Crescendo

Kreşendo / L’Objet du délit

DCP / Color / 133’
French with Turkish and English Subtitles
France, Belgium, 2026

Director: Agnes Jaoui
Screenplay: Agnes Jaoui, Emmanuel Salinger, Laurent Jaoui, Noé Debré, Florence Seyvos
Cinematography: David Chizallet
Editing: Christel Dewynter
Cast: Agnès Jaoui, Daniel Auteuil, Eye Haïdara, Claire Chust, Oussama Kheddam, Lucie Gallo, Tiphaine Daviot, Maxime Pambet, Loïc Legendre, Vincenzo Amato, Patrick Mille, Hervé Pierre, Emmanuel Salinger, Jacques Weber
Producer: François Kraus, Denis Pineau-Valencienne
Production: Les Films du Kiosque
World Sales: Studiocanal

Synopsis

Premiered out of competition at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, Crescendo is written, directed by, and stars French auteur Agnès Jaoui. The screenplay was conceived after Jaoui underwent the mandatory “Sexual Harassment and Bullying Prevention Training” now required for all film industry professionals in France. In an effort to critique the absurdities and artificial interpersonal dynamics spawned by these bureaucratic mandates, Jaoui places her narrative within an opera production in the South of France. Selections from Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro are performed live and diegetically throughout the runtime, establishing an intentional juxtaposition between the sublimity of classical music and the moral failures occurring behind the scenes. This frequent incorporation of Mozart’s lively score provides a distinct charm that balances the gravity of the central themes. The plot chronicles the immediate chaos that ensues when a young lead soprano, Sophie (Tiphaine Daviot), accuses an overbearing tenor, Piazonni (Vincenzo Amato), of sexual assault during a high-stress rehearsal. Consequently, the opera company divides into opposing factions defined by generational divides and conflicting ethical stances. Ultimately, Crescendo functions as a satire of both woke culture and traditional patriarchal structures, allowing a deeply serious subject to unfold with the narrative agility of a comic opera.

Screenings