Opening the Cannes Film Festival lately seems like a simple rule of 3. There will be a known name (Johnny Deppin the event) more than prestigious in an expensive production (filmed in the Palace of Versailles itself) and the result will be one to forget.
But before we speak Jeanne-du-Barry, the film that opened the 76th edition of the Festival, things have happened. At the ceremony and also in the afternoon.
The protocol indicates the order of arrival at the Palais des Festivals. First of all, the public, which is actually invited, because tickets are not sold at Cannes. Then, the Jury, which integrates Damiano Szifron, who was like a kid in a toy store. Actor Paul Dano (The Riddler in the last Batman) was the most patient with the fans, who through a barrier agreed to take pictures with everyone who asked.
Then, the members of the film crew that opens the Festival arrive on the red carpet. There the one who was allowed to take selfies and sign everything put in front of him was Depp.
In suit, without bow tie, but with a white handkerchief in his pocket, knotted tail, hook earrings, a chain and three silver rings on his right hand and two on his left, blue glasses, he received an ovation upon entering the Sala Lumière. First, Pierre Richard – yes, the actor of my mustard has risen AND Tall, blond and with a black shoe– who plays the Duke of Richelieu – stood between Maïwenne and Depp pictured at the entrance to the room.
And then, who would have received the Palm of Honor, the American michael douglaswho arrived with his wife Catherine Zeta-Jones and their daughter, Carys, the most effusive when they presented him with the award.
Chiara Mastroianni was the presenter, and entered the stage singing in Italian. As always, the nine members of the Jury were introduced and there was a musical number, with Count on me.
The surprises came when Mastroianni, daughter of Marcello and Catherine Deneuve, invited Uma Thurman to give the Palm to Michael Douglas, who didn’t hide it by putting on his glasses and reading from a screen at the back of the audience all that I was I will say.
As a finishing touch, Catherine Deneuve appeared, who is on the official poster for this year’s edition. The French diva opened the Festival in French and Douglas in English.
“Bon festival”, Chiara wished at the end, and before the screening began.
So that.
a mess
In Jeanne-du-Barry Johnny Depp brings to life King Louis XV, in love with a woman who does not come from the court, who is the title character, which director Maïwenn has also reserved for herself.
Jeanne Bécu was an illegitimate daughter, born in 1743, who rose at the court of Louis XV to become his last official mistress. She was Madame du Barry, or Comtesse du Barry until 8 December 1793, when her head literally rolled off: she was beheaded.
Courtesan – a euphemism to say that she was a prostitute of luxury -, did not get along with the daughters of the king, and the film follows all that is at the bottom of the story.
But it’s boring, unsuccessful, it has a voiceover that tells what you see, or in the end it tells everything that happened to the protagonist while the camera points to the sky, as in certain Enrique Carreras films.
Maïwene is neither a great performer nor an exceptional director. If part of all the money she had available in this expensive production had been invested in hiring a screenwriter, perhaps, in one of those, the result would have been different.
Johnny Depp hasn’t been canceled after allegations of abuse by ex-wife, Amber Heard, but he hasn’t been seen on a screen in three years. Maybe that’s why he accepted the invitation. On the screen he’s not bad, he doesn’t exaggerate, he speaks French, his face is powdered and every now and then he makes a small gesture like Jack Sparrow, his character in Pirates of the Caribbean. Another symptom of how badly Maïwenn directs.
From Pola Negri to Dolores del Río, via Lucille Ball and Asia Argento (in Maria Antoniettaby Sofia Coppola), many actresses have been Madame du Barry, and Maïwenn does not honor the character.
A pity, yes, but nothing a discerning spectator could not have foreseen. There were also some boos at the end of the screening.
a busy afternoon
The press conferences given by the Jury at the Cannes Film Festival in the afternoon of the opening day are usually dull, boring, a mere formal meeting from either side of the stage, in which the 9 members of the Jury express how honored they feel for the situation and little else.
Unless something happens outside the established parameters. As happened this afternoon in the press room of the Palais des Festivals.
To actress Brie Larson, who stars in Captain Marveland who we will see from Thursday also in fast and furious xand who is a member of the jury, they asked him directly if he would see Jeanne-du-Barry.
Brie first tried to evade the question. She was present at the opening ceremony and Maïwenn’s film is not in competition for the awards, so she didn’t have to stay. “Sorry, I don’t understand the correlation or why me,” was her first reaction.
Before the question, he had no choice but to answer. “I’ll see, I guess. And I don’t know how I’d feel if I did.”
It’s that Larson has been an outspoken defender of #MeToo and has come out on more than one occasion in defense of victims of sexual assault. He won the Oscar in 2016 for In the roomand at the ceremony the following year, the statuette went to Casey Affleck, sued by two women for harassment, as best actor for manchester by the sea. And she stood still, she didn’t even applaud him when the audience stood up to applaud Ben Affleck’s younger brother.
The day before, on Monday, the general delegate of the Festival, Thierry Frémaux, had supported the inclusion of the film Jeanne du Barry, stating that it was simply a matter of showing the film as a matter of free expression.
“I don’t know what Johnny Depp’s image is in the United States,” he said during a press conference. “Actually, in my life, I have only one rule: it’s the freedom to think, and the freedom of expression and action within a legal framework.”
In the midst of all this, the actress and director Maïwenn also arrived in Cannes after a scandal, after having attacked a French journalist in a restaurant, who had published accusations against her ex-husband Luc Besson, whom she had married at 15 and separated at 22, 25 years ago, for sexual assault.
Maïwenn spat in his face, and journalist Edwy Plenel, editor-in-chief and founder of Mediapart, a French online investigative newspaper, where he published Besson’s story, filed a complaint against him earlier this year.
More countryside and no champagne
Is that a new campaign on social networks, with the hashtag #CannesYouNot, focuses on the Festival, to “celebrate the abusers for 76 years”. The campaign was launched online by supporters of Amber Heard.
Eve Barlow, a journalist, activist and friend of Amber Heard, posted the hashtag on her social media. “Cannes seems proud of its history of supporting rapists and molesters,” she reads, adding the French expression “Plus ça change,” which is like saying “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”
To back up his claims, Barlow has released a series of photos showing accused men who have made prominent appearances at Cannes over the years, including Depp, Roman Polanski, Harvey Weinstein, Woody Allen, Gerard Depardieu and Luc Besson. “If you support Cannes, you support Predators,” reads Barlow’s post.
The director, sitting alone at a nearby table, grabbed Plenel by the hair and spat on him, after which he left the restaurant. In the complaint, Plenel said he was “traumatized by the incident”.
And to make matters worse, a group of French film professionals have criticized the Festival for staging “the red carpet for men and women who attack”.
By rolling out “the red carpet for men and women who attack, the festival sends out the message that in our country we can continue to carry out violence with total impunity, that violence is acceptable in places of creation”, said the group of 123 workers from the French cinematographic sector, in a text published in the newspaper Liberation.
Cannes is a film festival, but also a sounding board.
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Source: Clarin
