Despite the controversies, Maïwenn and Johnny Depp managed to enthuse the Croisette. Jeanne du Barry, screened Tuesday evening 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 into poverty who invests her power of seduction in her social ascent, until becoming the king’s favorite courtesan.
From our special correspondent,
“ It’s grotesque ! » « No, it’s Versailles ! » is one of punch lines geniuses 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 in the crowds and selfies with her fans before walking hand in hand with Maïwenn in the Grand Théâtre Lumière to receive a moving seven-minute standing ovation from the very prestigious Cannes film world.
The incredible story of the last courtesan of King Louis XV
Jeanne du Barryprogrammed out of competition, tells the story of the last courtesan of King Louis XV, alter ego of 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 King Louis XV with subtlety, delicacy and impressive romantic melancholy, 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 having physically assaulted a journalist. Unjustifiable act in a serious democracy, but which seems, in the case of Maïwenn, to be tolerated by the medium of the cinema and the Festival of Cannes.
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 to support Ukraine, but concerning the cumbersome questions inside the cinematographic world, no speaking and no sign in the room or in front of the Palais des festivals spoiled the party. Nevertheless, Jeanne du Barry had all the ingredients to trigger a little scandal of which the Croisette has the secret.
Lots of applause, no controversy
Has the #MeToo movement observed 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 her way to liberation ? Until today, everything suggests that this would be a poor excuse.
Despite all these debates, the general delegate of the Cannes Film Festival persisted and signed so that Jeanne du Barry opens the 76th edition of the largest cinematographic event in the world. And once the result is seen on the big screen, we know why. It’s great cinema, demanding, inventive and popular at the same time. The biopic of the last courtesan of King Louis XV sheds light on an unknown page in the history of France and turns out to be of a stunning news.
The French school of the gaze
Practically all the scenes of the king and the court in the Hall of Mirrors and at the Palace of Versailles refer to imaginaries whose structures continue to exist in a deep 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 18th century, but with a contemporary and feminine point of view. Maïwenn takes pleasure in shooting vibrant and majestic sequence shots on film to compare the life of a courtesan at the court of Louis XV with her own experiences when she began to penetrate the world of film at a very young age. in Paris. The disturbing beauty of Versailles, which hides the cruelty of the court, is transformed into a parable. The camera often dances between a close vision and a distant 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 increasingly detect the omnipresence of a hierarchical, vertical, one-way system. A caste-classified society 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 from it, to widen 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, of her hair, of doing the ‘love.
” Girls of nothing are ready for anything »
Thanks to her crazy energy, her irresistible charm and her precocious awareness of being able to manipulate men with her feminine assets, she gradually changes her social situation. Little Jeanne, the illegitimate daughter of a seamstress and a monk, will be “sold” and often change the house and the master, until arriving at the Count of Barry who uses her as a lover and a prostitute to bail out his coffers. . When the opportunity arises to “offer” this exciting young woman to the king, Jeanne’s fate is sealed. She will be one of those girls from nothing who are ready for anything to avoid being mistreated and humiliated by everyone.
And Jeanne is not limited to simply occupying her new position. She imposes her thought and her values on the king and the court. Where every word and every gesture is controlled, even repressed, she expresses her deep desires to the king, exploding etiquette: she wears pants, abandons the wig, lets down her hair, not to mention the publicly exchanged caresses with the king. . Aware of her own injustices suffered and her own social rise, the king’s favorite also demands that Zamor, her black page offered by His Majesty, be considered equal to others, educated, baptized, respected. The fairy tale of early emancipation ends when the king dies. Ironically, born poor, the insolent revolutionary who crossed all classes and blew up the etiquette at court, was guillotined in 1793 by the revolutionaries for having betrayed his class of origin.
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