![]() ![]() Meanwhile, though title cards at the end reference Jeanne du Barry's death by guillotine during the French Revolution, the conflict is basically shrugged off as a nuisance.Īll these issues didn't stop the audience at the premiere from apparently loving the film. Maïwenn clearly wants us to read Jeanne as benevolent for taking the child under her wing and making him a page instead of a slave, but it still reads as incredibly racist and patronizing. In one excruciating scene, the king gives Jeanne a quote-unquote gift of a Black boy named Zamor. There's a real you hate me because you ain't me thing going on, which is eyebrow-raising in the context of Maïwenn's lack of allyship.īeyond that, the movie is politically fraught. Other women in the film, including Louis’ daughters and Marie Antoinette, are largely portrayed as either nasty bitches or silly creatures who envy Jeanne for her style and her sway over the king. The only male character that doesn't receive that courtesy is her eventual husband Jean, who abuses her briefly in a scene that would be upsetting regardless but is even more so given everything we know about the people in this production. Maïwenn plays her historical heroine as a woman who defies her class to rise in rank through deft use of both her intelligence and sexuality, but even as she gains status she remains fully and happily devoted to most of the men in her life. As a Maïwenn text, it's sort of fascinating. His dialogue is minimal-perhaps because of his lack of fluency in the language-and his role is very much secondary to the star, Maïwenn herself, who plays his beloved mistress Jeanne du Barry.Īs a Johnny Depp text, there's not much to the film. Though I admittedly tensed up when he first appeared, but soon my eyes started to glaze over whenever he was on screen, mainly because he wasn't really doing anything. Acting in French, he plays Louis XV with barely any personality. Depp is essentially a nonentity in the movie. With all that being said, uh, how's the movie, you ask?Ĭonfusing? Misguided? Maybe the most pro-French monarchy movie you'll ever see? (Sorry, Marie Antoinette.) But none of that really has to do with Depp beyond his very casting. (Unclear if Larson stayed through the screening.) Others stood from a balcony with hand drawn signs declaring their love. Someone shook a DVD of The Tourist in his face. ![]() Cameras broadcasting the festivities cut right from Larson to Depp signing autographs for fans camped outside of the Grand Theatre Lumière screaming his name. Sure enough, she was on the red carpet for the opening night ceremony with the rest of her jury. After questioning why this was directed at her, she said, “You'll see, I guess, if I see it.” ![]() To tell you the truth, in my life, I only have one rule, it’s the freedom of thinking, and the freedom of speech and acting within a legal framework.” The next day jury member Brie Larson, who was a Time's Up member, was asked during a press conference about whether she'll see the movie. Festival director Thierry Frémaux told journalists on Monday: “I don’t know about the image of Johnny Depp in the U.S. Questions about the festival's choice to feature Jeanne du Barry swirled around the Croisette as visitors from around the world descended on this seaside tourist town. I didn’t feel I had the right to judge.” It's all in line with her general opinions about #MeToo, which are fervently anti. We could say it was one person’s word against another. Her cavalier attitude to assault was also evident when she brushed off the allegations against Depp saying, “Very quickly I said, he lost the first trial, he won the second. They were reportedly “screaming” at each other. He won that legal battle, but it came after he lost a 2021 libel case in the UK over a The Sun story calling him a "wife beater." Unrelated to all of that, there were claims he fought with Maïwenn on the set of Jeanne du Barry over his lateness on set. There is, of course, the aforementioned highly publicized and vicious case Depp brought against his ex-wife Heard for her allegations of abuse in a Washington Post opinion piece. Would Depp show up? (Yes.) Would fans? (They did.) Would controversy? (Yes.)Įven beyond the obvious, Jeanne du Barry-directed by, starring, and co-written by French actress Maïwenn-comes laden with baggage. The festival had programmed Jeanne du Barry, featuring Depp's return to the screen following his defamation trial with Amber Heard, as its opening night film. Sure, there were titters about snagging tickets for the new Martin Scorsese movie or getting in to see Indiana Jones, but mostly the name on everyone's lips was Johnny Depp. CANNES, France-There was really only one person anyone could talk about on the first day of the Cannes Film Festival. ![]()
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