Bono’s ‘Stories of Surrender’ documentary gets 7-minute ovation in Cannes

Bono‘s upcoming Apple TV+ documentary, Bono: Stories of Surrender, earned the U2 frontman a 7-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival on May 16, Variety reports.

The documentary is a “reimagining” of Bono’s one-man stage show, Surrender: An Evening of Words, Music and Some Mischief, which was recorded at New York’s Beacon Theatre during the book tour for his memoir. It mixes Bono reading passages from the book with live performances of songs like “Beautiful Day” and “Where the Streets Have No Name.”

According to Variety, following the ovation, an emotional Bono told the crowd, “I’m not a Frenchman. I’m an Irishman. I’m not even a self-made man. You wrote this story. The Edge wrote this story. Adam [Clayton] and Larry [Mullen Jr.] wrote this story. [U2 manager Paul] McGuinness wrote this story.”

Bono thanked the project’s director, Andrew Dominik, who was absent, and said, “I can’t believe you got those performances out of me.” He also shouted out Sean Penn, who was there. The singer, who recorded a song for Penn’s 2020 documentary Citizen Penn, said, “If I was in the trenches — like, real trenches, as opposed to ones on a movie set — I’d want to be with Sean Penn in those trenches. He was there for me. Thank you again.”

Bono: Stories of Surrender premieres May 30 on Apple TV+. 

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