Los Angeles

Veteran filmmaker Martin Scorsese's 'Killers of the Flower Moon' recently premiered to the biggest standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival so far.

The 3 hour and 26 minute drama starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro and Lily Gladstone - which tells the story of a dark, largely unexplored chapter of American history - is connected with theatre-goers in the French Riviera, reports Variety. Even after sitting through a movie that was longer than 'Titanic' the crowd was so enraptured that they sprang to their feet and applauded for nine minutes.

Cannes clearly loves Leo and Scorsese, who returned to the festival for the first time since 1985's 'After Hours'. And that's good news for Apple Original Films, which forked over $200 million to the auteur to realise his vision, hoping he'd deliver one of his signature explorations of criminality.

As per Variety, while many of Scorsese's classic movies unfold on the mean streets of New York, aKillers of the Flower Moon' is set in northeastern Oklahoma as members of the Osage Nation are murdered in a systematic fashion for sinister ends. Variety further states that Leo, De Niro and Jesse Plemons walked the red carpet alongside Scorsese before the premiere, braving the rainy and overcast weather.

Cate Blanchett, who won an Oscar for playing Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator, greeted Scorsese as he took his seat to cheers. But when the movie ended, the loudest screams were directed at the discovery of the film: Gladstone, who plays an Osage woman betrayed by her greedy husband for her wealth.

She earned rave reviews and fought back tears as the crowd inside the Palais clapped loudly. On social media, Oscar bloggers are already tapping her performance for possible awards attention. As the applause continued after the film ended, Scorsese took the microphone to address the crowd.

"Thank you to the Osages," he said. "Everyone connected with the picture. My old pals Bob and Leo, and Jesse and Lily. We shot this a couple of years ago in Oklahoma. It's taken its time to come around but Apple did so great by us. There was lots of grass. I'm a New Yorker. I was very surprised. This was an amazing experience. We lived in that world."