International Insider: #MeToo In France; UK Unions; Israel Long Read
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Good afternoon Insiders, Max Goldbart here in a week that has had a distinctly ‘back to school’ feel to it. We’ve certainly been busy. Read on for the biggest stories of the week and sign up here.
Has #MeToo Finally Arrived in France?
Watershed: The past week has felt like a watershed moment for the #MeToo movement in France. The country’s film industry has been at the forefront of efforts to foster gender parity thanks to pioneering activist group Le Collectif 50/50 and initiatives such as the festival charter, along with extra state funding for movies hiring women for key crew positions. However, a culture of silence around allegations of sexual abuse by big figures such as Roman Polanski and Gérard Depardieu has long been a source of debate and consternation in and outside of the country. There are signs that a major shift is underway following a bombshell documentary detailing historic accusations of sexually inappropriate and sexist behavior by acting titan Depardieu. He has been under media scrutiny in the wake of an official complaint of rape against him in 2018 by actress Charlotte Arnould and an in-depth report by investigative website Mediapart in April 2023, which detailed 13 accusations of sexual assault. For the first time, figures from the cinema world such as Sophie Marceau, Anouk Grinberg and Ariane Labeb have talked publicly about Depardieu’s conduct.
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Godrèche talks: Others have also felt emboldened to speak out about other #MeToo moments such as actress Judith Godrèche, who this week condemned the relationship she openly had with director Benoît Jacquot in the late 1980s, which she claims began when she was only 14 years old and he was 40. (Jacquot claims she was 15, the minimum age of consent in France.) Catching the momentum, feminist groups took to the streets across France on Thursday evening to protest President Emmanuel Macron’s recent defense of Depardieu. Some 400 people gathered in Paris waving banners bearing slogans such as “The Omertà Is Over”. Speaking to a TV crew at the Paris demo, actress and model Anna Mouglalis said: “Something’s happening here. It’s a cultural revolution… this growing consciousness and new discourse, which is not that of those who dominate.” Notably, Macron’s former Culture Minister Abdul Malak, who had previously suggested Depardieu should be stripped of his Legion Of Honor in light of sexual assault accusations, was replaced this week by a controversial pick, Rachida Dati, a former spokesperson for centre-right President Nicolas Sarkozy. Her appointment was rubberstamped by Macron’s new PM, Gabriel Attal the youngest ever to hold the post and the son of a film producer who worked with Almodóvar, Benigni and Bertolucci.
Liberation report: Liberation also reported this week on how French actor and filmmaker Samuel Theis was forced to complete the shoot of his third feature remotely over the summer after being accused of rape on the fringes of a party by a young crew member who says he was too drunk to consent. Producer Caroline Bonmarchand said it was a way to keep the production afloat as an in-house investigation into the incident was carried out. Theis denies the allegation. The press reported that a preliminary investigation is underway.
State Of The Union (Again)
Pact vs. Equity: Just when you thought you’d had enough of hearing about unions, get ready to hear a little bit more. The SAG-AFTRA action may feel oh so very 2023 but in the UK this year actors union Equity is preparing to negotiate with producer trade body Pact on a new set of deals for TV and film, and it could get nasty/interesting (delete where appropriate). Having spoken to both sides, I put together a primer, outlining the key talking and potential sticking points while questioning how hands on the streamers may be. In the UK, the streamers strike so-called ‘side letter’ deals with Equity, effectively taking Pact’s deals and adding a small premium, which means they save time by eschewing separate negotiations. The threat of strike action looms large and Equity General Secretary Paul Fleming outlined just how any action could occur. “Can we take industrial action? Yes,” he told me. “Will it look like America? Certainly not.” Dive deeper, and discover an age when unions in the UK had serious muscle and turned ITV black for three months. Jesse is currently investigating similar happenings in Canada, so do stay tuned.
‘Our Boys’
Making sense of Israel-Hamas: There are lots of great long reads on deadline.com this week but if you are going to read one then read this. On October 9, two days after the massacre in the south of Israel which has led to the bloody conflict between Israel and Hamas-led Palestinian militant groups, Oscar-nominated Jewish writer-director Joseph Cedar called his Palestinian friend, fellow writer-director Tawfik Abu Wael, who both created HBO smash Our Boys. Expertly curated by Diana Lodderhose, you can click here for a lengthy account of their conversation, as they talked through their new reality in sometimes disturbing detail and posited ways out of the mess. I was struck by so much of it, but especially the way in which these intelligent people discussed how ancient prejudices are being shaped by such a modern conflict. “These days, I can’t help but feel that antisemitism is a virus living dormant in every non-Jew, that emerges at a moment of moral crisis,” said Joseph, phrasing things oh so more eloquently than I ever could. Do not miss this.
Korean Actors Band Together
United in support: Some of Korea’s biggest actors banded together this week to call for an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the tragic death of Parasite star Lee Sun-kyun, while trying to ensure a repeat never occurs. Overnight European time, the likes of star director Bong Joon-ho assembled for an extraordinary press conference, during which they again tried to lean on authorities to take action and for the police to themselves be investigated. Lee died tragically in an apparent suicide last month at the age of 48. At the time, he was under investigation for alleged drug use at the home of a hostess working at a high-end bar in Seoul’s Gangnam district. News agency Yonhap reported that Lee had been questioned multiple times by authorities, including for 19 hours the weekend prior to his death, and the actor had said he was tricked into taking drugs. “We demand clear truth regarding whether it was legally right for the police to release the late actor’s police appearance schedules to the press,” Bong said, pressing that he wants to prevent a “second or third victim” following Lee’s death. Bong, other filmmakers and a group of South Korean arts and culture organizations had urged an investigation via an open letter the day before the presser. The eventuality is such a rare one in a local South Korean industry that usually attracts a very different type of attention, having punched above its weight in TV and film for decades. It is a simply devastating story.
More Than Just The Post Office
“The whole country is angry now”: Television matters. Since ITV’s devastating retelling of the hundreds of British sub-postmasters falsely convicted due to a faulty computer system, the scandal has bedecked front pages, radio bulletins and websites, dominating the news agenda. Mr Bates vs the Post Office, a mundane-sounding story about a creaky British institution, has also become the most-watched UK TV show of the year so far. Quite simply, it has struck the biggest societal nerve it could find. As Insider goes to press, the UK government is working on fast-tracking a law that would see the hundreds of yet-to-be-compensated postmasters speedily given money they are owed after more than a decade of neglect, while the former Post Office CEO is now likely handing her CBE back following a petition that garnered more than one million signatures. “The whole country is angry now,” said the show’s producer Patrick Spence, who has known campaign organizer Alan Bates for years and first shopped the show to ITV, while writer Gwyneth Hughes posited that it has “tapped into” frustrations with the “politics of the moment.” Rarely in years gone by has a TV show had such an impact on a news cycle, and it might be a little while before we see another. In today’s cannibalized landscape, where local drama is nigh-on impossible to fund while hours and hours of TV programs jostle for attention, Mr Bates vs the Post Office is a timely reminder of the power of television.
The Essentials
🌶️ Hot One: Wonka scribe Simon Farnaby’s adaptation of Enid Blyton’s The Magic Faraway Tree is nearing production, with new financiers and creatives aboard.
🌶️ A second: Sony Pictures set sequels to German box office hit The Three Investigators – Legacy of the Dragon. Nancy with this one.
🌶️ At least as hot: A skater who spent 19 years in prison for second-degree murder is having his story adapted into a feature by MindRiot, per Zac.
🌊 Breaking Baz: Oppenheimer‘s Christopher Nolan and Cillian Murphy talk music and Anatomy of a Fall.
💸 Cash: Sony wrote down the value of Peter Rabbit maker Silvergate by $50M, per Jake, who also revealed The Crown maker Left Bank’s generous bonus scheme. Stop it Jake!
🚪 Exiting: Up to 200 staff from Channel 4, which is making its biggest round of layoffs for 15 years. Here, have some analysis.
⛺ Festivals: The Göteborg Film Festival unveiled competition titles. Head Jonas Holmberg spoke to Zac.
↔️ Rebrand: Germany’s Gebrueder Beetz Filmproduktion is no more, but the Beetz Brothers are here to stay.
🪑 New chair: At the BFI, in the form of Apple TV+ Europe boss Jay Hunt.
🍿 Box Office: Wonka well on way to $500M global.
🌎 Global Breakout: Click to read about the biggest Japanese TV series you’ve never heard of.
🖼️ Trailer: For Karmma Calling, Disney+ Hotstar’s remake of ABC’s Revenge. Here, have an interview.
Melanie Goodfellow contributed to this week’s Insider
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