CannesXpress 2023: Much ado about Depp

With much hullabaloo over Johnny Depp’s presence in Cannes in the backdrop of his legal battle with Amber Heard, the star’s highly anticipated appearance in actor-filmmaker Maïwenn’s opening film Jeanne Du Barry proved all but a damp squib. As King Louis XV, Depp has barely much to do other than talk lumbering in French, sport an impassive face, and strut around stolidly in heavy costume and makeup, curiously disconnected from all the goings-on around him.

But then, it isn’t just Depp. Most of the characters (in turn the actors) and relationships in the historical film directed by Maïwenn feel like they are hanging in the air. Nor does the film manage to bring forth the implicit class struggles and political machinations that propel it, with any depth or complexity. The story of the rise up the social ladder of Jeanne—the illegitimate daughter of a monk and a cook, a working-class girl with rare intelligence and charm—to becoming a courtesan might be beautifully mounted but feels utterly hollow.

It takes a continuing voiceover in the film to explain King Louis XV’s initial attraction, infatuation and growing love for her than the audience being able to feel every beat and pulse of romance. No sparks ever fly between Depp or Maïwenn, who herself plays Jeanne.

In fact, very often the film feels like a vanity project, with Maïwenn dominating every frame and placing the camera’s gaze on herself. Understandable, with the film being a biography of Jeanne, but the actor even seems to prioritise herself over the role. Rather than becoming Jeanne, it’s her own self that appears to get reflected through the character, right down to the vexing persistence of the silly giggles and smile.

The women in Versailles, scandalised by Jeanne and plotting and planning against “the creature”, get reduced to caricatures of the kind one can take back to the saas-bahu series on Indian television. Then there’s the seemingly doped-out heir to the throne Le Dauphin (Diego Le Fur) and a fey Marie Antoinette (Pauline Pollmann), both looking eminently clueless about the people and world around them. The only person that one can feel any connection with is Benjamin Lavernhe as the confidante La Borde but even he becomes a tool in the end for whipping up sentimentality.

“Aren’t girls who are from nothing ready for anything?” the voiceover asks. Alas, the one in the film gets shown her true place and must get back a full circle to where she started, in a convent.

As has been the tradition at Cannes, when it comes to the recent opening films, Jeanne Du Barry marks another mediocre, dull and dreary start for one of the world’s biggest celebrations of cinema.

Thankfully more than the opening film, the jury press conference in the afternoon provided a lot by way of moments of intelligence, wit, sensitivity as well as discomfort.

American actor-filmmaker Brie Larson, on the forefront of the Times Up movement, was asked if she’d see the opening film starring Depp, accused of being a wife-beater. “You’ll see I guess if I’ll see it. I don’t know how I’ll feel about it,” she said. 

The most heart-warming moment, of not just the conference but the entire festival so far, came from American actor-filmmaker Paul Dano. When asked about the ongoing strike by the Writers Guild of America, of which he himself is a member, he said: “My wife [Zoe Kazan] is currently picketing with our six-month-old strapped to her chest, and I will go be with them on the picket line when I get back from here.”

President of the jury, Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund said he appreciated the fact that people had "collegial feelings" and that he was pro-strike. He also expressed support for the anti-pension reform movement in France. “It is one of the great things with the festival that the world is looking towards you, and you get to say things you want to say,” he said about Cannes being used as a platform to spotlight these issues.

He seemed very clear on his duties as the jury head and the procedure he would want to follow: no stress on consensus, not one strong voice to lead the others but all views would matter, and everyone would take turns to lead the deliberations, and, most of all, no intellectualisation. “We don’t have to be smart; we just have to follow our first instinct when we have to want to say something,” he said. He said that they will have a round of deliberations after every three films and promised there will be no rumours or gossip about the front-runners for the awards. “We will keep our mouths completely shut,” he said.

The two-time Palme d’Or winner and two-time Oscar nominee was also very clear as to which was the biggest film award in the world for him. It is an easy choice, he said, he’d rather have the third Palme d’Or than an Oscar.

Apart from Östlund, Larson and Dano, the jury this year has filmmakers Julia Ducournau (France), Rungano Nyoni (Zambia), Atiq Rahimi (Afghanistan-France), Maryam Touzani (Morocco), Damián Szifron (Argentina) and actor Denis Ménochet (France).