Cannes is now making headlines – not just because of Johnny Depp (but also)

In any case, since the last film festival in Venice, we know: a big fuss about such an event can do no harm. At the time, it was almost the entire cast around Harry Styles and Olivia Wilde of the movie “Don’t Worry Darling” that caused a sensation with relationship problems and internal quarrels – but also advertising for the film.

This year, this role falls not only, but also to Johnny Depp. The French historical drama “Jeanne Du Barry”, Depp’s first film after his famous lawsuit against Amber Heard, was the opening film at Cannes. With this decision, the organizers have already saddled themselves with a small scandal. We explain why.

The actor made his first major appearance in the glamor circus of the film industry at the Cannes Film Festival. Since the defamation lawsuit against his ex-wife Amber Heard, the actor hasn’t shied away from the public eye — he performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival, for example — but with “Jeanne Du Barry,” Depp returns to the realms he’s familiar with. .

His appearance was therefore eagerly awaited. And he didn’t seem to disappoint – at least his die-hard fans. In a tuxedo, with the usual number of rings and a safety pin in his earlobe, he seemed to be having a great time on the red carpet, hugging acquaintances and signing autographs for fans. The hashtags #JohnnyDeppRises and #JohnnyDeppCannes2023 are currently trending on Twitter, and a video is doing the rounds of Johnny Depp – or rather the movie, or both – receiving a seven-minute (!) standing ovation after screening the film. A gesture that apparently touched the actor so much that some people want to see a few tears.

The “Jeanne Du Barry” costume spectacle is Depp’s first film since the Virginia trial. For once he only plays a supporting role and leaves the leading role to the French director and actress Maïwenn. Depp’s performance as France’s King Louis XV, France’s penultimate monarch, has gone down quite well with critics, with his “excellent French” being particularly praised. However, it is rather his cast that is criticized; Johnny Depp’s personality is too domineering and “distracting” – and then only for a supporting actor.

Johnny Depp’s casting in “Jeanne Du Barry” hasn’t just been a problem since its premiere. Maïwenn, who both directed and starred in the film, asked Depp about it days after his trial. The criticism: you didn’t even wait for the verdict.

Why did the French do that?

Maïwenn Le Besco – better known by her first name – is not a blank slate herself. The 47-year-old from a French-Algerian family is known in France as a screenwriter, actress and director. She has recently sparked controversy in the movie scene for siding with both director Roman Polanski and actor Gérard Dépardieu – to whom she cast the role of Louis XV. first offered, but who declined the offer – struck. Both men have faced allegations of abuse in the past.

In addition, Maïwenn has “sistered” with Catherine Deneuve, who has publicly opposed the MeToo movement for allegedly sparking a “campaign of denunciation and public accusations”. In a text, Deneuve also called for “the freedom to be a burden to anyone, which is essential to sexual freedom”.

It is somewhat ironic that Maïwenn has recently turned violent herself. As she herself confirmed in a television interview a few days before the film festival, the director attacked and spat on a journalist in a restaurant. Maïwenn, who was alone at a neighboring table, would have grabbed the man by the hair, spat in his face and then left the restaurant, the French journalist writes in a complaint.

The background to this attack: The online news magazine founded by the journalist has published a report on allegations of rape and sexual assault against Luc Besson. Besson co-starred with 12-year-old Natalie Portman in the 1994 film Leon the Professional. When she was twelve, Maïwenn met Besson on a movie set. At the age of 15, she began a romantic relationship with the actress, who was 17 years her senior. When she was 16, the two got married and soon after became the parents of a daughter. The marriage ended five years later when Besson left his wife for 20-year-old model Milla Jovovich.

The fact that a film like “Jeanne Du Barry” was allowed to open the festival in Cannes received a lot of criticism in advance – whether or not because of the content. The costume spectacle tells the story of a young, lower-class French woman, who makes social progress through first-class prostitution. So high that she became the favorite mistress of the king (Louis XV), the penultimate monarch of France and predecessor of the Sun King Louis XIV.

No, the controversy surrounding Jeanne Du Barry is not fueled by the film, which received generally mixed reviews, but by the cast. Shortly before the start of the film festival, the French newspaper Liberation published an open letter signed by more than 100 actors. It accuses the festival and the entire film industry of not properly excluding people “accused of bodily harm and abuse” from the event. Depp was not mentioned by name.

Director Thierry Frémaux, artistic director of the festival, reacted calmly to the criticism: he did not know what the image of Johnny Depp was like in the US, where most of the criticism of the festival’s decision came from, he said at a press conference. He only cares about Johnny Depp as an actor: “If Johnny Depp had been given the lead role in a movie, or if the movie had been banned, we wouldn’t be talking about it here.”

Meanwhile, the Cannes Film Festival will be led by a woman for the first time. The German Iris Knobloch is the first non-French woman to hold this position. Under her leadership, the film festivals will become more diverse, so for the first time more female directors than ever before were sent in the race for the Palme d’Or. Knobloch herself said, “Being a woman at the top has symbolic power. And I think it’s a win for the women.”

Incidentally, «Jeanne Du Barry» will probably not be the last film discussed at the Cannes Film Festival. In addition to Martin Scorsese’s new epic “Killers of the Flower Moon” with Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, the fifth “Indiana Jones” (“Indiana Jones and the Wheel of Destiny”) starring 80-year-old Harrison Ford as archaeologist will also be released this year. be presented.