Deauville (AFP)
The Deauville American Film Festival, chaired by Catherine Deneuve, opens Friday with a preview of the new Woody Allen, deprived of theaters in the United States after accusations of sexual abuse against the director, and a tribute to the ex-007 Pierce Brosnan, before the coming of Johnny Depp.
With Elle Fanning headlined "A rainy day in New York" (released in France on September 18) "is a very tonic film, very funny.Woody Allen finds his verve.It is a hunted cross in love that could have written Marivaux, "festival director Bruno Barde said at a press conference in Deauville in August.
This preview, however, has reacted feminists in the United States, especially since the festival has, like the Venice Film Festival in early September, also scheduled "American Skin", the new film of the American director of "The Birth of a Nation ", Nate Parker, acquitted in 2011 of the rape of a student.
Both films are presented out of competition in Deauville, without their directors.
"First Woody Allen and now Nate Parker, just the summer of the attackers, do not agree," tweeted Melissa Silverstein, the founder of the Women and Hollywood advocacy group.
"We must make the difference between the filmmaker and the person," thinks instead Catherine Deneuve interviewed by AFP late August in Paris on the projection of the new Woody Allen in Deauville where she will preside over the competition.
"Feminists still have eyelids," said the actress who took a position against the current trend #Metoo early 2018, signing with a hundred women a platform defending "a freedom to annoy."
The US theatrical release of "A Rainy Day in New York" was canceled by Amazon when Woody Allen's adoptive daughter renewed in 2018, in the thick of the #MeToo wave, charges of sexual assault with against the filmmaker from 1992.
But the film is released in Poland and is expected in other European countries.
"He's going out in France and it's very good, it's a very big film," added Bruno Barde, questioned by AFP about Amazon's decision.
Woody Allen has always categorically denied the charges of Dylan Farrow, who claims he abused her in 1992 when she was seven years old. The young woman is supported by her adoptive mother Mia Farrow and her brother Ronan.
Prosecutions against the filmmaker had been dropped after two separate investigations lasting several months.
- "A women's festival" -
Bruno Barde intends to propose for this 45th edition "a feminine festival", with 11 of the 36 new programmed films made by women, and themes around their "fights".
The headliners are certainly men: Pierce Brosnan, expected Friday and Saturday, and Johnny Depp, Sunday. But the actresses will be many on the boards.
Sophie Turner, the Sansa Stark of "Game of thrones", is announced on Saturday. Among the 60 films offered to the 60,000 festival-goers, Deauville has programmed on the big screen the entirety of the popular fantasy saga, "a world first", according to Mr. Barde.
Tuesday actress Geena Davis ("Thelma and Louise") will present "Everything can change, and if women counted in Hollywood", documentary she produced. And Friday comedian Kristen Stewart ("Twilight") will talk about "Seberg" Benedict Andrews where she plays Jean Seberg.
Catherine Deneuve's jury will announce her laureates on Saturday, September 15th.
Among the 14 films in competition (including six signed by women and nine first films) clash including "The Lighthouse", the black and white history of two lighthouse keepers, Robert Eggers and Robert Pattinson, "Port autority "by Danielle Lessovitz," a troubling film where the identity of the body is not necessarily the truth "(released September 25 in France), according to Bruno Barde; "The Climb", by Michael Angelo Covino, "a very funny comedy about a friendship between two men". These last two films were part of the selection Un Certain Regard in Cannes.
© 2019 AFP