Cannes Film Festival has announced Johnny Depp’s new film “Jeanne Du Barry” as the opening feature for this year’s edition.
“Jeanne Du Barry”’s world premiere will take place on Tuesday 16 May and will be released in cinemas the same day in France, the festival announced on Wednesday, 5 April.
Directed by and starring French filmmaker Maïwenn, the French-language film tells the story of King Louis XV‘s mistress Jeanne Vaubernier.
Maïwenn will play the eponymous lead in the period drama, with Depp, in his first feature film role in three years, playing her king in the French-speaking role.
The supporting cast includes Benjamin Lavernhe, Melvil Poupaud, Pierre Richard, Pascal Greggory and India Hair.
In the film’s synopsis, Vaubernier is described as “a young working-class woman hungry for culture and pleasure, who uses her intelligence and allure to climb the rungs of the social ladder one by one”.
“She becomes the favourite of King Louis XV who, unaware of her status as courtesan, regains through her his appetite for life. They fall madly in love. Against all propriety and etiquette, Jeanne moves to Versailles, where her arrival scandalises the court,” it reads.
