We know what such rumors can cost films or their directors. Abdellatif Kéchiche since The Life of Adele or Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi after The Almond Trees, know something about it. After the attacks including his last film The return been the subject for several weeks, Catherine Corsini had kept a low profile. The fact that the Cannes Film Festival announces that The return will appear in competition, after the verifications requested by the board of directors, prompted Catherine Corsini and her producer Elisabeth Perez, to step up. The film will be exhibited, you might as well discover yourself and counter-attack. Which they did in a press release.
“Let’s stop the fantasies there! »
Objective: to defuse suspicions of harassment and irregularities concerning an explicitly sexual scene (masturbation) but simulated, involving an actress under 16 years old. “Let’s stop the fantasies there! The teenagers were dressed and the scene is filmed on the faces. There was no touching or inappropriate contact between them, underline Catherine Corsini and Elisabeth Perez. The only irregularity that they claim to have recognized very early on is “an administrative breach”: the scene, which ran the risk of not being kept in the final cut, was not declared and therefore could not be covered by the Commission des enfants du spectacle. It is this lack of declaration that deprived the film of financial aid of 680,000 euros from the National Cinema Center, out of its total budget of 4.7 million euros.
Esther Gohourou, who was 15 and a half years old during filming, joined the press release from the film’s production. The young actress declares that she wants to “end this story” by specifying that she has refused, like her 17-year-old partner, doubles and an intimacy coach offered by the filmmaker. “We knew what we were going to have to shoot, that we would only see the faces and that we wouldn’t have to touch each other in real life. And that’s what happened. Some people called the high school social worker to say things that had nothing to do with what happened, ”she concludes. “Harold (the other young comedian) is fine and I’m fine. »
“Against all forms of violence and harassment”
Other questions, suspicions of harassment on the set reported by The Parisian And Telerama. “Anonymous and defamatory emails were sent to the entire profession and to the press, contributing to create an extraordinarily damaging rumor for the film. It is fortunate that the biggest festival in the world has taken the time to thoroughly verify its veracity”, declare Catherine Corsini and her producer. “There is no complaint filed of any kind (…). We have always been committed against all forms of violence and harassment on set, we do not minimize them, we have been involved from the first meetings of the 50/50. Two reports for allegedly inappropriate gestures involving two film technicians gave rise to internal investigations, transmitted to the CCHSCT, which Elisabeth Perez, as head of CHAZ Productions, conducted with the film harassment referent. The CCHSCT was able to observe its good form,” underlines Catherine Corsini in her press release.
Denis Podalydès, who plays one of the characters in the film, deplores the amalgams. “How to put on the same plane an accident that occurred on the morning of a night of filming, the problem of an intimate scene between two teenagers which was not covered by the commission for children in entertainment, the attitude of a stuntman experienced and interpreted as indecent and the claims of part of the team. The addition of these facts, in reality heterogeneous, suggests that the person responsible is Catherine, whose tyranny, dryness of heart, cynicism would be manifest and proven. What nonsense. Catherine is the opposite of such a portrait. (…) I do not defend it for clan reasons or because we share interests. I am simply revolted by the incredible malevolence which suddenly descends on her. And that this press release, a few days before the start of the Cannes Film Festival, tries as much as possible to mitigate.