UWhen Johnny Depp appeared on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival this week, it was clear that France was doing more than any other nation to rehabilitate the actor after he was rejected by American film studios during two trials over alleged domestic abuse. violence.
Feminist groups and more than 100 French actors have come forward to criticize the festival, saying Depp’s star appearance symbolizes a wider problem with the French establishment protecting men who have been accused by women. “We are deeply outraged and refuse to remain silent in the face of the toxic politics perpetuated by the Cannes Film Festival,” the actors said in an open letter published in Liberation.
Depp, who in Cannes dismissed the allegations against him as “abstract whispers” and said he “no longer needs Hollywood”, has firmly anchored his return to cinema in France. His first film role in three years was a French-speaking role as King Louis XV in the film Jeanne du Barry; and he is seeking funding in France for his next film as a director, a feature about the painter Amedeo Modigliani, set in Paris.
Depp’s Cannes suits were provided by the French luxury brand Dior, who gave him a gift a record $20 million deal to continue promoting his men’s fragrance Dior Sauvage, pleased that the fragrance’s sales have soared despite two lawsuits — one for libel, the other for slander — over alleged abuse of his ex-wife Amber Heard.
In Paris, billboards, subway stations and buses were plastered with Depp’s face in ads for Jeanne du Barry, which was released in France this week but has no US release date yet.
Depp, who once lived in France and has two children with French actress Vanessa Paradis, said the country “feels like home”.
In 2020, a British court ruled that the Sun newspaper did not defame Depp by calling him a “wife beater” because the judge found it was “largely true” and that 12 of the 14 incidents of assault reported by Heard , have been proved. Depp then sued Heard for defamation in the US last year over a Washington Post editorial she wrote. A Virginia jury found in his favor on three counts, awarding him more than $10 million, and against him on one count, awarding Heard $2 million.
In Nice, down the coast from Cannes, protesters plastered signs against the festival on walls. One read: “A festival of rapists, misogynists and asses.”
Tensions at the festival were high. Maïwenn, Jeanne du Barry’s director and co-star, said she chose Depp before auditions began.
Edwi Plenell, editor-in-chief of the investigative website Mediapart, described how he filed a legal complaint against Maïwenn after she spat at him earlier this year. He said Diversity that Maïwenn is “outspokenly against #MeToo” and he believes she targeted him because of Mediapart’s investigations into allegations of sexual abuse in the film industry, including against her ex-husband Luc Besson, who has denied all allegations against him. Maven told reporters that he has no regrets about the incident with Plenell.
French actor Ariane Labed and Franco-British actress Olivia Ross, who wrote the open letter signed by 123 actors warning the French film industry of supporting abusers, said they spoke out after hearing accounts from other actors of sexual abuse, harassment and racism in industry.
Ross said: “The #MeToo movement has had an impact, things are slowly changing, but the choice of the Cannes Film Festival is a clear slap in the face and a clear statement: ‘We are not interested in this change.’ unacceptable.
“France has a reputation as a country that prioritizes the author and tends to separate art from the artist all the time. This has its place, but it doesn’t have to be systematic. We wanted to say: we are French and we are not behind these elections.
They said they also wanted to show their support for Adèle Haenel, the star of Portrait of a Lady on Fire, who recently announced she would be leaving the industry because of its “general complacency” towards sexual predators.
Labed said: “We wanted to stand by her, to say: we understand and share her anger and we want to be heard.”
The feminist group Dare feminism called for a boycott of Cannes, saying France has a history of supporting people like Roman Polanski. The Polish-born director fled the U.S. to France in 1978 after pleading guilty to the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl and has been on the run from the U.S. justice system ever since, despite repeated attempts to extradite him.
The group also criticized the French film industry for continuing to work with Gerard Depardieu. The actor was investigated for alleged rape in 2018, which he denies, and was recently accused of sexually inappropriate behavior by 13 women, which his lawyers denied.
The group’s spokeswoman, Ursula Le Mans, said of Depp’s presence at Cannes: “We see again what has happened in the past, namely with Polanski, that this country welcomes with open arms, applauds and celebrates men who are accused of being attackers.”
She said it was rooted in a “misogynistic and patriarchal culture” in France where “male artists are put on a pedestal and art is said to justify everything”.
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