JEANNE DU BARRY Updates

Discuss the latest Johnny Depp news, his career, past and future projects, and other related issues.
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Unread post by SnoopyDances » Tue May 16, 2023 8:44 pm


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Unread post by SnoopyDances » Tue May 16, 2023 8:46 pm


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Unread post by SnoopyDances » Tue May 16, 2023 8:47 pm


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Unread post by In-too-Depp » Wed May 17, 2023 2:17 am

Thanks Snoopy, Johnny looked wonderful, got a rapturous reception from the fans and looks like the critics are enjoying it too. :cloud9:
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Unread post by In-too-Depp » Wed May 17, 2023 6:07 am

As Stephen Deuters mentioned, it was actually 7 minutes but who are we to nitpick? :grin:

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Unread post by In-too-Depp » Wed May 17, 2023 8:45 am



Jeanne du Barry, Cannes review: Johnny Depp comeback film is surprisingly great

Independent.co.uk
Article by Geoffrey Macnab
17th May 2023

This year’s opening film in Cannes has been so engulfed in scandal that few had hope it’d be any good. Its writer-director-star Maiwenn first caused consternation by choosing Johnny Depp to play Louis XV, in what would be his first acting role since his hugely acrimonious divorce from Amber Heard – she famously accused him of domestic violence. Then, not long before the festival started, Maiwenn admitted that she had spat in the face of a journalist. He has since filed a complaint against her for assault. Many have asked: what on earth is Cannes doing?

Against the odds, Jeanne du Barry has turned out to be a subtle and well-crafted costume drama with plenty of satirical bite. It has more in common with Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon than it does Pirates of the Caribbean, with Depp giving one of his more restrained and effective performances as the king who falls in love with a courtesan. His Louis is a taciturn, melancholy but commanding figure with a dark side.

Jeanne du Barry (played by Maiwenn) is a young woman from a very humble background who, partly through chance and partly through her own enterprise, ends up at the Palace of Versailles. She is abominably treated by many of the men she encounters but has enough wit and humour to get ahead all the same. The screenplay, co-written by Maiwenn, lays bare the absurdity and chauvinism of court life. After the king takes a shine to her, Jeanne is forced to undergo a humiliating gynecological examination before a doctor pronounces her “worthy of the royal bed”.

As a director, Maiwenn pays exhaustive attention to costume and production design. There are none of the anachronisms that were found in Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette (2006), which also played in Cannes, but there is the same obsessive interest in how characters dress and, in particular, wear their hair. The film also makes very inventive use of its Versailles locations, from its hall of mirrors to the many cavernous reception rooms where the overdressed aristocrats perform their bizarre rituals. Depp’s Louis XV is first seen at a distance, marching in a blue frock coat toward the assembled dignitaries. This is a very hierarchical world, in which every look, gesture and word has hidden meaning. Everybody is plotting against everybody else. It’s regarded as bad form to show emotion.

In its latter stages, the plot stutters a little. Although the French Revolution is only a few years away and many of the protagonists shown here are destined for the guillotine, court life is remarkably uneventful. There’s a constant jostling for power and influence – and that’s about it. The only real dramatic tension comes as Jeanne waits to see if the young and air-headed Marie Antoinette will deign to talk to her and thereby demonstrate that she is not a pariah.

Jeanne is the one character who gives in to spontaneous emotion. Everyone else is too bound by convention or self-interest to reveal their true feelings. As a love story, the film is therefore on the lukewarm side. The king and the courtesan have a deep affection for one another but don’t show much passion. The greater richness here lies in the film’s mordant humour and often monstrous characters.

What Jeanne du Barry will do for Depp’s faltering reputation remains to be seen, but he gives a solid enough performance. This time, at least, the Cannes doom-mongers were wrong.
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Unread post by Jack's Wench » Wed May 17, 2023 2:31 pm

Thank you ItD and Snoopy :bouquet:

I saw an interview earlier and Johnny was saying that he has heard the word 'comeback' banded about quite a lot which puzzles him as he's not gone anywhere :lol:
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Unread post by In-too-Depp » Thu May 18, 2023 3:37 am



Johnny Depp: Critics lukewarm to comeback film Jeanne du Barry

BBC News
Article by Nicholas Rutherford

US film star Johnny Depp has returned to the international stage for the first time in three years, appearing on the red carpet at the opening night of the Cannes Film Festival.

He signed autographs and took selfies with fans before the premiere of Jeanne du Barry, in which he plays Louis XV alongside actress and director Maïween.

It is Depp's first major role since a series of high-profile court battles with his ex-wife Amber Heard.

The film received a standing ovation.

Depp reportedly became emotional at the response but critics have been more lukewarm in their assessment of the movie.

The French-language film tells the story of a woman - played by Maïween - born into poverty who becomes the French king's final mistress.

But the decision to invite Depp to the festival has been controversial, leading to the hashtag #CannesYouNot trending on social media.

He was dropped from the Fantastic Beasts franchise three years ago after losing a libel case with a newspaper which called him a wife beater.

Last year he won a defamation case against Heard after she called herself a victim of abuse in the Washington Post.

On Monday festival director Thierry Fremaux said he was not interested in Depp's legal woes, adding: "I am interested in Depp the actor."

Speaking at a press conference to promote the film, Depp told journalists: "I don't feel boycotted by Hollywood. I don't think about Hollywood. I don't need Hollywood."

Steve Pond, of The Wrap said the first night of Cannes saw a battle "between a movie and a lot of stuff that didn't have much to do with the movie".

"And the movie, Jeanne du Barry, just wasn't strong enough to put up much of a fight."

Perhaps the film needed that controversy to be noticed, he suggested. It is a "a movie that just isn't potent enough to grab any headlines on its own," he said.

An opulent period drama, the film - which was also written and directed by lead actor Maïween - was shot at the Palace of Versailles with some costumes designed and created by Chanel.

However, despite being "sumptuously made... with jaw-dropping costumes", it is also "kind of bland", according to Jordan Mintzer of The Hollywood Reporter.

"Even the casting - some would say stunt casting - of Johnny Depp as the king offers a few early thrills and then mostly yawns, with Depp dishing out what feels like a total of a dozen lines in respectable French, while otherwise remaining mute.

"His performance isn't bad, and neither is Maïwenn's in the lead role. But the two of them, like the movie, rarely get our pulse racing."

Damon Wise of Deadline also noted that Depp's role is "suspiciously light on dialogue" but bewailed the lack of passion on screen.

"If Maïwenn's heroine really did sleep her way to the top and go to an early grave branded 'sin incarnate', then Jeanne du Barry must surely be the PG version," he wrote.

Awarding it three stars, The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw praised the "watchability" of the film and "spectacular casting" of Depp.

"But Louis and Jeanne are not entirely credible as a love story, perhaps because of the cynicism in which they are both complicit and perhaps because the performances are a little opaque," he continued.

"It's an entertaining spectacle, only partly aware of its own vanity."

Variety's Peter Debruge said the decision to cast Depp felt "apt, for there must be a palpable power differential between Louis and his latest infatuation".

"For his part, Depp delivers his lines in well-turned French, wearing fine powder and a stiff white wig, and yet he seems strangely uncomfortable in the role - adequate but not especially engaged," he added.

"Depp's the kind of player who delivers practically every performance with a wink, so it's odd that even when his Louis is actually supposed to be winking (at Jeanne), the sparkle isn't there. That curious lack of complicity saps the chemistry we crave between the two leads.

However, Rafaela Sales Ross of the Playlist described Depp as "very American, very misplaced" in the film where his French accent is "almost as distracting as his distorted make-up".

"If it wasn't for the highly-publicised scandals that envelop Jeanne du Barry, it is likely the film would make a swift turn from the red carpet into ostracism, and while the hubbub certainly delays the process, it will do little to prevent Maïwenn's dire latest from the merciless hands of oblivion," she added.

There was more sympathy from Kevin Maher in the Times who said Maïwenn coaxed an "impressively controlled performance" from Depp - but the movie is not really about him anyway.

"It's very occasionally too tasteful for is own good," he added. "But it's also mature and grounded, and represents probably the best recovery vehicle that Depp is going to get."

And Nicholas Barber, of BBC Culture, concluded: "The combination of Depp and Maïween may have seemed like a dangerous one, but on this occasion they're playing it safe."
And Wit, was his vain frivolous pretence
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Unread post by In-too-Depp » Thu May 18, 2023 5:24 am

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Unread post by In-too-Depp » Thu May 18, 2023 3:44 pm



Johnny Depp: Don't judge me over abuse case

BBC News
Article by Paul Glynn
18th May 2023

Johnny Depp has said he will not let the high-profile legal battles with his ex-wife Amber Heard define him, and asked people not to judge him over it.

Last year a US jury found that Heard had defamed the Pirates of the Caribbean star in an article in which she called herself a victim of abuse.

It came after a UK court ruled that an earlier article, which described him as a wife beater, was accurate.

Depp spoke to the BBC as he appeared at the Cannes Film Festival.

His role as Louis XV in the French language film Jeanne du Barry, which opened the prestigious French film festival, is widely seen as his big comeback.

It is his first major role since losing his part in the Fantastic Beasts franchise, following a High Court libel trial over a Sun newspaper article which claimed he had assaulted Heard.

He lost the case, with a judge finding that the newspaper article was "substantially true".

Interviewed by Tom Brook of BBC's Talking Movies, Depp said: "Comeback is a weird thing because... I didn't go anywhere.

"People may have made sure that I was not looked at favourably - powerful press, powerful media, for whatever reasons."

Conflicting accounts of Depp and Heard's five year relationship were heard during the two court cases, with both accusing the other of misbehaviour and violence.

Depp strongly denied his ex-wife's claims that he had subjected her to emotional, physical and sexual abuse.

After losing the defamation case in 2022 over an article she wrote for the Washington Post, Heard said she has lost faith in the US justice system.

Depp told the BBC people should look at their own family members before they judge him.

"I suggest before people start pointing fingers and making judgement on others that they have no idea about, I would say, everybody, take one day off of work, stay at home, start your investigation of everyone in your family," he added.

"Start with your father. Look way back. Dad always been just a wonderful guy, has he? Your uncles, look at your brothers. Look around you first before you start passing judgement on someone that you have no idea what that person has been through, who they are."

At the height of his courtroom battles with his ex-wife, the future of Depp's movie career appeared to be in jeopardy.

But before the premiere of his latest film at Cannes on Tuesday, he was met by large numbers of fans for whom he signed autographs and took selfies.

Jeanne du Barry tells the story of a woman - played by director Maïwenn - born into poverty who becomes the French king's final mistress.

The film received a standing ovation but critics have been more lukewarm in their assessment, with some stating he looked uncomfortable in the role.

His presence at Cannes and the inclusion of his new film has been criticised by supporters of Heard, leading to the hashtag #CannesYouNot on social media.

However festival director Thierry Fremaux has strongly defended his choice to include the film and many have welcomed Depp's return.

Asked about being a controversial figure, Depp said he had been considered controversial throughout his career.

"I was probably more far more controversial many years ago than anything now," he added. "But things go in whatever direction they go, more than anything all the weirdness has been cleared up, so it's done.

"I'm certainly not gonna allow this thing to define anything that I've done before, anything that I'm doing now or what I'm going to do - it doesn't exist for me."

A jury found that Heard defamed Depp in a Washington Post article, following a six week trial in the US state of Virginia last summer.

Jurors awarded him $15m (£12m) in compensation and punitive damages.

The Aquaman actress settled the defamation suit for $1m (£820,000) but said it was "not an act of concession".

"Even if my US appeal is successful, the best outcome would be a retrial," she said. "I simply cannot go through that."
And Wit, was his vain frivolous pretence
Of pleasing others, at his own expense

Rochester ,"Satyr" on Man

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Unread post by AdeleAgain » Thu May 18, 2023 4:24 pm

The usual suspects media are being catty as always but don't let that take the shine off things - just a fabulous couple of days and just wonderful that Mads and Johnny hugged - I loved that. Clearly it was not coincidental they were sitting close together. Don't let me hope for JD to complete the Grindewald story - I am still not over my disappointment on that franchise, but ever since the US verdict I can at least what JD in the role. Anyway - I digress - also wonderful that Helen Mirren swiftly rectified any nonsense. Dior has made such a thing of this - fabulous outfits but the suit and look for the press conference were absolute standouts - he looked wonderful.

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Unread post by hollyberry » Thu May 18, 2023 5:00 pm

Bravo Maiwenn for both casting Johnny and ignoring the morons. :loveshower: