Michael Douglas for the opening ceremony, Natalie Portman for the closing ceremony, Michelle Williams and James Gray celebrated with beach huts bearing their names… The 50th edition of the Deauville American Film Festival, from September 6 to 15, was supposed to be nothing but stars, parties and glitter. But on August 25, a few days before its official launch, Aude Hesbert, the director, announced in The Tribune Sunday that she removes Ibrahim Maalouf from the jury. The reason? “A malaise that has settled in the team” at the idea of welcoming the musician, accused in 2013 of sexual assault on a minor, acquitted by the Paris Court of Appeal in 2020.
Social media is ablaze. Some applaud the festival’s choice, regardless of the court decision, others regret it in the name of respect for the rule of law. Still others deplore Deauville’s about-face, which gives the impression that new evidence has emerged against Ibrahim Maalouf, when that is not the case. Finally, some suspect the organizers of wanting to appear irreproachable after having to dismiss Bruno Barde, the previous director, in June, accused of sexual assault and harassment by Mediapart. French cinema believed it had tackled the MeToo wave head on and methodically, but it is waking up to a new media storm in which reason has little place.
Since Adèle Haenel’s complaint against director Christophe Ruggia, the end 2019, after the revelations of Judith Godrèche against Benoît Jacquot or Jacques Doillon, after the accusations against Gérard Depardieu or Luc Besson, the industry understood that it could not continue to ignore the subject of sexual violence as it had done for too long. For four years, to obtain aid from the National Center for Cinema and the Animated Image (CNC), training has been mandatory for producers; it will also be mandatory, from December 1, 2024, for all film crews, non-participation being grounds for dismissal. Listening cells have been deployed, clauses have been added to contracts, in particular with American platforms, like Netflix. “We have a system that is unique in the world, there is no country that has taken so many measures to regulate sexist and sexual violence and we did it very quickly. In less than two months, in 2020, we set up the first compulsory module and 6,200 people have followed it since then,” claims Olivier Henrard, interim president of the CNC.
The weight of rumor
So how can we explain that the 7th art is torn apart by the Ibrahim Maalouf and Deauville case? How can we understand that on the eve of the Cannes Film Festival, last May, panic was spreading over a rumor, relayed by an account with a sulphurous reputation, according to which a dozen French actors, among the best known, were the subject of a Mediapart investigation for sexual assaults? That specialized communication agencies were mandated to put out the fire, that Mediapart was forced to deny it? That we tremble for the two biggest French productions of the year, The Count of Monte Cristo And Love phew, who have some of the actors mentioned in their credits and whose failure could destabilize the entire industry?
The profession knows that regulating current practices is not enough to exhaust the past and that no one is, even indirectly, safe from an uncontrollable media explosion linked to yesterday’s behavior. Cases where it is necessary to decide urgently, under the pressure of young generations eager to set an example, sometimes to excess, under that of financial imperatives which push for increased caution.
The answers are imperfect, everyone is aware of that. There is no training, no rule of law, no doctrine to guide. Everyone finds themselves facing their responsibilities. It often doesn’t matter who is right, who is wrong, who is guilty and who is not, morality and financial risks become the criteria on which careers are played out, the future of a film is decided. Should a man accused of violence be included in a team without there being a formal complaint? And if the justice system is involved, should the presumption of innocence prevail? After an acquittal or if the person in question has served the sentence decided by the courts, should we ad vitam eternam blacklist her? Conversely, isn’t making her work denying the victims’ voice? The questions go round and round.
“I admit, I was not comfortable”
And, depending on the age of the individuals, their convictions, the answer varies. At the risk of discomfort. What to do when, on a shoot, a team refuses to work with a technician who was implicated on a previous shoot but without there being a formal report or complaint filed? “It was terrible, we asked the person to leave the film. I admit, I was not comfortable, but how else can you do when a team tells you ‘we don’t want him’?” admits a manager who nevertheless defends the idea that justice must be a social norm.
Against a backdrop of significant financial stakes, fear prevails. “Today, it’s not even the rumor that scares people, but the fear of the rumor,” regrets a producer. Frequently, when launching a project, they receive phone calls to alert them to the rumor that is circulating about this or that person. A quick investigation, and if the suspicion is not completely dispelled, they are much more likely than before to act on the precautionary principle. “As soon as someone is suspected of anything, it becomes very difficult to gather funding. People do not act out of conviction or moral argument but because they are afraid that a controversy will arise,” confirms a producer.
Reputation, a major fear for actors
And if they don’t do it themselves, the broadcasters (TV channels or platforms), who are essential to completing a project, act as a short circuit. On films with budgets ranging from 4 to 15 million euros for the biggest, no one can afford an interruption. The CNC has set up an insurance offer to compensate for filming stoppages in the event of a report of sexual violence, but it only covers five days at a cost of 500,000 euros, the time to conduct an investigation and in no case the “reputational” losses linked to poor sales of the film or the need to shoot new scenes to “erase” a character. The system, too restrictive, has never been activated and is in the process of being reviewed.
The fears that are paralyzing the industry are in fact focused today on demonetization linked to a tarnished reputation. Here again, with criteria with vague outlines. Some avoid events so as not to risk a photo in the company of an actor or director suspected of bad behavior, others refuse to speak on the subject so as not to expose themselves to a bad controversy. When Aude Hesbert, in Deauville, says that she cannot afford a misstep under the eye of “American stars who are particularly vigilant on the subject”, she says nothing else. On the contrary, Cannes and Venice have chosen a middle path. During the 2023 edition, Thierry Frémeaux had invited Johnny Depp, accused of violence against his ex-wife Amber Head, but headliner of the Jeanne du Barry by Maïwenn. This year, he invited Judith Godrèche. Last year, Venice had selected the films of Luc Besson, Roman Polanski and Woody Allen. No star, Anglo-Saxon or not, had made it known that they would not come. Morality is sometimes variable geometry. You don’t snub the Croisette or the Mostra with impunity.
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