For Adèle Haenel, Roman Polanski winning best director at the 2020 Cesar Awards was the final straw. In a moment which gave the Cesars more international coverage than they might want, the Portrait of a Lady on Fire star stormed out of the ceremony, shouting “Bravo pedophilia,” as Polanski received his prize. She hasn’t acted in a movie since.
Instead, she has devoted herself to political activism, working to highlight injustices within the film industry in France. Last week, she penned an open letter, published in Telerama magazine, which denounced the complacency of the French establishment in relation to sexual harassment and assault cases.
“In a context of historic social movement, we’re awaiting to see if the big players of the film industry are expecting — like the sponsors from the luxury industry — police forces to make sure everything happens as usual on the red carpet of the Cannes Film Festival,” Haenel wrote.
“Meanwhile they all join hands to save the face of [Gérard] Depardieu, [Roman] Polanski and [Dominique] Boutonnat. It unnerves them and disturbs them that victims make too much noise; they would prefer it if we continued to disappear and die in silence. They’re ready to do anything to defend their rapist chiefs, those who are so rich that they believe they belong to a superior species, those who make a show of this superiority by… objectifying women and subordinates.”
Adèle Haenel arrives at the Cesar Awards in February 2020 (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)
The letter, it seems, rustled a few feathers. In a press conference to journalists ahead of the 2023 festival on Monday, Cannes’ festival chief Thierry Fremaux called Haenel’s comments “radical” and “false.”
“She didn’t think that when she came to Cannes unless she suffered from a crazy dissonance. People use Cannes to talk about certain issues and it’s normal because we give them a platform.”
Addressing the press directly, Fremaux said, “But 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.”
The issue is not, as Haenel makes clear in her letter, one exclusive to Cannes. But Cannes is, whether Fremaux chooses to acknowledge it or not, the face of the French cinema establishment. As the festival chief said, “people use Cannes to talk about certain issues and it’s normal because we give them a platform.” The festival is, first and foremost, a platform for the French cinema industry.
Cannes Film Festival director Thierry Fremaux attends the 76th Cannes Film Festival Official Selection Presentation At UGC Normandie on April 13, 2023 in Paris, France. (Photo by Francois Durand/Getty Images)
But it’s a platform run by one side of a debate. Cannes officials cannot claim to be hearing all sides when their boss accuses Haenel of suffering from “a crazy dissonance” while claiming to have no view on Johnny Depp’s appearance in their own opening night film.
“I don’t know about the image of Johnny Depp in the U.S. 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,” Fremaux said.
“As for the rest, I’m the last person to be able to discuss all this. If there’s one person in this world who didn’t find the least interest in this very publicized trial, it’s me. I don’t know what it’s about. I also care about Johnny Depp as an actor.”
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Meanwhile, the French cinema industry remains stubbornly resistant to self-reflection. Roman Polanski, mentioned in Haenel’s letter, plead guilty to unlawful sex with a minor in 1977. Johnny Depp, despite a wilful and widespread misinterpretation of his trial with Amber Heard, lost his libel case against The Sun in 2018 after the court found 12 accusations of physical violence were “substantially true.” In April, 13 women accused Gérard Depardieu of sexual assault and sexual harassment. In a 1978 interview, he reportedly said he’d participated in “too many [rapes] to count.”
Dominique Boutonnat remains in post as president of the country’s National Cinema Centre under the pretence that he is innocent until proven guilty – either way, as the very public face of the industry in France, his refusal to adjust the public-facing side of his role isn’t a great look. Instead, it speaks to a culture endemic in certain circles of a refusal to engage with the issue of sexual violence in a meaningful way, insisting that any safeguarding measures or precautions put in place would be an unthinkable breach of civil liberties.
The 2023 festival opens today, with films in competition ranging from Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City to Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. But despite the usual glamour and prestige of the world’s foremost film festival, this year’s Cannes operates under a dark cloud. Regional authorities have banned protests (expected to continue following the government’s controversial pension reform bill) near festival buildings.
Cannes has always, and will always be, a political event. From an establishment insisting on staying above the debate, none of this is a great look.
