Ahead of its release in France on July 12, Catherine Corsini’s Cannes Competition title Homecoming (Le Retour) is once again the centre of a media storm, this time involving the film’s distributor Le Pacte, state film body the CNC and local press.
The CNC sent a rare statement to journalists on Thursday (June 28) hitting back at what they call a “misleading and defamatory” press release sent from Jean Labadie, president and founder of the film’s French distributor Le Pacte, which accused local press of a “media omerta” following the film’s pre-Cannes controversy.
The CNC said that Labadie’s letter is “marred by various errors, both factual and of interpretation, which are the sole responsibility of the author and do not call for any particular comment on the part of the CNC.”
Coming-of-age drama Homecoming came close to not being selected for Cannes’ competition after anonymous letters detailed on-set unrest and accusations of harassment, with French newspaper Liberation publishing an April story detailing the tensions. However, the Cannes selection committee concluded that none of the accusations were sufficiently well-founded.
Labadie’s letter took aim at the “media sphere”, which he accuses of having disseminated such “unfounded, unfair and defamatory” rumours, “without any serious and contradictory investigation”, thus tarnishing the film’s image before its release on July 12.
Labadie writes: “The ensuing controversy has led to the film’s invisibility, even though its release is only 15 days away. Despite generally positive reactions to the film by an established and recognised filmmaker, we can see that the film is in danger of being given little or no editorial space. The fear of being associated with a scandal would supposedly justify restraint or even refusal of partnerships”. He adds that “media omerta” is designed to, he says, punish the film a second time ahead of its release.
Labadie also blames the CNC for suggesting that a sexual scene involving a minor be cut, after production added it to the script without getting approval from the government-backed Commission des Enfants du Spectacle due to a change in scheduling. He called it “the biggest financial penalty ever imposed on a film by the CNC” that “helped to fuel fantasies [in the media] about the unauthorised scene”. The scene did end up getting cut from the final version of the film.
The CNC said that it “wishes to denounce in the strongest possible terms” that it suggested cutting the scene, though it did pull its funding from the film.
French press hit back
French outlet Médiapart, which published rape accusations against recently exonerated filmmaker Luc Besson, is conducting an investigation into the alleged unrest on the Homecoming set and plans to publish it to coincide with the film’s release mid-July.
Liberation’s deputy editor-in-chief Didier Peron also hit back with his own article on Thursday responding to Labadie’s letter titled: “Catherine Corsini’s “Homecoming” off to a bad start: the press is a convenient scapegoat.”
Péron defended his outlet’s original article detailing the harassment accusations, and said that Labadie’s statement used the media as “a smokescreen for anything and everything in the name of the need to support a sector in pain and lacking an audience.”
Le Pacte notably released Maiwenn’s Cannes opener Jeanne du Barry on May 16. Despite drawing media attention for both Johnny Depp’s return to the big screen and the director’s attack on a journalist ahead of the festival, it performed well at the French box office with nearly 752,000 tickets sold to date
Corsini speaks out
In an interview to Mediapart quoted in Labadie’s letter, Corsini said that “The general atmosphere on the set was good,” but admitted that “conflicts on a shoot happen - it’s not serious and it shouldn’t become so.”
She added: “I’m lively and intense, and sometimes I get carried away. Shooting is a constant pressure.” She also admitted: “I can be erratic, that’s true. It used to be accepted. Today, it’s not, and I understand that” and “nowadays, this somewhat brusque side of my character can destabilise or intimidate younger people. I’m thinking about it. I’d like many of us to question ourselves.”
Producer Elisabeth Pérez added: “This shoot didn’t elude any rules. Things were done by the book.”
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