(Montpellier) Franco-Tunisian director Abdellatif Kechiche, lost sight of for three years, explained that he was actively working on the release of the last two parts of his trilogy Mektoub My LoveFriday in Montpellier, in the south of France, where her presence aroused the anger of feminist demonstrators.
Posted at 4:26 p.m.
In 2019, his film Mektoub My Love: Intermezzo, which included very crude sex scenes, sparked controversy at the Cannes Film Festival. Ophélie Bau, nominated for the César for her performance in the first part of Mektoub My Love – Canto Uno (2016), had climbed the steps but had slipped away before the screening of the film.
The director, Palme d’Or in 2013 for The Life of Adelehad not shown himself in public since this episode and we did not know anything about the state of progress of this film, although he promised to modify the editing to rule out the plans which would interfere with his actress.
“They are filmed, they are editing, reassembling. I’ve been spending my time there for all these years. I did practically only that: going up, going up, trying… I hope soon the end of Mektoub “, said the 61-year-old filmmaker during a “masterclass” in front of several hundred spectators, at the Mediterranean cinema festival (Cinémed) in Montpellier, of which he is one of the guests of honor.
“I also write screenplays, but I’m not sure yet which one I’m going to tackle soon in preparation, cast, etc. “, he added, suggesting that he would probably shoot again in this region, Occitania, where he “feels good”.
Before and after this workshop, about twenty people demonstrated in front of the Palais des Congrès to denounce the presence of the director, accusing him of “sexism” in his way of filming women and denouncing his working methods, which would be similar to harassment.
“The work with actors and actresses sometimes goes wonderfully well, and then sometimes it can also go very badly,” admitted the director, declaring however that he prefers that the “room laundry is washed as a family”.
Returning to the progress of the projection of Mektoub My Love: Intermezzo at Cannes in 2019, he claimed he hadn’t been “aware of what happened at the time” that night: “I didn’t realize the two actors most involved in the film were gone. Otherwise, the screening would not have taken place,” he said.
A few feminist activists then interrupted him from the ranks of the public, chanting “Here too, we get up and we break! “, an allusion to the shattering departure of Adèle Haenel during the César 2020 after a prize awarded to Roman Polanski.
Invited to speak at the microphone, one of them denounced his arrival, noting in particular that he had been the subject of a complaint for sexual assault (classified without follow-up in 2020, Ed).
“I think you serve the cause you are supposed to defend,” replied the filmmaker calmly. “We fight as we want,” replied the young woman.
“I believe that the films I make have spoken and that I do not need to make a speech on these films for (that one understands) that everything of which I am accused is properly stupid”, then sighed the director.