The 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival will take place from Tuesday May 14 to Saturday May 25. What should be the great celebration of cinema could, however, have a very bitter flavor. Rumor has it that there are ten names of actors, directors and producers who could be caught up in the #MeToo storm.
This could be revealed during the festival. Enough to give a cold sweat to the organizers of the event but also to the entire world of cinema, explains Le Figaro in an imposing file devoted to the subject.
“I think we have taken a big step backwards compared to the #metoo movement”
The time has come “reinforced vigilance” on the side of Iris Knobloch, the president of the festival, indicates the daily. A crisis communications agency was contacted just in case. If necessary, the targeted personalities may not be authorized to appear on the famous steps.
A film could even be canceled if it is in competition and if the accusations were serious, we read.
The list in question has been circulating for a while now via SMS and emails to those who finance cinema. It is therefore the entire world of the 7th art which is in its little shoes with this sword of Damocles which hangs above its head. Because one accusation is sometimes enough to derail ongoing projects that have sometimes taken years to put together. Or negotiations for future commitments. With the collateral consequences that we imagine for those who have nothing to reproach themselves for but are involved in the projects in question.
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Other clarification provided by Le Figaro : the names contained in this supposed list would be those of people in their thirties and forties. In other words, contemporaries of the MeToo generation and not older personalities like Gérard Depardieu, Jacques Doillon, Benoît Jacquot, all of whom, let us remember, deny the accusations made against them.
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An interlocutor interviewed by Le Figaro however moderates the risks. Presented as one of the most powerful agents in French cinema, Grégory Weill specifies that to his knowledge, “no complaints have been filed”.
A lawyer involved in the sector goes further, still in the pages of the newspaper, recalling that “a few years ago, a list of producers was circulated, again just before Cannes. She went pschitt…”
