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Johnny Depp is back. Put like this it sounds like a triumph. In fact, since cinema is cinema we have seen how the Jedi, the Pink Panther, the Living Dead, Don Camilo, the Mummy, La Llorona, the Magnificent Seven and even the Yamakasi (who still do not know who they are) returned. And the return has always been an unmistakable sign of the returnee's imminent triumph. Depp's, in this case, is different or not, depending on how you look at it. On paper, it all looks like one more victory. And the fat ones. The actor reappears in Cannes and does so multiplied by three. Or for three thousand. Maïwenn's inaugural film, Jeanne du Barry, is her first starring role in three years. Remember that Warner dropped him in 'Fantastic Beasts' after a court in 2020 took away his reason in his attempt to deny a press article that accused him of mistreating his ex Amber Heard. In addition, right now he is in full preparation (he is looking for money right here, in Cannes) of what will be his other return, to the direction, by the hand of a 'biopic' of Modigliani. And, finally, it has just been made public that his current account has increased 20 million dollars thanks to the generous contribution of a cologne brand of which he is the image or decoy, depending on how you look at it.

Otherwise, there are better ways to return, but they are yet to be invented.

Let's say, again, Johnny Depp is back. In case there was any doubt, the director of the Cannes festival Thierry Frémaux came out on Monday in his rescue (in reality, he rescued himself) from the fierce criticism expressed by the actress Adèle Haenel for that of turning the flag of the 76th edition of the contest to the actor in permanent legal battle with his ex. Frémaux made it clear that he is only interested in the interpreter, not the public figure; that follows the cinema, that not the televised trials, and that here what matters is the law (in this case I had in mind only the other sentence, the favorable one of 2022), that not anything else. He also dropped a nuance that, since we are where we are, counts: Johnny Depp is not the same in the United States as Johnny Depp in France. In fact, and because of his other marriage to Vanessa Paradis, it would seem that he has half-French status. And so on.

And then there is the way to return with 'Jeanne du Barry', the new and unappetizing film by the once passionate director Maïwenn. This time, the person responsible for violent and snatched body-to-body cinema exercises such as 'Polisse' and 'My love' moderates the gesture to investigate, modernize and recreate very freely the life of the courtesan and official lover of His Majesty Louis XV of France. The idea is to place the camera in the eyes of the character that the director herself gives life to, from there, see, explain and dissect the other side. It is therefore a question of offering, in its most naïve and clear evidence, the opposite reading to the one that is in fact obvious.

The problem, which there is, lies in the director's undisguised fascination with her character beyond reason. In the simplistic and somewhat clumsy ideology of the film, the heroine was nothing different from a cultivated Cinderella who won the favors of the monarch for her intelligence, her naturalness, her empathy and her relentless fight against the hypocrisy of the fawning and corrupt court. As a social reading, or even political, 'Jeanne du Barry' seems between quite conservative and only reactionary in its glorification of royal nonsense, although it pretends at times to make a flag of something like good feelings. On the other hand, out complex, the film does not dare to make the leap of 'Marie Antoinette', the 2006 film by Sofia Coppola, which turned its protagonist into an anachronistic pop figure so delivered to the dislate that there was no choice but to fall surrendered.

It is striking how moderate, or lukewarm, Maïween's proposal is in every way. The staging that in his hands, like it more or less, used to date to be directly pure dynamite, now becomes a rosary of frames so calculated and precious that rather than excite (it is what they are looking for) they only overwhelm. The drone's charging resource through the gardens of Versailles, the flashes in the camera or the insistence on one's own close-up (actress and director are the same) complete the style book of a film with the packaging of reeling prestige production. Nothing else.

And then, don't forget, there's Johnny Depp in the king's shoes. The king who returns. Whichever way you look at it, and without the will to give or take away the reason of anyone in the controversy, the aroma of provocation surrounds everything. Depp appears invested with all his royal royalty in what could well pass as the quintessence of himself. Again, in an almost silent role, we see the actor move around the screen with that hint of minimal gesticulation so close to Buster Keaton and that defines him so well. It would seem that the role played by Johnny Depp is not that of any character, prince or commoner, but that of himself. Depp playing Depp while he becomes king of France at the very opening of Cannes. Who gives more?

So, Depp is back. His return is rather mediocre for the film that protects him, but of a monstrously great mediocrity for everything he brings around him. And so on.

  • cinema
  • Cannes Film Festival
  • Films
  • Johnny Depp

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