake medium and a grief-stricken painter has charm and elegance, but its romantic fantasy never quite ignites This year’s Cannes menu begins with something left over from the sweet trolley: a gooey, glutinous and slightly flat confection, a comedy about art for which not everyone has the palette or the palate. A fake spiritualist at the time of France’s picturesque belle époque pretends she is in contact with the dead lover of a grieving and creatively blocked artist – but she has been secretly put up to it by the painter’s wily agent, convinced that his client’s ecstatic contact with this amour from beyond the grave will inspire him to recommence the production of hugely expensive paintings. The film is directed and co-written by Pierre Salvadori and the result is something like a moderate mid-period Woody Allen or

Context

The development sits in VINI’s Culture file for readers following arts, entertainment, fashion, film, music, celebrity, and the business of culture. The original report is linked so readers can check the source account, follow later updates, and compare new coverage against the first published record. The source item is dated 2026-05-12T20:02:09+00:00.

What to watch

Open questions include whether primary sources issue follow-up statements, whether local or market impacts become clearer, and whether additional reporting changes the timeline or adds material context.

Source

Primary source: The Electric Kiss review – belle époque seance comedy struggles to summon real magic via The Guardian. VINI cites and links the source; it does not reproduce the publisher’s full article text without rights clearance.

This source-cited VINI report links to the original publisher record. VINI does not republish third-party article bodies without rights clearance. 1 source listed.

Source links

Reader comments

Moderated discussion

Account access

Comments are open to authenticated approved accounts, screened for spam and abuse, and published only after newsroom moderation unless editors change the story control.

Loading comments.