A Standing Ovation For Johnny Depp At The Cannes

Johnny Depp, the actor who was involved in abuse allegations in a highly-publicised trial this time last year, received a thunderous applause in response to the screening of his French film Jeanne du Barry – termed as his ‘comeback movie’ – at the 76th Cannes Film Festival.

The hypocrisy seems clear. Depp who was wearing a black suit can be seen holding back tears and embracing his co-star, the French filmmaker Maïwenn. The audience rose to give him a standing ovation that lasted for approximately seven minutes, as media reports claimed.

But what seemed to be missing amidst the standing ovation and the loud cheers at the festival, was that evidence had emerged against both the people during the trial. Several legal experts have since then have pointed out that the dynamic between Depp and Amber Heard was one of "mutual abuse". In fact, compelling evidence that both of them acted violently towards each-other was also found, experts say. And it wasn’t certainly clear either that Heard was the primary aggressor.

The film was filmed in 2022 around the same time as the highly-publicised trial in which the jury ruled in favor of Depp on all three of his counts, finding that Amber Heard had not only made false and defamatory statements, but that she had done so with "actual malice" — a higher threshold for cases involving public figures.

At the press conference for the film at Cannes, Depp talked about “abstract whispers” and said that “the majority of what you have been reading the last four or five years…with regard to me and my life, what you’ve read is fantastically, horrifically written fiction.”

If one looks at the history of people who have walked the red carpet at Cannes, they can see that the festival has come under the radar several times for inviting men accused of misconduct – Roman Polanski, Woody Allen, and Harvey Weinstein (to name a few).

Taking a similar stance, over 120 actors published a letter ahead of the festival denouncing the culture of impunity towards sexual aggressors in the world of cinema. They expressed their "refusal to stay silent" and their indignation towards the political decisions of the Cannes Film Festival.

"By rolling out the red carpet to men and women who commit assaults, the Festival demonstrates that violence in the creative environment can go unpunished," the actors wrote in the French newspaper Libération.

The internet was largely in favour of Depp. Some said it was because he is the bigger star of the two. Some people also saw the case as his domestic abuse battle.

Outlook has earlier looked at how this popular perception, taken by Depp’s fan clubs and supported by armies of online bots, that Depp could do absolutely no wrong, was clearly problematic and points to some une­asy fault lines in our societies.

Outlook has also looked at how the complex role of power in the legal process was largely overlooked in the trial. In fact, legal experts say that sexual harassment of women is deep-rooted and can’t be eradicated only through the legal route.

In light of this controversy resurfacing again, we revisit some stories from the issue ‘Still I Rise’.