Johnny Depp's comeback film Jeanne du Barry is surprisingly great – review – The Independent
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This 12 months’s opening movie in Cannes has been so engulfed in scandal that few had hope it’d be any good. Its writer-director-star Maiwenn first brought about consternation by selecting Johnny Depp to play Louis XV, in what can be his first performing position since his massively acrimonious divorce from Amber Heard – she famously accused him of home violence. Then, not lengthy earlier than the competition began, Maiwenn admitted that she had spat within the face of a journalist. He has since filed a grievance in opposition to her for assault. Many have requested: what on earth is Cannes doing?
Towards the chances, Jeanne du Barry has turned out to be a delicate and well-crafted costume drama with loads of satirical chew. It has extra in frequent with Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon than it does Pirates of the Caribbean, with Depp giving one in every of his extra restrained and efficient performances because the king who falls in love with a courtesan. His Louis is a taciturn, melancholy however commanding determine with a darkish facet.
Jeanne du Barry (performed by Maiwenn) is a younger girl from a really humble background who, partly by way of probability and partly by way of her personal enterprise, finally ends up on the Palace of Versailles. She is abominably handled by most of the males she encounters however has sufficient wit and humour to get forward all the identical. The screenplay, co-written by Maiwenn, lays naked the absurdity and chauvinism of court docket life. After the king takes a shine to her, Jeanne is compelled to bear a humiliating gynecological examination earlier than a health care provider pronounces her “worthy of the royal mattress”.
As a director, Maiwenn pays exhaustive consideration to costume and manufacturing design. There are not one of the anachronisms that had been present in Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette (2006), which additionally performed in Cannes, however there is similar obsessive curiosity in how characters costume and, specifically, put on their hair. The movie additionally makes very creative use of its Versailles areas, from its corridor of mirrors to the various cavernous reception rooms the place the overdressed aristocrats carry out their weird rituals. Depp’s Louis XV is first seen at a distance, marching in a blue frock coat towards the assembled dignitaries. It is a very hierarchical world, during which each look, gesture and phrase has hidden which means. Everyone is plotting in opposition to all people else. It’s considered dangerous type to point out emotion.
In its latter phases, the plot stutters just a little. Though the French Revolution is just a few years away and most of the protagonists proven listed here are destined for the guillotine, court docket life is remarkably uneventful. There’s a continuing jostling for energy and affect – and that’s about it. The one actual dramatic stress comes as Jeanne waits to see if the younger and air-headed Marie Antoinette will deign to speak to her and thereby show that she isn’t a pariah.
Jeanne is the one character who offers in to spontaneous emotion. Everybody else is simply too sure by conference or self-interest to disclose their true emotions. As a love story, the movie is subsequently on the lukewarm facet. The king and the courtesan have a deep affection for each other however don’t present a lot ardour. The larger richness right here lies within the movie’s mordant humour and infrequently monstrous characters.
What Jeanne du Barry will do for Depp’s faltering repute stays to be seen, however he offers a stable sufficient efficiency. This time, at the least, the Cannes doom-mongers had been mistaken.
Dir: Maiwenn. Starring: Maiwenn, Johnny Depp, Melvil Poupaud, Pierre Richard. 116 minutes
‘Jeanne du Barry’ is awaiting a UK launch
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