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The shame": a collective of actresses and actors, including Julie Gayet and Laure Calamy, criticizes Tuesday the Cannes Film Festival, which rolls out "the red carpet to men and women who attack", in reference to Johnny Depp and director Maïwenn. In a forum published by the daily Libération on Tuesday, on the morning of the opening of the Cannes Film Festival, this collective also supports the actress Adèle Haenel, who had formalized a week ago her stop from the cinema to denounce a "complacency" of the 7th art vis-à-vis sexual aggressors.
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We are deeply indignant and refuse to remain silent in the face of the political positions displayed by the Festival de Cannes, explain the signatories of the tribune. By rolling out the red carpet for men and women who assault, the festival sends the message that in our country we can continue to practice violence with impunity, that violence is acceptable in places of creation.
»The signatories believe that "French cinema has integrated a dysfunctional system that crushes and annihilates", a "system based on the principles of domination and silenciation". "When we have the courage to speak up or ask for help, we are too often told: Shut up please, for the life of the film. It even happens that producers are ready to buy our silence, "they denounce again.
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'SHAME'
Supporting the decision of Adèle Haenel, who had made a sensational exit at the César ceremony three years ago to oppose the coronation of Roman Polanski, caught up by old accusations of rape, the signatories deplore "the fact that this environment is toxic to the point of wanting to leave it completely".
Among the signatories are the actress Ophélie Bau, one of the stars of the sulphurous Mektoub, My Love: Intermezzo by Abdellatif Kechiche, believing that her contract had not been respected concerning the use of a scene of unsimulated oral sex between Roméo de Lacour and her. The 76th edition of the world's largest film festival is marked by the return of Johnny Depp in the opening film Jeanne du Barry, after he was removed from Hollywood sets in recent years following accusations of domestic violence by his ex-girlfriend Amber Heard. The film's director, Maïwenn, is herself facing a legal complaint, after recently assaulting Mediapart boss Edwy Plenel in a restaurant.
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For its part, the CGT criticized the Festival's choice to select Catherine Corsini's film, The Return, after suspicions of harassment and irregularities concerning an explicitly sexual but simulated scene, involving an actress under 16. Making this choice shows that "moral, sexist and sexual violence are not a subject for the Cannes Film Festival. Those who denounce them have no voice in the chapter of sacrosanct creation, "insists a statement.
The CGT gave its support to the technicians and actors who "dared to tell the production of the filming conditions" and "unacceptable behavior of (the) director", hailing their "courage despite intimidation".