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Thierry Fremauxgeneral delegate of the Cannes Film Festival (THE SPECIAL), defended the choice to open the 76th edition of the film event with the costume drama Jeanne Du Barryin which the director Maiwenn Le Besco plays the favorite of King Louis XV executed in 1793 during the French Revolution and Johnny Depp plays the role of the sovereign. In an interview given to variety, Frémaux specified that it is not “a controversial choice”, because “if Johnny Depp had been banned from working it would have been different, but that’s not the case. We only know one thing, it’s the justice system and I think he won the lawsuit.” In fact, the actor faced a court battle against his ex-wife Amber Heard following an opinion article signed by the actress in 2018 on the Washington Post in which, without naming her ex-husband, the woman defined herself as “a public figure who represents the Domestic violence”. To defend his reputation and career, Depp filed a defamation lawsuit against Heard, who reacted with similar allegations. After reaching a mutual defamation verdict, the jury ordered Heard to pay his ex-husband $10 million and Depp to pay his ex-wife $2 million. With the subsequent withdrawal of the actress from the appeal proceedings, the ex-couple finally reached an agreement. For Frémaux, the projection on the Croisette of Jeanne Du Barry it will not be conditioned by either allegation of assault against Maïwenn carried by journalist Edwy Plenel who, as reported by AFP extension, claimed he was attacked by the director in February at a restaurant in Paris. As reported by The GuardianFrémaux declared that “this has nothing to do with the Festival, especially since we learned of the existence of this complaint after announcing Jeanne Du Barry opening in Cannes”.
OTHER CONTROVERSIAL FIGURES
In an interview given to Le FigaroFrémaux instead addressed the question of theabsence of the new film by Woody Allen from the Cannes Film Festival line-up. Although the general manager has seen the romantic thriller Coupe de Chance, did not select the director’s film, in part because “we know that if this film is shown in Cannes, the controversy would take place, against his film, against the other films”. Frémaux later specified that the film “was not a candidate”, implying that it was not good enough or that it would not be ready in time. Although Allen’s creations have appeared regularly at Cannes (the most recent screening, in 2016, is for comedy Café Society with Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg), the director however remains a divisive figure in the film industry: in 2018 the company Amazon Studios terminated the contract with the artist after the allegations of sexual assault made against him by his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow, always denied by Allen and which led to the dismissal of two investigations without the formulation of charges against him. For the same reason, the memoir About nothing it was then abandoned by the publisher Hachette but finally published in 2020 by another publishing house. The events have also affected the world of entertainment: if Scarlett Johansson, Javier Bardem and Alec Baldwin have defended the director, Kate Winslet, Rebecca Hall, Colin Firth and Michael Caine have instead declared that they will never work with him again. Frémaux added that he “hasn’t even seen” the new film by another controversial artist, Roman Polanski, at work on the film The Palace aSet on New Year’s Eve 1999 and featuring Fanny Ardant in the cast. Polanski resides in France, a country that opposes his extradition to the United States despite fleeing a court case that found him guilty of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl. In 2018, the director was expelled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the body that organizes the Oscars, and the board of directors of the César Awards, the most important recognition of French cinema, resigned after protests received over the nominations awarded to the film The officer and the spy directed by Polanski himself. The director’s last appearance in Cannes was in 2013 with the erotic drama Venus in fur.
