What do we do when, three months before the release of a film we have been working on for 10 years, one of its main actors is accused by six women of harassment and sexual assault?
“We want to go and hide in the woods!” », confides filmmaker Manon Briand (2 seconds, Liverpool), whose next feature film is due to be released on September 13. The family comedy starring Julie Le Breton and Édouard Baer, and whose projected title was The chef and the customs officerwill rather be called All crazy!we learned Thursday.
The main reason for this change is undoubtedly the publication a week ago of a joint investigation by French media Mediapart and Cheek implicating Édouard Baer in several cases of sexual misconduct. Six young women accuse the French actor ofAsterix and Obelix: In the Service of Her Majesty (he played Asterix alongside Gérard Depardieu’s Obelix) of having harassed or assaulted them between 2013 and 2021, when they were in their early twenties.
“I do not recognize myself in the words or gestures attributed to me, but I can only express my regrets that my behavior made these women uncomfortable or hurt,” apologized Édouard Baer, 57 years, in a letter to Mediapart.
“It’s like being hit head-on by a bus,” explains the producer of All crazy!Pierre Even (Item 7), who admits to having pulled out his hair last weekend after reading this investigation which reports repeated touching of young women, half of them Afro-descendants, most often in a professional context .
“Our first reflex was to ensure that our team was correct and that everything had gone well on our set,” says Pierre Even, who does not doubt the testimonies of the complainants nor minimize the seriousness of the actions attributed to Edward Baer. To his knowledge, there was no incident of this nature on the Quebec film set of Manon Briand’s sixth feature film, in Montreal, Montérégie and Lanaudière.
“It’s part of the history of the film now,” the producer repeated several times in an interview. “This film is almost 10 years of work for Manon, 7 years for us with her, and 200 people who worked on it,” recalls Pierre Even.
The trailer for All crazy!which was also unveiled on Thursday, was reworked this week to place greater emphasis on the entire cast, which includes Sylvain Marcel, Dominic Paquet, Normand Chouinard, Michèle Deslauriers, Oussama Fares, Douaa Kachache and the young Élodie Fontaine.
However, we do not minimize the participation of Édouard Baer, who plays a central role in the film: that of a French chef in decline, based in New York, who finds himself supporting a young Quebecer despite himself. 10 years old in a culinary competition, at the request of his mother, an uncompromising customs officer played by Julie Le Breton.
” It hurts “
Édouard Baer, who was to ensure the promotion of All crazy! at the end of the summer, will not be invited to the premiere of the film in September. On the other hand, the film will not be modified in any way, assures Manon Briand. “I don’t see how I could have edited it to ignore one of the characters,” she said. I don’t think we can judge the film through that prism either. »
Does she fear that the accusations made in the media against Édouard Baer will harm the reception given to her film? “I hope not, but I have no control over that. »
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Filmmaker Manon Briand
The actions criticized by Baer tarnish a shoot which was ideal, according to Manon Briand.
I cannot disavow the happiness I had making this film, particularly with Édouard Baer. This pleasure must suddenly become guilty? We don’t know how to react. It’s really difficult.
Manon Briand, filmmaker
The filmmaker of Fluid turbulence says she feels like a mother called to defend all of her children because one of them has behaved reprehensibly. “But how can I comfort and protect everyone else? It hurts. »
In France, where the #metoo movement especially seems to have an impact since the recent accusations of actress and director Judith Godrèche against filmmakers Benoît Jacquot and Jacques Doillon, reactions to Mediapart’s revelations are diverse. Performances of the show My application by Édouard Baer at the Théâtre Antoine in Paris have been canceled, unlike most of those planned in the provinces.
This reminds us of Fanny Ardant, actress in Roman Polanski’s most recent (and abominable) film. The Palacewho slams the #metoo movement in the most recent issue of the reactionary monthly Talkerand Catherine Deneuve, who in 2018 signed a column on the “freedom to annoy” men in response to the #balancetonporc movement, many French commentators trivialize sexual assault.
Édouard Baer should not have apologized for these actions, “the most serious being having touched the buttocks and breasts”, maintains columnist Peggy Sastre in the weekly Point. And long live French feminism…
The fact remains that cinema is team work. Dozens of craftsmen from different trades are, as Pierre Even points out, collateral victims of this sad affair.
Édouard Baer may well be one of the main actors in All crazy!, he is neither the screenwriter nor the director. Quebec cinema does not, like Hollywood cinema, have the means to reshoot scenes with a new actor following a #metoo scandal. Manon Briand’s film cannot do without Baer. Whether or not he turns out to be a pig, he will be part of the story.