The Cannes red carpet springs to life again Tuesday as the 76th Cannes Film Festival gets underway with the premiere of the Louis XV period drama “Jeanne du Barry”, with Johnny Depp.

This year’s festival promises a Cote d’Azur buffet of spectacle, scandal, and cinema set to be served over the next 12 days. It’s unspooling against the backdrop of labor unrest. Protests that have roiled France in recent months over changes to its pension system are planned to run during the festival, albeit at a distance from the festival’s main hub.

Meanwhile, an ongoing strike by screenwriters in Hollywood could have unpredictable effects on the French Riviera festival.

But with a festival lined with some much-anticipated big-budget films, including James Mangold’s “Indiana Jones and the Dial of the Destiny” and Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon”, the party is sure to go on, regardless. Stars set to hit Cannes’ red carpet in the next week and a half include Natalie Portman, Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, Sean Penn, Alicia Vikander, the Weeknd, and Scarlett Johansson.

The festivities on Tuesday will include an opening ceremony where Michael Douglas is to receive an honorary Palme d’Or. (Later, one will also be dished out to “Indiana Jones” star Harrison Ford). The jury that will decide the festival’s top prize, the Palme d’Or, will also be introduced.

This year, the jury is led by Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund, a two-time Palme winner who last year won for the social satire “The Triangle of Sadness”. The rest of the jury includes Brie Larson, Paul Dano, French director Julia Ducournau, Argentine filmmaker Damián Szifron, Afghan director Atiq Rahimi, French actor Denis Ménochet, Moroccan filmmaker Maryam Tourzani and Zambian-Welsh director Rungano Nyoni.

The opening night selection has attracted some controversy. “Jeanne du Barry”, directed by and co-starring the French actor-director Maïwenn, co-stars Depp as Louis XV. It’s Depp’s first new film since his trial last year with Amber Heard, his ex-wife. After both Depp and Heard accused each other of physical and verbal abuse, a civil jury awarded Depp $10 million in damages and $2 million to Heard.

In remarks to the press on Monday, Cannes director Thierry Fremaux defended the choice, saying Depp is extraordinary in the film and he paid no attention to the trial.

Fremaux said:

“To tell you the truth, in my life, I only have one rule, it’s the freedom of thinking, the freedom of speech, and the freedom to act within a legal framework. If Johnny Depp had been banned from acting in a film, or the film was banned we wouldn’t be here talking about it”.
Thierry Fremaux

Cannes director defends festival after Adèle Haenel slams French film industry’s #MeToo response

After one of France’s top actors, Adèle Haenel announced she was quitting a French film industry that she denounced for “complacency toward sexual aggressors”, Cannes Film Festival chief Thierry Fremaux rejected her criticisms while addressing members of the media on Monday.

Haenel, star of the 2019 Cannes entry “Portrait of a Lady on Fire”, last week published an open letter in the Telerama magazine in which the 34-year-old said Cannes and other pillars of the French film industry are “ready to do anything to defend their rapist chiefs”.

Fremaux strongly disagreed while speaking to journalists before the festival kicks off today with the premiere of Maïwenn’s.

Fremaux said:

“No doubt for somewhat radical reasons, she had to make this comment about Cannes, which was obviously false”.
Thierry Fremaux

In 2019, Haenel accused French director Christophe Ruggia of sexually harassing her for years beginning from the age of 12.

Christophe Ruggia has denied it. Since then, Haenel has often vocally protested what she’s called an insufficient response to sexual abuse in French filmmaking.

At the César Awards in 2020, she walked out of the ceremony after Roman Polanski won best director.

In Fremaux’s remarks, he only specifically addressed Haenel’s criticism of Cannes. When she came to the festival with Celine Sciamma’s “Portrait of a Lady on Fire”.

Fremaux said to the gathered reporters:

“She didn’t think that when she came to Cannes unless she suffered from a crazy dissonance.

“The proof is that if you believed it, you would not be here, listening to me now, taking your accreditations and complaining about the press screenings for a festival of rapists”.
Thierry Fremaux