While Cannes skates on the boot between the maze of various scandals, many awaited Tuesday Johnny Depp with a firm foot at the press conference of Jeanne du Barry by Maïwenn, the opening film. Will come ? Will not come, the one many of whom had followed the trial against his last wife Amber Heard, on charges of violence and various excesses?
With a big delay, but at the station, the American actor faced the bullets of the cameras and questions, playing low profile. And after the filmmaker interpreter clarified that she had wanted a sexy actor to kiss her more easily, while praising the flexibility of his style, there was more than Depp after his arrival. And Maïwenn took her hole.
The former pirate of the Caribbean was in vain to beg the journalists to speak of the film and not of his person, nothing helped. He took the spittoon. The fact of playing in French did not cause a problem for the one who was for a long time the companion of Vanessa Paradis, but he found Maïwenn very courageous to choose him for the role of Louis XV. Why not a local player? He let himself be convinced to camp, he “a redneck from Kentucky” the monarch at Versailles.
Sweeping away the rumors which say it non grata in the United States, Johnny Depp affirms that it is he who does not need Hollywood. And to clarify that a tissue of lies has twisted in its wake. Good ! Good ! Good ! It is under the applause of the audience, as the day before on the red carpet and under the ovation after the screening of the film, that the pariah of yesterday left. SO goes the world.
Harassment charges
Polemic for polemic, the presence in competition of the film The return by Catherine Corsini had also caused debate, dismissed from the Cannes selection and then reinstated. Anonymous accusations wanted that the French filmmaker harassed people on her set.
Inappropriate gestures of two members of the team with sexual touching of a young actress were also in question, relayed by the media. It all seems confusing. The filmmaker says she is demanding but respectful. She will explain herself tomorrow to the press in turn. The case is ongoing. At least we saw the movie.
Catherine Corsini had already competed for the Palme d’Or with Repetition And The divide. This time, his camera lands in Corsica where a widow (Aïssatou Diallou Sagna) returns to the scene of her wedding with her two teenage daughters, after having lied to them about her past. And in the middle of the capes and bays of the island of beauty, the discoveries of each other arouse tensions. Especially since the girls, beautiful and black, emancipate themselves, one with the daughter of her mother’s bosses, while suffering the weight of racism.
It would be surprising if The return finds itself in the prize list, because beyond its beautiful images, the scenario is not very subtle. We have already seen this type of scene many times and better put together. Let the seventh art speak.
Homosexual loves
Homosexual amorous adventures show up a lot at the start of the festival. At Almodovar, at Corsini and, more ill admittedly, in Monster by Japanese master Hirokazu Kore-Eda. His cinema is often up to children and more or less disorganized families.
This time, through the friendship of a boy and a younger man with whom he is secretly in love, the filmmaker paints a fascinating puzzle of Japanese society, more cerebral than emotional. The harassment at school of a pupil as well as a teacher, a mother’s revolt against the system, appearances that hide surprising realities: this film is revealed like nesting dolls.
The humanity of the characters only appears at the end of the journey, when the masks fall. Monster is not the most moving of Kore-Eda’s films. Nevertheless, its sophisticated mechanics are really worth the detour. In addition, no scandal comes to taint the meeting of the filmmaker with the spectators. This brings a breath of fresh air to a selection that is too often tarnished for non-artistic reasons. Let’s say it helps to blow.