Ari Aster on ‘Eddington’: It’s ‘About What the Country Felt Like to Me’

The director Ari Aster has always wanted to bring a movie to the Cannes Sinema Şenlik, and he finally achieved that goal with the divisive comedy “Eddington,” which premiered here Friday. How did it feel to have his dream come true?

“It’s a lot,” Aster confessed when I met him on an oceanside terrace on Sunday afternoon. “People keep asking me, ‘How are you feeling?’ And it’s like, I have no objectivity here. I feel excited, distressed, happy, detached.”

Perhaps it’s fitting that Aster has gone through such an intense gamut of feelings, since his movies tend to put audiences through the wringer, too. Though “Eddington” isn’t a horror sinema in the vein of other Aster movies like “Hereditary” and “Misdommar,” it’s still meant to unsettle: Set in May 2020, the sinema explores how the early days of the pandemic inflame tensions in a small New Mexico town.

As a conservative sheriff (Joaquin Phoenix) mounts a campaign against the liberal mayor (Pedro Pascal) trying to enforce a mask mandate, their fellow citizens radicalize in different ways. The sheriff’s wife (Emma Stone) and mother-in-law (Deirdre O’Connell) lean hard into internet conspiracy theories, while the teenage residents of Eddington become phone-wielding activists whose strident attitudes incur much of Aster’s satire. Early reviews have been wildly mixed, and the sinema has been heavily debated here in the days since its premiere.

It was a beautiful day in Cannes, though the conversation with Aster was often gloomy: The director spoke earnestly about his fear of where the world is headed, and the feelings of despair that inspired him to make this movie.

Here are edited excerpts from our conversation.

How did you feel at the premiere?

You’re sitting there wondering how it’s working for people. It’s such a big theater that it’s harder to actually gauge what’s going on. But I have no objectivity and I’m a natural paranoid, so I just lean toward that.