The Leviathan press conference began at 12:30 pm, ended around 1:20 pm. Director Andrey Zvyagintsev, producer Alexander Rodnyansky and costars Alexey Serebryakov (the victim), Vladimir Vdovichenkov (the lawyer buddy from Moscow), Elena Lyadova (the cause of all the trouble) and Roman Madyanov (the fat corrupt mayor). You’d think with all the Palme d’Or talk the Salle du Presse would be packed, but it wasn’t. I asked a question about the gallons of vodka that the characters consume. Given the general life-mirroring nature of this film, is this really how many or most Russians put it away? The answer (spoken in Russian, translated into French and then into English with headphones) was “this is quite amusing” and “what about the Japanese?…they’re just as bad.” Before the press conference started a female journalist tried to help me pronounce “Zvyagintsev” correctly. The accent is on the second syllable; it goes something like “ZivYAHgintsev.”