As the Cannes Film Festival kicked off on Tuesday with "Jeanne du Barry", the comeback film of Johnny Depp after a highly-publicised trial resurfaced allegations of abuse from his ex-wife, the film was received a seven-minute standing ovation.
At the same time, over 120 actors published a letter denouncing the culture of impunity towards sexual aggressors in the world of cinema. The actors collective has expressed its "refusal to stay silent" and its indignation towards the political decisions of the Cannes Film Festival.
"By rolling out the red carpet to men and women who commit assaults, the Festival demonstrates that violence in the creative environment can go unpunished," the actors write in the French newspaper Libération.
The actors recount having been victims of acts of sexual assault, bullying or racism in their workplace. "These forms of violence are part of our daily lives, they even tried to make us believe that it was part of the job."
The list of signatories includes names like Ji-Min Park, the star of the "Return to Seul" film which premiered at Cannes last year, as well as Maud Wyler, a French actress with more than 50 acting credits, including HBO's 2022 "Irma Vep" series, or Laure Calamy, an actress known for her role in Netflix's "Call My Agent!" series.
After one of France’s top actors, Adèle Haenel, announced she was quitting the French film industry for “complacency toward sexual aggressors,” Cannes Film Festival chief Thierry Fremaux rejected her criticisms. https://t.co/rPPfBpwNeq pic.twitter.com/LIt5iDEu0M
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 15, 2023
The signatories do not explicitly cite Depp's presence at the event, but they decry the wider "dysfunction of French cinema", which they say "crushes and annihilates" victims by silencing them through fear or buying their silence.
Thierry Fremaux, the director of the distinguished festival responded to similar criticism in a press conference on Monday. He defended Depp's presence and pushed back on the idea that sexual aggressors are spotlighted at the event. "If you thought that it’s a festival for rapists, you wouldn’t be here listening to me, you would not be complaining that you can’t get tickets to get into screenings,” Fremaux told the press.
The choice to spotlight Depp's major film role at the festival has drawn scrutiny because the film involves more than one contested celebrity.
Maïwenn, the director of "Jeanne du Barry" and lead character has recently admitted to attacking a prominent French journalist, having "grabbed him by the hair and spit in his face", Le Parisien reported.
The concerned journalist and Mediapart editor-in-chief, Edwy Plenel, filed a complaint against her in March, after the event. Plenel believes the attack was related to his newsroom's investigation into rape allegations against Luc Besson, Maïwenn's ex-husband and father of one of her children.
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"She didn’t attack just me individually, but the symbol that I represent, as the founder and director of a newspaper, which in France has been at the forefront of all the #MeToo revelations," Plenel told Variety in an interview ahead of the Cannes Festival opening.
Adèle Haenel, a renowned French actress and lead star of "Portrait of a Lady on Fire", a 2019 nominee for the Palme d'Or at Cannes, has also written a letter announcing she is quitting cinema altogether due to the "general complacency of the profession towards sexual aggressors."
