Jeanne du Barry, a film about the king's famous mistress,
will kick off the festival, which opens Tuesday and will run for two weeks in
the South of France. The film, which got some backing from streaming giant
Netflix, is directed by Maiwenn Le Besco, who also plays Madame du Barry, the
famous mistress of the 18th-century French king.
Cannes is among the world's most glamorous film festivals,
attracting movie stars, billionaires, industry executives, paparazzi, and fans
to the French Riviera to attend premieres and haggle for worldwide movie rights
at the concurrent film market.
Twenty-one films will compete this year to win the Palme
d'Or, the festival's highest award, with entries stretching from Brazil to
Senegal, and featuring directors including Wes Anderson, Wim Wenders and Ken
Loach. Screenings of films not in line for the top prize include Jeanne du
Barry as well as Walt Disney's upcoming Indiana Jones and Martin Scorsese's
Killers of the Flower Moon, produced by Apple.
Jeanne du Barry, to be released in French cinemas on
Tuesday, was produced by Paris-based Why Not Productions on a budget of EUR
20.6 million ($22.4 million) according to the cinefinance.info database. The
financing plan shows that Netflix paid EUR 3 million to stream the film. It is
due to be streamed on Netflix in France starting next year.
It's Depp's first cinema role since the live-streamed and
widely followed defamation trial last year pitted him against his ex-wife Amber
Heard, following accusations of domestic violence. The jury awarded Depp $10
million in compensatory damages, and
both sides dismissed their appeals in December to settle the dispute.
Early reviews of the film, which was partly shot in the
Versailles Palace, were mixed, describing it as a lavish period piece. A critic
from Le Figaro described Depp as “struggling to hide his American accent” in
the film. “He sometimes seems to wonder if he hasn't woken up in the middle of
a costume party in a New York club,” the reviewer wrote.
Depp was likely paid EUR 320,000 for acting in the film,
according to the film database, a fraction of what he made for starring in the
Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. The actor hasn't signed for a new Hollywood
project since the trial, but he recently renewed a deal to be the image of the
Dior perfume for a record $20 million according to Variety.
Le Besco said she asked Depp to play the part before the
trial and didn't hesitate to keep him for the role afterwards. She has previously
directed critically acclaimed films such as Polisse and Mon Roi, which both won
awards at Cannes.
During a press conference on Monday, the head of the
festival, Thierry Frémaux, said he was only interested in Depp as an actor,
whom he found “extraordinary” in the part. Depp's next cinema project will see
him direct and co-produce Modi, a biopic of Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani
starring Al Pacino to be shot this fall in Budapest, according to Deadline.
A spokesperson for Depp declined to comment further on the
role.
This year, the film festival could be disrupted by protests
over a pension reform passed by Emmanuel Macron's government, with one of the
leading unions in the country threatening to cut the electricity to interrupt
the festival. © Bloomberg
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