Cannes Will Premiere Judith Godrèche’s ‘Sadly Universal’ #MeToo Short Film at Un Certain Regard Opening Ceremony

Kate Erbland
·3 min read
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This February, French actress and filmmaker Judith Godrèche helped ignite a new spark in her country’s #MeToo reckoning. Early in the month, the lauded star filed two different rape complaints against a pair of French directors: first, against Benoît Jacquot, for “predation” and “violent rape of a minor under 15 years old committed by a person in authority” (via Variety), the second, against Jacques Doillon, alleging he raped her twice when she was 15 and starring in his “La fille de 15 ans” (via Variety).

By February 22, Variety reported on the rising reckoning, partially due to Godrèche’s new allegations, noting that “France’s major producers guilds (API, SPI, and UPC) have also issued a statement demanding the National Film Board (CNC) and the Minister of Culture to put specific guidelines in place.” And, one day later, Godrèche appeared at France’s Césars ceremony to deliver a speech (which you can read in full, right here) to encourage people, particularly those inside the entertainment industry, to speak out against sexual abuse.

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And one month after that, Godrèche began work on a short film entitled “Moi aussi (Me too),” which will now premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival as part of the festival’s Official Selection 2024. The short will be screened at the Un Certain Regard opening ceremony in the Salle Debussy of the Palais des Festivals and at the Cinéma de la Plage, with free admission, on May 15. It’s hard to imagine a more fitting — or a larger — stage for Godrèche’s latest.

The festival bills the short as a project “which highlights the stories of victims of sexual violence. These individual experiences add to her own, underscoring their sadly universal nature. The Festival de Cannes thus wishes to give resonance to these personal accounts.”

Per an official announcement from the festival today, “Cinema looks at the world, and sometimes, calls it out. Through gestures or silences, words, or glances. Three months ago, the resounding call for action and collective responsibility in the fight against persistent sexual abuse in French cinema was striking in its strength and courage, its clarity and assurance. And it went far beyond the boundaries of the Seventh Art to question the whole of society, which is struggling to open its eyes. Exactly one month after this salutary speech, on March 23, 2024, Judith Godrèche took up the two means of expression she knows best — writing and film — and brought together women and men who had shared their traumatic experiences with her.”

The film reportedly took shape after Godrèche took to Instagram to issue a call for other victims to share their stories. Godrèche shared in an official statement, “Suddenly, before me was a crowd of victims, a reality that also represented France, so many stories from all social backgrounds and generations. Then the question was, what I was going to do with them? What do you do when you’re overwhelmed by what you hear, by the sheer volume of testimonies?”

Per Cannes, the filmmaker then set about “reconstructing an intimate audio and visual landscape, she created a film in the form of a choral piece, made up of personal accounts told in fragments and she staged this bitter but life-saving journey, from wordless pain to the beginning of liberation through words, with some 1,000 people. Music, dance, images and the world of imagination offer them a space as physical as it is symbolic: to be together, in the middle of the street, in broad daylight, and to occupy the city as a militant gesture.”

The Festival de Cannes, which runs from May 14 to 25, will present French actress, director, screenwriter and producer Judith Godrèche’s new short film, which highlights the stories of victims of sexual violence. These individual experiences add to her own, underscoring their sadly universal nature. The Festival de Cannes thus wishes to give resonance to these personal accounts.

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