Cannes director defends festival after Adèle Haenel slams French film industry’s #MeToo response

By JAKE COYLE
AP Film Writer

CANNES, France (AP) — After one of France’s top actors, Adèle Haenel, announced she was quitting a French film industry that she denounced for “complacency toward sexual aggressors,” Cannes Film Festival chief Thierry Fremaux rejected her criticisms Monday. Haenel, star of the 2019 Cannes entry “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” last week published an open letter in the Telerama magazine in which the 34-year-old said Cannes and other pillars of the French film industry are “ready to do anything to defend their rapist chiefs.” Fremaux strongly disagreed while speaking to journalists before the festival kicks off Tuesday with the premiere of Maïwenn’s historical drama “Jeanne du Barry,” starring Johnny Depp.