Meanwhile, in Cannes… Johnny Depp’s discomfort, the threats of the CGT and the fears of the directors

Thierry Frémaux was surely hoping for an opening night where we would have talked only about films, the red carpet and the program to come. The ace. The weather for the week promises to be gloomy, the world of cinema expresses its concern about the platforms, the CGT threatens to cut the power and the presence of Johnny Depp does more than cringe. Summary of day one.

Johnny Depp – Maïwenn, controversial duo

By choosing Maïwenn’s film “Jeanne du Barry” for the opening night, the festival team could not have foreseen that the director-producer and main actress of this film would be entangled in a case of aggression against Edwy Plenel. (which she refuses to comment on for the moment). On the other hand, it was written in advance that the presence of Johnny Depp would be the center of attention. At 59, the one who had been excluded from film sets during the legal saga which pitted him against his ex-wife Amber Heard on charges of domestic violence, is making a comeback. And what a return! The rise of the steps on opening night, a film project behind the camera with Al Pacino and Pierre Niney and a gigantic new contract ($20 million) for Dior according to “Variety”.

If Maïwenn qualifies the choice of the actor for her film as a ” evidence “, and if Thierry Frémaux affirms not to know” the image of Johnny Depp in the USA » and not be interested than to Depp as an actor », his presence in Cannes appears as a rehabilitation which is not at all to everyone’s taste. A collective of actresses and actors denounced this choice in a column published Tuesday by “Liberation”: “We are deeply indignant and refuse to remain silent in the face of the political positions displayed by the Cannes Film Festival”write the signatories, including Camille Chamoux, Roman Bohringer, Julie Gayet, Ophélie Bau or Laure Calamy.

“How to understand the choice (…) of the Festival to choose this film, precisely, for its opening? The feeling of impunity that emerges freezes us”also denounce several collectives such as 50/50, the Lab Women of Cinema or 1,000 faces.

Amber Heard’s supporters have launched a campaign on social networks under the hashtag #CannesYouNot to oppose the actor’s visit to Cannes.

Despite everything, the “Jeanne du Barry” team was able to climb the stairs without incident. It remains to be seen how the film will be received by the public.

Maïwenn: “Jeanne du Barry, I have the feeling that I have been chosen to defend her”

Towards rooms completely in the dark?

The CGT also expressed its indignation over the choice of Maïwenn’s film as the opening: “Choosing this film sends a very clear message: moral, sexist and sexual violence are not a subject for the Cannes Film Festival”. What push the union a little more to implement its threats of power cuts during the festival? In any case, the union’s watchword is clear: “The CGT makes its cinema in Cannes”. If the prefecture has banned any demonstration around the Croisette, the CGT has already planned various actions, as part of its opposition to the pension reform.

Thus, Friday, May 19 from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., it intends to bring together employees of the hotel sector for a fixed gathering, on the forecourt of the Carlton, a private place excluded from the ban taken by the prefecture.

Two days later, Sunday May 21, at 11:00 a.m., a declared demonstration, at the call of an inter-union grouping CGT, Solidaires, FSU and Unsa, will be held on Boulevard Carnot, outside the prohibited perimeter. This demonstration will target the reform of pensions but also that of unemployment insurance and its consequences on the intermittents du spectacle and the seasonal workers, indicated a local official of the CGT, without excluding “surprise action” during the festival.

The same Sunday, May 21, at 10:00 p.m., the CGT announces the screening “by invitation”at the Palais des Festivals, documentary « Love, Women and Flowers », a 1989 film about these Colombian workers who are victims of pesticides in the flower industry. At the end of this film, broadcast on the initiative of the SPIAC-CGT trade union and the 50/50 and Women on camera collectives, there will be a debate on “the place of women in the world of work and in the credits of films in particular”.

Why the 2023 Cannes Film Festival promises to be intense

Towards a directors’ strike?

But the real big meeting of the directors did not take place in Cannes this Tuesday but in a press release signed by some 500 film professionals to denounce the interferences of the industry on their artistic work, “in the name of profitability”. The Dardenne brothers, Jacques Audiard, Costa-Gavras, Nicole Garcia, Cédric Klapisch, the Toledano-Nakache, Alice Winocour… Brought together by the Society of Film Directors (SRF), guardian of auteur cinema, these artists alarm in this text that “the diversity and vitality (of cinema is) increasingly weakened by certain practices that contravene the fundamental principles of copyright and freedom of creation”

They cite in particular “modified scripts, (of) artistic collaborators and imposed castings, (of) films modified during editing by broadcasters, (of) prescribed music choices”.

These practices, “in the name of profitability”, “unfailingly represent a form of censorship that alters any creative process”they say.

“They call into question the freedom of experimentation and end up making the author invisible, by coming dangerously close to the notion of “copyright” which prevails on the American market”. In the American legal tradition, unlike in Europe, the director does not have the last word and can lose control of the destiny of his work.

Consequently, the signatories claim that the final version of the screenplay, the title of the film, the final version of the editing or even the credits cannot be modified without the agreement of the artist. Claims that echo the current strike of Hollywood screenwriters. Are we heading towards a strike by French directors?

The competition starts on Wednesday

After “Jeanne du Barry”, screened out of competition at the opening of the festival, it’s time to race for the Palme d’Or. And it’s Hirokazu Kore-Eda who opens the ball on Wednesday with “Monster”, a story about a drama that takes place in a school environment. The Japanese is seeking a second coronation after “A family affair”, awarded in 2018. This will be followed by Catherine Corsini’s film, “Le Retour”, which will inevitably be the second controversy of this festival. The film had been added to the selection at the last minute in order to be able to investigate the conditions under which the film was made. In question: suspicions of harassment and an irregularity concerning a scene involving a minor actress.

And here are the other 19 films in the running:

• « Club Zero » by Jessica Hausner, a film about youth, with Mia Wasikowska in the role of a teacher, who forges very strong ties with five of her students.
• « The Zone of Interest » by Jonathan Glazer, a film whose plot is set in Auschwitz, that of a Nazi officer who fell in love with the wife of the commandant of the extermination camp.
• ” Dead leaves “ by Aki Kaurismaki, a tragicomedy about the meeting between two loners, by chance, one night in Helsinki.
• “The Daughters of Olfa” by Kaouther Ben Hania, a film “on the edge of the test” according to Thierry Frémaux, on a Tunisian woman confronted with the disappearance of two of her four daughters.
• « Asteroid City » by Wes Anderson, a film whose story takes place in a fictional American city and which brings together parents and students for scholarly competitions.
• “Anatomy of a Fall” by Justine Triet, the story of a woman accused of the murder of her husband, with in the title role the German Sandra Hüller who conquered the Croisette in 2016 with “Toni Erdmann”.
• “Towards a bright future” by Nanni Moretti, the story of a director struggling to shoot his latest film.
• “The Chimera” by Alice Rohrwacher, the story of a young archaeologist mixed up with a group of grave robbers in 1980s Italy.
• “Dry Herbs” by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, a drama set in Anatolia at the center of which a teacher faces accusations of harassment.
• ” Last summer “ by Catherine Breillat, the story of a mother whose life changes following an affair with her stepson.
• “The Passion of Dodin Bouffant” by Tran Anh Hung, story adapted from a novel on gastronomy, with Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel.
• ” Pick up “ by Marco Bellocchio, the true story of Edgardo Mortara, a six-year-old Jewish child kidnapped by the Catholic Church and forcibly converted in the 19th century.
• « May December » by Todd Haynes, a drama about a couple with a significant age difference.
• « Firebrand » by Karim Aïnouz, a period film at the court of the Tudors.
• « The Old oak » by Ken Loach, the story of the meeting of a pub owner and a Syrian refugee.
• “Banel & Adam” by Ramata-Toulaye Sy, a story of absolute love, confronted with social conventions, in a remote village in northern Senegal.
• « Perfect days » by Wim Wenders, a film about Japanese public toilets.
• ” Youth “ by Wang Bing, a film about the life of textile workers in a city 150 km from Shanghai.
• « Black Flies » by Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire, a thriller about two doctors confronted with violence in New York.