• Johnny Depp is about to walk the red carpet of the Cannes Film Festival for the screening of Jeanne du Barry directed by Maïwenn.
  • It's time for rehabilitation for the actor, accused of domestic violence by his ex-wife Amber Heard.
  • A collective of actresses and actors published an article in Libération to dissociate themselves from the decisions of the Festival in recent weeks.

Johnny Depp will not have been a victim of cancel culture for very long. Here he is back through the front door at the Croisette a few months after the highly publicized trial that opposed him to his ex-wife Amber Heard, against a background of accusations of domestic violence. Removed from the Hollywood sets, the actor climbs the steps this Tuesday evening for the opening of the official selection with Jeanne du Barry directed by Maïwenn. If the big family of cinema fully assumes the presence of Johnny Depp, this rehabilitation gives the 2023 edition of the Cannes Film Festival an aftertaste of unease.

Thierry Frémeaux, general delegate of the festival, tried to extinguish the controversy while the hashtag #CannesYouNot ("Cannes, could you avoid") begins to talk about him on Twitter. "I do not know the image of Johnny Depp in the United States," he said, explaining that he has "only one conduct in life: the freedom to think, to speak, to act within the framework of the law". "I'm the last person who can talk to you about all this because, if there's one person in the world who hasn't been interested in this high-profile trial [between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard], it's me. I don't know what it's about, I'm interested in Depp as an actor."


"Five years after #metoo, French cinema still defends aggressors"

No better on the side of Maïwenn, the director of the film, who has no regrets about the surprising choice of an American actor to play a king of France. "With him, it was such obvious," says the one who gives him the line in the film. The actress is also herself caught in a legal case, accused of having assaulted the co-founder of Mediapart Edwy Plenel in a restaurant in Paris. Altercation that she confirmed in an interview of a disconcerting lightness on the set of Quotidien, last week.

However, many voices have been raised since the announcement of Johnny Depp's presence in Cannes. A few days after the revelation of the work that was going to be screened at the opening of the official selection, in early April, the association Osez le féminisme was surprised on Instagram: "Five years after #metoo, French cinema still defends aggressors. (...) [He] continues to despise victims of violence and reward aggressors." For her part, Adèle Haenel, voice of the metoo movement in France, strongly criticized the festival in a letter published by Télérama last week.

Amber Heard exiled in Spain

"But they and they all together during this time join hands to save the face of the Depardieus, Polanskis, Boutonnats. It bothers them, it bothers them that the victims make too much noise, they preferred that we continue to disappear and die in silence. They are ready to do anything to defend their rapist leaders, "wrote the actress, who announced to stop the cinema in the aftermath. A collective of actresses and actors expressed the same indignation in a forum published inLibération on Tuesday, the day of the opening ceremony of the festival.

Among the signatories are: Daphné Patakia, Bastien Bouillon, Jérémie Renier, Camille Chamoux, Agathe Bonitzer, Anna Mouglalis, Julie Gayet, Ophélie Bau, Laure Calamy... "We refuse to be associated with the decisions taken in recent weeks. By rolling out the red carpet for men and women who assault, the Festival sends the message that in our country we can continue to practice violence with impunity, that violence is acceptable in places of creation," the publication reads.

Amber Heard exiled in Spain

Inevitably, seeing Johnny Depp arrive on the Croisette has something quite cynical. Especially when he arrives at the film market with the director's cap on his head and a Modigliani biopic project with Pierre Niney and Al Pacino in his pocket. Not to mention that, according to information from Variety on Friday, Dior reached an agreement in August 2022 to more than $ 20 million with the American star to keep him as the face of its perfume for men Sauvage.

In parallel, his accuser Amber Heard, victim of a campaign of hate and disinformation in packs by masculinist groups throughout the trial, ended up going into exile in Spain, far from Hollywood sets and paparazzi. One wonders who was cancelled in this story.

Actor Johnny Depp emerged victorious in his lawsuit against his ex-wife Amber Heard, even though jurors concluded that the two stars had defamed each other through the press.

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