Cannes justifies choosing a Johnny Depp film to open the festival

Cannes film festival general delegate Thierry Frémaux has defended the decision to hand the prestigious opening slot to Jeanne du Barry, in which Depp stars as Louis XV.

Directed by and starring Maïwenn, Jeanne du Barry is a biopic of the famous 18th-century maîtresse-en-titre, who was executed in 1793 during the French revolution. Speaking to Variety, Frémaux said it was not “a controversial choice”, adding “If Johnny Depp had been banned from working it would have been different, but that’s not the case. We only know one thing, it’s the justice system and I think he won the legal case.”

Depp emerged largely victorious from a trial between himself and his former wife Amber Heard, in which both made allegations of defamation against the other. At the conclusion of the trial, Depp was successful on three counts and awarded more than 10m in damages, while Heard was successful on one, and awarded 2m.

Subsequent appeals against the verdict from both sides were abandoned after they agreed to settle the case. However, Depp’s reputation has taken a battering after complaints about his lawyers’ trial tactics.

Frémaux also said a complaint of assault against Maïwenn by high-profile journalist Edwy Plenel would not affect the film’s participation at Cannes.

An AFP report said that Plenel claimed Maïwenn assaulted him in a restaurant in Paris in February. The Guardian has contacted Maïwenn’s representatives for comment. Frémaux said “This has nothing to do with the festival, especially since we learned of the existence of this complaint after announcing Jeanne du Barry at the opening of Cannes.”

Frémaux also responded to a question about the new film by Woody Allen, a film-maker who has been consistently championed by Cannes despite ongoing controversies around him in the US, but whose new film does not appear in the line-up.

In an interview with Le Figaro, Frémaux said that, despite seeing it, he had not selected Allen’s new film, a French-language crime romance called Coup de Chance, in part because “we know that if his film is shown at Cannes, the controversy would take over, against his film, against the other films”. However, Frémaux said the film “was not a candidate”, suggesting it was either not deemed good enough or was not likely to be ready in time.

Allen’s films have regularly appeared at Cannes, most recently in 2016 with the period comedy Café Society, starring Jesse Eisenberg. However, the director remains a divisive figure in the film industry and elsewhere. Allen’s four-picture deal with Amazon Studios collapsed in 2018 in the fallout from renewed attention around allegations by the director’s adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow, that he had sexually abused her.