The Cannes Film Festival under the spell of the shock duo Maïwenn and Johny Depp in "Jeanne du Barry"

American actor Johnny Depp and French director and actress Maïwenn before the opening ceremony and screening of the film "Jeanne du Barry" at the Cannes Film Festival. AFP - LOIC VENANCE

Text by: Siegfried Forster Follow

6 min

Despite the controversies, Maïwenn and Johnny Depp managed to enthuse the Croisette. Jeanne du Barry, screened Tuesday night at the opening of the Cannes Film Festival, received a standing ovation. The American actor plays alongside the director and actress masterfully King Louis XV. A biopic as personal as it is successful on the extraordinary destiny of a woman born in poverty who invests her power of seduction in her social ascent, until becoming the king's favorite courtesan.

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This is grotesque! "No, it's Versailles! " is one of the brilliant punchlines of the neo-historical biopic around Jeanne du Barry. This Tuesday evening, the Croisette rolled out the red carpet for Johnny Depp who quietly took a bath of crowds and selfies with his fans before walking hand in hand with Maïwenn in the Grand Théâtre Lumière to welcome a moving seven-minute standing ovation from the very prestigious Cannes film world.

The incredible story of King Louis XV's last courtesan

Jeanne du Barry, programmed out of competition, tells the story of the last courtesan of King Louis XV, alter ego of the actress and director Maïwenn, reminding her of the time when she had married, at the age of 16, Luc Besson, the former king of French cinema. Johnny Depp, who embodies with subtlety, delicacy and an impressive romantic melancholy King Louis XV, has just emerged from a legal battle after accusations of assault on his last wife. Since then, it has been boycotted by American studios. And Maïwenn has just confessed to physically assaulting a journalist. An unjustifiable act in a serious democracy, but which seems, in the case of Maïwenn, to be tolerated by the film industry and the Cannes Film Festival.

Preceded by a week of emerging controversies, the opening ceremony of the Festival took place in a festive and carefree atmosphere, with dozens of stars in the room. Catherine Deneuve recited a poem in support of Ukraine, but regarding the cumbersome issues inside the film world, no speeches and no placards in the hall or in front of the Palais des Festivals spoiled the party. However, Jeanne du Barry had all the ingredients to trigger a small scandal of which the Croisette has the secret.

Maïwenn and Johnny Depp in "Jeanne du Barry" by Maïwenn (2023). © STEPHANIE BRANCHU / WHY NOT PRODUCTION

Lots of applause, no controversy

Did the #MeToo movement observe for Cannes a moment of pause in relation to its often so intransigent demands? Is it to respect beyond suspicion the film of a woman portraying a strong woman on the road to her liberation? Until today, everything suggests that this would be a bad excuse.

Despite all these debates, the General Delegate of the Festival de Cannes persisted and signed for Jeanne du Barry to open the 76th edition of the largest film event in the world. And once the result is seen on the big screen, we know why. It is great cinema, demanding, inventive and popular at the same time. The biopic of the last courtesan of King Louis XV illuminates an unknown page in the history of France and turns out to be a bluffing topicality.

The French School of Gaze

Practically all the scenes of the king and the court in the Hall of Mirrors and the Palace of Versailles refer to imaginaries whose structures continue to exist in a profound way in the way of thinking and exercising power in France, but also in living together in society. The camera does not look at this love story between Louis XV and Jeanne du Barry with the eyes of the eighteenth century, but with a contemporary and feminine point of view. Maïwenn is pleased to shoot on film shots that are both vibrant and majestic to compare the life of a courtesan at the court of Louis XV with her own experiences when she began to penetrate the film world in Paris at a very young age. The disturbing beauty of Versailles, which hides the cruelty of the court, is transformed into a parable. The camera often dances between near and far vision as if to blur our notion of time and space.

In the film, everything always starts with a look. Depending on the situation, he is observant, obedient, seductive, judging or threatening... This school of gaze allows us to detect more and more the omnipresence of a hierarchical, vertical, one-way system. A society classified as a caste where everyone must stay where they were born. To control the social movement like the small steps of the king's subordinates, social handcuffs of all kinds were invented. To free herself, to expand her territory, Jeanne begins to change the posture of her eyes, her head, her body, but also her diction, her accent, her way of dressing, combing her hair, making love.

King Louis XV with Jeanne du Barry and Page Zamor at the Palace of Versailles. © Stéphanie Branch / Why Not Productions

« The girls of nothing are ready for anything »

Thanks to her crazy energy, her irresistible charm and her early awareness of being able to manipulate men with her feminine assets, she gradually changes her social situation. Little Jeanne, illegitimate daughter of a seamstress and a monk, will be "sold" and often changes the house and the master, until she arrives at the Count du Barry who uses her as a lover and prostitute to replenish his coffers. When the opportunity arises to "offer" this exciting young woman to the king, Joan's fate is sealed. She will be one of those "girls of nothing who are ready for anything" to avoid being abused and humiliated by everyone.

And Jeanne doesn't limit herself to simply occupying her new position. She imposed her thoughts and values on the king and the court. Where every word and gesture is controlled, even repressed, she expresses her deep desires to the king, exploding the etiquette: she wears pants, abandons the wig, lets go of her hair, not to mention the caresses publicly exchanged with the king. Aware of her own injustices suffered and her own social ascension, the king's favorite also demanded that Zamor, her black page offered by Her Majesty, be considered equal to others, educated, baptized, respected. The fairy tale of emancipation before its time ends when the king dies. Ironically, born poor, the insolent revolutionary who crossed all classes and exploded the etiquette at court, will be guillotined in 1793 by the revolutionaries for having betrayed her class of origin.

► Read also: Opening of the Cannes Film Festival: ambitions and contradictions of a world in images and movement

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