The story of #MeToo began with Tarana Burke, a US activist who created a movement to support women victims of sexual violence, notably among the black population, and social issues surrounding it. Her treatise of “empowerment through empathy” would become a broader, worldwide social movement sparked after the revelations about by Harvey Weinstein, one of the most powerful American film producers.
But while the world of cinema became a focus of the issue of sexual violence, it has resisted, and especially so in France. The 76th Cannes Film Festival, held this year between May 16th and 27th, is but the latest illustration.
It has begun amid a barrage of criticism over the decision to open the festival with the film Jeanne du Barry, directed by Maïwenn Le Besco – better known by the mononym Maïwenn. The French actress and filmmaker has publicly lent her support for Roman Polanski (accused of rape by a total of six teenage victims), and has denigrated the feminist movement and the militant French actress Adèle Haenel.
For the central role of French king Louis XV in Jeanne du Barry she chose Johnny Depp, 59, marking his return to cinema screens after three years of absence following accusations by his ex-wife Amber Heard of domestic violence.
In a trial by jury in the US in 2022, Depp was found guilty of defaming Heard, who was awarded 2 million dollars in compensatory damages (while at the same trial Heard was found guilty of defaming Depp in an op-ed article for The Washington Post, and he was awarded a total of 15 million dollars in damages).
That followed a trial before a judge in Britain in 2020, when Depp lost his libel case against The Sun newspaper over an article in which he was described as a “wife beater”, which Depp firmly denied. In that trial, the presiding judge found that 12 out of 14 alleged incidents of domestic violence that were detailed in the article were “substantially true”, adding: "Taking all the evidence together, I accept that she [Heard] was the victim of sustained and multiple assaults by Mr Depp in Australia.” As a result, Depp was dropped by producers Warner Bros from the role he was due to play in the Fantastic Beasts film series, a prequel to the “Harry Potter” stories of J.K. Rowling. Depp’s request for a re-trial was turned down by the court of appeal in London in 2021.
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Depp’s presence in Cannes on Tuesday, climbing the famous red-carpeted stairs for the presentation of Jeanne du Barry, was described as a “redemption” by French daily Le Parisien, while Maïwenn told Brut that she would be upset if “the radical feminist movement” tried to “spoil the evening”.
Amber Heard, meanwhile, has disappeared from the radar screens. Targeted by what she called “hate and vitriol” on social media, she has chosen leave the US to live in Spain.
Jeanne du Barry received financing from a foundation belonging to the Saudi Arabian Red Sea International Film Festival. Questioned by French daily Le Monde, the head of the production company behind the film, Why Not Productions, declined to comment on how much the Saudi’s had invested. Saudi Arabia, ruled by an ultra-conservative monarchy, is one of the most restrictive countries in the world concerning women’s rights, and freedom of expression is non-existent in the kingdom.
Meanwhile, in in an unprovoked attack in February this year, Maïwenn assaulted Mediapart’s publishing editor Edwy Plenel in a Paris restaurant. She admitted doing so, in jocular tone, during an appearance on the TMC infotainment programme “Quotidien” on May 11th, making light of the physical attack on a journalist. The restaurant incident is now the subject of an investigation by the Paris prosecution services following a complaint filed by Edwy Plenel in March.
Controversy over Catherine Corsini's "Homecoming"
Thierry Frémaux , director of the Cannes Film Festival, also faces criticism over another choice of film that features at this year’s event: this is Homecoming (French title, Le Retour) directed by Catherine Corsini, known for her outspoken leftwing and feminist views, and which has, after hesitation, finally been included in the festival’s prestigious Official Selection.
The film lost its public funding from France’s National Cinema Centre, the CNC, and which originally amounted to 680,000 euros, because it was found to have contravened legislation for the protection of actors who are minors. As revealed by French daily Le Parisien and the weekly Télérama, the production team had not informed the commission that oversees the requests for employing children in film shoots about a sex scene involving an actress aged under 16 (the scene was shot but finally cut during editing).
In November 2022, the Paris prosecution services received an alert denouncing sex scenes in the film played out by adolescent actors, and which was passed on to the child protection branch of the police, the brigade de protection des mineurs. In a separate move, an alert alleging poor working conditions during the shoot was submitted to the body that oversees such issues, the CHSCT, which subsequently investigated the matter and filed a report. Finally, French daily Libération revealed that a young actress hired for the film but who was finally dismissed by Corsini, filed a complaint for sexual assault against the acting coach helping her to prepare her scenes.
“There is no complaint of any sort filed against Catherine Corsini, nor against the production [unit] of the film,” said the Homecoming production team. In an interview with Le Parisien, the film’s executive producer, Élisabeth Perez, spoke of “an administrative error” concerning the failure to declare the sex scene involving an under-age actress, while admitting that there had been “tensions on the set”. However, she denied there had been any “verbal or physical violence on the part of Catherine, nor during the shoot in general”.
Homecoming was originally not entered onto the list of films – the Official Selection – chosen to compete for the Cannes festival’s prestigious Golden Palm award. It was left out of those announced on April 13th – when the festival’s governing board said it had decided to find out more on “the situation of the work” – but was finally included ten days later.
Adèle Haenel's goodbye to all that
The festival also opens to broader criticism of the cinema industry, which is accused of not listening to, or acting upon, accounts of sexual violence and sexism.
In a letter published in Télérama on May 10th, French actress Adèle Haenel announced she was quitting the world of cinema because of the “generalised indulgence of the profession towards sexual attackers”. She said it “joins together to save the faces of the Depardieus, the Polanskis, the Boutonnats”, referring to Gérard Depardieu, Roman Polanski and CNC head Dominique Boutonnat, who all deny accusations of sexual violence made against them.
“It disturbs them, it bothers them that victims make too much noise,” Haenel continued, “they would prefer that we continue to disappear and die off in silence. They are ready to do anything to defend their chief rapists […].” She also voiced a political and anti-capitalist view of the cinema industry, slamming “the manner in which this milieu collaborates with the mortiferous, ecocidal, racist order of the world as it is”, adding: “That everyone stays in their place. I say it again: SHAME […] I am cancelling you from my world. I’m leaving, I’m placing myself on strike, I’m re-joining my friends for who the search for sense and dignity takes precedence over that for money and power.”
Haenel, 34, who in 2019 gave a frank interview to Mediapart detailing her accusations of “sexual harassment” against film director Christophe Ruggia when she was a minor (the video, with English subtitles, can be found here), has actively campaigned against sexual violence in the industry and has been widely supported by feminist militants. But she has met with a mixed appreciation within her profession: while some have spoken of her “courage”, others have regarded her as being too radical and unjustly placing everyone in cinema at the same level.
Interviewed by the media on Monday, Thierry Frémaux said of Adèle Haenel that she “didn’t think in these terms when she came to Cannes as an actress, at least I hope she wasn’t suffering there from dissonance”. On the subject of Johnny Depp, Frémaux said: “I don’t know what Johnny Depp’s image is in the United States.” As for Catherine Corsini, Frémaux told France Inter radio on Tuesday: “All the same, we’re between a witch hunt and the rumour of Orléans”, referring to the true story of snowballing false rumours spread in the town of Orléans in 1969 accusing Jewish store owners of kidnapping young women. “If you really think our festival celebrates rapists you wouldn’t be so many here, listening to me and accredited,” he told the press.
A curtain of silence
The cinema world has remained notably silent about the accusations revealed by Mediapart of 13 women who accuse Gérard Depardieu of various degrees of sexual harassment or violence. With few exceptions, the industry has largely not reacted to the claims. Speaking to Le Parisien, five people – film directors and producers – who had worked with France’s most famous current actor even said that despite the accusations, and the placing of Depardieu under formal investigation for rape, they would work with him again. That reaction pained the women interviewed by Mediapart. “I realise to what point there is a lack of understanding about this issue,” said one of them. “An incredible lack of consideration for the victims, also.”
The events they denounce, which for the most part allegedly took place before many who were present on film shoots, raise questions about collective responsibility: that of producers, who are legally bound by French labour law to ensure the safety of those they employ, but also that of directors and technicians who witness the incidents.
A similar silence followed after Mediapart revealed in 2018 that nine women accused French filmmaker Luc Besson of inappropriate behaviour in a professional context. While that prompted reactions in the US, there were few in France.
Despite the complaint filed against Depardieu for rape, and for which he has been placed under investigation, it was he, according to Libération, who Maïwenn had initially envisaged to play the part of Louis XV in Jeanne du Barry.
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- The original French version of this op-ed article can be found here.
English version by Graham Tearse