Johnny Depp returns as King Louis XV in this bland drama: BRIAN VINER reviews Jeanne Du Barry

Jeanne Du Barry (116 mins)

Judgement:

Hollywood loves a comeback story – and so does the Cannes Film Festival.

Johnny Depp was quite overwhelmed by the lavish ovation that followed Tuesday night’s opening film of the festival, the French-speaking Jeanne Du Barry.

In his first appearance since the protracted legal battle with his ex-wife Amber Heard, Depp plays King Louis XV, whose mistress Madame du Barry is played by the film’s director, French actress Maiwenn.

BRIAN VINER: ‘Overall it’s a run-of-the-mill affair, about an affair that was anything but’

Given the scandal Louis caused by installing the lowborn Jeanne at Versailles, and indeed the recent scandals involving the names of not only Depp but also Maiwenn (who has been charged with assault), the film itself is disappointingly dull.

The costumes and sets are fantastic, but it’s a run-of-the-mill biopic that offers no real insight into what it was about Louis’ favorite courtesan that turned him on.

Depp is fine, if curiously subdued, and sounds fairly French (at least to my ear) in the few lines he utters.

The photo pokes fun at the silly rituals of the French court and turns Louis’s disapproving daughters into ugly sister caricatures worthy of a Christmas panto.

But overall it’s a run-of-the-mill affair, about an affair that was anything but.

I was also at the premiere of Steve McQueen’s monumental documentary Occupied City (★★★★★), which tells the story, describing life in modern Amsterdam during the first months of the pandemic, of what happened there 80 years ago during the German occupation.

It’s a tour de force that lasts a whopping four hours and 22 minutes, and I can’t do it remotely here, so I’ll take a closer look at it another time.