There was only one person to talk about on the first day of the Cannes Film Festival. Sure, there were chuckles about grabbing tickets for the new Martin Scorsese movie or walking in to watch the cinema. Indiana Jonesbut mostly everyone’s name was Johnny Depp.
The festival is scheduled Jeanne du BarryAs the opening night movie, it follows Depp’s return to the screen after his defamation lawsuit with Amber Heard. Will Depp come? (Yes.) Any fans? (They did.) Any discussion? (Yes.)
Even beyond the visible Jeanne du BarryDirected, starring and co-written by French actress Maïwenn – it comes loaded with luggage.
Of course, there’s the aforementioned highly publicized and grim lawsuit filed by Depp against his ex-wife Heard for allegations of overnight harassment. Washington Post opinion piece. He won that legal battle but came after losing a libel suit in the UK in 2021. This Sun a story that calls him “the wife beater”. Unrelated to all this, there were allegations that he had a fight with Maïwenn on set. Jeanne du Barry because of her delay on set. They were reportedly “screaming” at each other.
Not that it wasn’t because of his own troublesome behavior that he was after Maïwenn. She confessed to spitting in the face of an investigative journalist covering the rape accusations against her ex-husband, director Luc Besson, whom she began dating when she was 15 and 32.
Stephanie Branchu/Why Not Productions
His indifferent attitude towards the attack was also evident when he dismissed the allegations against Depp by saying “I said it very quickly, he lost the first case, won the second”. We can say that it is one person’s word against another’s. I didn’t think I had the right to judge.” Everything is in line with his general views on #MeToo, which is vehemently anti.
Questions about the festival’s featured selection Jeanne du Barry It revolved around the Croisette as visitors from all over the world flocked to this seaside town. Festival director Thierry Frémaux told reporters on Monday: “I don’t know the image of Johnny Depp in the US To be honest, I have only one rule in my life, which is freedom of thought and freedom of thought. speaking and acting within the legal framework.” The next day, juror Brie Larson, who was a member of Time’s Up, was asked at a press conference if she would watch the movie. After questioning why this was directed at her, she said, “I guess you’ll see if I see it,” she said.
Of course, she was on the red carpet for the opening night ceremony along with the rest of the jury. Cameras broadcasting the celebrations were cut from Larson to Depp signing autographs for fans who camped outside the Grand Theater Lumière and shouted his name. Someone rocked a DVD Tourist On her face Others stood from a balcony with hand-drawn signs declaring their love. (It is unclear whether Larson remained in the show.)
Despite all that has been said, how is the movie, you ask?
Confusing? Misdirected? Perhaps the most French pro-monarchist movie you’ll ever see? (I am sad, Marie Antoinette.) But none of that really has anything to do with Depp beyond the casting. Depp is essentially nothing in the movie. Acting in French, the XV. He plays Louis. Although I was nervous when it first appeared, my eyes soon began to freeze whenever it appeared on the screen, mainly because he was not really doing anything. Her dialogue is minimal – perhaps due to her lack of fluency in the language – and her role is very secondary to star Maïwenn herself, who plays her beloved mistress, Jeanne du Barry.
As a Johnny Depp text, there isn’t much in the movie. As a Maiwenn text, it’s somewhat fascinating. Maïwenn portrays her historical heroine as a woman who deftly uses both her wit and sexuality to challenge her class, but remains fully and happily attached to most of the men in her life, even as she gains status. The only male character who doesn’t see this kindness is her ultimate husband, Jean, who briefly harasses her in a scene that would be upsetting no matter what, but that’s even more so given everything we know about the people in this production.
Stephanie Branchu/Why Not Productions
Other women in the film, including Louis’ daughters and Marie Antoinette, are largely portrayed as either evil bitches or silly creatures who are jealous of Jeanne for her style and influence on the king. there is truth you hate me because you’re not me Something is going on that raises eyebrows in the context of Maïwenn not being an ally.
Beyond that, the movie is politically charged. In an irresistible scene, the king gives Jeanne an unquoted gift from a Black boy named Zamor. Maïwenn openly wants us to read Jeanne as a benefactor for taking the child under her wing and making her a butler instead of a slave, but it’s still incredibly racist and read from head to toe. Meanwhile, the conflict is basically ignored as a nuisance, although the title cards at the end refer to the guillotine death of Jeanne du Barry during the French Revolution.
All these problems did not prevent the audience at the premiere from seemingly loving the movie. (I was watching in a theater next door, where the reaction was almost non-audible.) VariationA seven-minute standing ovation was received at the Lumière, during which Depp’s eyes filled with tears.
But the chaos continued. The next morning, after a 20-minute delay, a moderator announced that the film’s press conference would begin without Depp, who had not previously attended the traditional photo interview. After a few minutes of waiting, Maïwenn and the other players entered without Depp. Arrived at 12:42 pm: three minutes before the originally scheduled end of the conference. His entry was met with applause.
He posed a few softball questions before being asked if he still felt boycotted by Hollywood, as he once claimed. Then he immediately got defensive, but at the same time took on a gibberish full of weird jokes and elaborate stances. He said he felt boycotted because he was asked to resign because of what he said was “just a bunch of celebrities and consonants floating in the air,” in reference to his firing. Fantastic Beasts franchise
He continued, “Do I feel boycotted now? No, not at all. But I don’t feel boycotted by Hollywood because I don’t think about it. I don’t think about Hollywood. I don’t need any more. For Hollywood, myself.”
Later, in response to a question about the media coverage at Cannes, he begged people to focus on the film, describing what people had been reading about him for the past five or six years as “fantastically terribly written fiction.” “We’re here to talk about a movie, but it’s ‘how are you?’ but under the subtext it says ‘God I hate you’.”
Stephanie Branchu/Why Not Productions
When asked about people who thought they shouldn’t be at the festival, a series of strange analogies were made: “What if one day, under any circumstances, they don’t let me go, under any circumstances, I can’t go to McDonald’s for the rest of my life because somewhere if you had all of them gathered in one room, 39 angry people would eat me Big Mac in a loop. “Just for fun. Who are they? Why should they care?”
Despite his vaguely disguised displeasure, he didn’t feel like he was making a “comeback.” “Maybe people stopped looking for whatever fears they had at the time, but no, I didn’t go anywhere,” he said well. “I was sitting.” And for what it’s worth, at least in France it was received like the celebrity it once was.
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