Bar Crobar

Best film, best director, best actor: "Oppenheimer" triumphs at the Oscars

The predicted landslide did indeed occur: "Oppenheimer" won the Oscar for Best Picture on Sunday, along with six other statuettes, on a night that also saw Yorgos Lanthimos' "Poor Creatures" rewarded handsomely. As for the French film "Anatomie d'une chute", it walked away with the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

Buoyed by rave reviews and an impeccable cast, Christopher Nolan's portrait of the father of the atomic bomb dominated the evening. "I can't emphasise enough the incredible team we've assembled for this film", said the director, taking advantage of his award for Best Director to thank all the actors.

Cillian Murphy, masterful as Robert Oppenheimer, a nuclear genius full of contradictions and doubts, won the Oscar for Best Actor. "For better or for worse, we live in the world of Oppenheimer" and the atomic bomb, observed the Irishman. "So I'd really like to dedicate this award to peacemakers around the world.

Robert Downey Jr, his on-screen antagonist, who plays a conservative bureaucrat orchestrating the public humiliation of the scientist, won the Best Supporting Actor award.

The film's accolade was complemented by other technical statuettes - editing, cinematography, soundtrack - in keeping with its reputation as a popular masterpiece since its theatrical release this summer.

Robert Downey Jr, his on-screen antagonist, who plays a conservative bureaucrat orchestrating the public humiliation of the scientist, won the Best Supporting Actor award.

A whole world. [RTS] — Oppenheimer seen from Japan / A whole world / 20 mins / yesterday at 08:10

Emma Stone, a triumphant "poor creature

Actress Emma Stone was the other big winner of the evening. After "La La Land" in 2017, she picked up her second Best Actress Oscar for "Poor Creatures". This baroque tale by Yorgos Lanthimos won a total of four statuettes, praised in particular for its retro-futuristic aesthetic.

Emma Stone plays Bella Baxter, a suicidal woman brought back to life by a mad scientist who implants the brain of the baby she was carrying inside her. She delivers a joyously regressive performance as a creature who discovers sex and a thousand other pleasures in life without shame or prejudice.

This role was "the gift of a lifetime", the actress reacted, thanking her director and expressing her admiration for all her competitors. This category was the tightest: Lily Gladstone, remarkable as a Native American woman poisoned by her husband in Martin Scorsese's "Killers of the Flower Moon", went home empty-handed.

"Anatomie d'une chute" settles for a second-place finish

The French film Anatomie d'une chute was unable to prevent this predicted triumph. A legal thriller about the downfall of a dysfunctional artistic couple, in which an ambiguous writer played by Sandra Hüller finds herself accused of murdering her husband, it had to make do with just one Oscar out of the five categories in which it was nominated, for Best Original Screenplay.

"It will help me get through my mid-life crisis," joked an emotional French filmmaker Justine Triet, who worked alongside Nolan and Martin Scorsese on the film. "It's been a crazy year," she huffed, alongside her partner Arthur Harari, with whom she co-wrote the script. Winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes, Anatomy of a Fall won two Golden Globes and a Bafta - the equivalent of the British Césars.

His work is the best example of French cinema abroad since "Amour", which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 2013, and "The Artist", which won five statuettes in 2012.

Hayao Miyazaki, 21 years after "Chihiro".

The British film "The Zone of Interest" won the Oscar for Best International Film for its chronicle of the carefree life of a Nazi family just outside Auschwitz. Director Jonathan Glazer took the opportunity to send a message of peace to the Middle East, which is currently being undermined by Israel's war in Gaza.

"Our film shows how dehumanisation leads to the worst", said the Jewish film-maker, adding that the Israelis who died on 7 October in the Hamas attack and the 31,000 Palestinians who died are "all victims of this dehumanisation" (see also the box).

Among the other major awards, Da'Vine Joy Randolph ("Winter Break") was voted Best Supporting Actress. "The Boy and the Heron", by Japanese master Hayao Miyazaki, won the Oscar for Best Animated Film, his second, 21 years after "Chihiro's Journey".

Text by RTS .ch afp/vic

"Deadpool 3" becomes the most viewed trailer in 24 hours

The third instalment, starring Ryan Reynolds, will be in cinemas from 26 July.

Released on Sunday during the Super Bowl final, the trailer for "Deadpool 3" has become the most viewed trailer in the world in the space of 24 hours, with 365 million views, according to Disney.

This third instalment dethroned "Spider-Man: No Way Home", which generated 355.5 million views in one day in 2021. It is worth noting that this year's Super Bowl attracted a record audience of 123.7 million viewers.

In this film, which has been awaited for six years, the hero played by Ryan Reynolds teams up this time with Wolverine (Hugh Jackman). The latter, who has not appeared in the cinema since the release of "Logan" seven years ago, is briefly shown in the sequence. The film will be in cinemas from 26 July.

Text by Le Matin .ch F.D.A

Death of Carl Weathers

Actor Carl Weathers, famous for playing Apollo Creed in "Rocky" alongside Sylvester Stallone, and Colonel Al Dillon in "Predator" with Arnold Schwarzenegger, died on Thursday 2 February at the age of 76.
His family said in a statement that he had died peacefully in his sleep.
Younger fans will know him for his role as Greef Karga in "The Mandalorian".

Jean Dujardin to be Zorro for France Télévisions

The French actor will play the horseman who emerges from the night.

Jean Dujardin will don the mask of Zorro in a series for France Télévisions. Benjamin Charbit ("Les Sauvages") will be writing the script, reports "Satellifacts".

The hero - and his alter ego Don Diego Vega, a wealthy 24-year-old nobleman from the village of Reina in Los Angeles - was created by novelist Johnston McCulley in 1919. It has inspired numerous TV series, films and even cartoons. Douglas Fairbanks, Antonio Banderas and Alain Delon have all worn the cape, flat hat and wolf in films. Guy Williams (Zorro and Don Diego "de la" Vega, in the 1957 cult series).

Disney+ and Amazon in the race

Jean Dujardin has already had the opportunity to play him on television. It was in an episode of the series "Platane" in 2013.

"Zorro" has been all the rage for several months now. A new version described as respectful of the codes but contemporary is being prepared for Amazon Prime, with Spaniard Miguel Bernardeau ("Elite") as Don Diego de la Vega and Mexican actress Renata Notni as Lolita Marquez. Disney+ has the same ambition, preparing a remake with Wilmer Valderrama ("That '70s Show", "NCIS") in the lead role. Éric Judor is reportedly still working on a series for Canal+, a project he first mooted almost ten years ago.

Text by lematin.ch L.F.

Titan submarine: Why the waters around the Titanic are still dangerous

In the autumn of 1911, a huge piece of ice broke off from a glacier to the south-west of Greenland's vast ice cap. Over the following months, it slowly drifted southwards, melting little by little as the sea currents and the wind blew it away.

Then, on the cold, moonless night of 14 April 1912, a 125-metre-long (410-foot) iceberg - all that remained of the 500-metre chunk of ice that had left a Greenland fjord the previous year - collided with the ocean liner RMS Titanic, which was making its maiden voyage from Southampton in the United Kingdom to New York in the United States. In less than three hours, the ship sank, taking more than 1,500 passengers and crew with her. The wreck now lies almost 3.8 km beneath the waves, almost 400 miles (640 km) south-east of the coast of Newfoundland.

Icebergs are always a hazard to shipping: in 2019, 1,515 icebergs drifted far enough south to enter the transatlantic shipping lanes between March and August. But Titanic's final resting place has its own dangers, which means that visits to the world's most famous wreck are a major challenge.

What can we expect after the deaths of the Titan submarine crew?
"It's a disaster. Everything has been washed away".
What are these mysterious stones found in rock 2.8 billion years old?

After the disappearance of a five-person submersible that was carrying paying passengers on an excursion to the wreck of the Titanic, the BBC has turned its attention to this region of the ocean floor.

Navigating the depths

The depths of the ocean are dark. Sunlight is absorbed very quickly by the water and cannot penetrate more than 1,000 metres from the surface. Beyond that, the ocean is plunged into perpetual darkness. This is why the Titanic is in a region known as the "midnight zone".

Previous expeditions to the wreck site described a descent of more than two hours in total darkness before the ocean floor suddenly appeared under the lights of the submersible.

With line of sight limited beyond the few metres illuminated by the onboard lights of the truck-sized submersible, navigation at this depth is a real challenge, and it's easy to become disorientated on the seabed.

5 myths that persist about the Titanic more than a century after it sank

However, the detailed maps of the Titanic wreck site, produced by decades of high-resolution scanning, can provide landmarks when objects are visible. Sonar also allows the crew to detect features and objects beyond the small area of light illuminated by the submersible.

Submersible pilots also rely on a technique known as inertial navigation, which uses a system of accelerometers and gyroscopes to track their position and orientation relative to a known starting point and speed. OceanGate's Titan submersible is equipped with a state-of-the-art autonomous inertial navigation system, which it combines with an acoustic sensor called a Doppler Velocity Log to estimate the vehicle's depth and speed relative to the seabed.

Despite this, passengers on previous Titanic voyages with OceanGate have described how difficult it is to find your way around once you reach the bottom of the ocean. Mike Reiss, a TV comedy writer who worked on The Simpsons and took part in an OceanGate voyage on the Titanic last year, told the BBC: "When you hit the bottom, you don't know where you are. We had to wriggle blindly along the bottom of the ocean knowing the Titanic was somewhere, but it's so dark that the biggest thing under the ocean was only 500 metres away from us and we spent ninety minutes looking for it."

Crushing depths

The deeper an object sinks into the ocean, the greater the pressure of the water around it. On the seabed, at a depth of 3,800 m, the Titanic and everything around it was subjected to pressures of around 40 MPa, or 390 times higher than at the surface.

"To put that into perspective, it's about 200 times the pressure of a car tyre," Robert Blasiak, an oceanography researcher at Stockholm University's Stockholm Resilience Centre, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme, "That's why you need a submersible with very thick walls." The Titan submersible's carbon fibre and titanium walls are designed to enable it to operate at a maximum depth of 4,000 metres.

Why is NASA exploring the depths of the Earth's oceans?

We are probably most familiar with the strong surface currents that can sweep boats and swimmers off their course, but there are also underwater currents deep in the ocean. Although they are generally not as powerful as those found at the surface, they can nonetheless move large quantities of water. They can be driven by surface winds that influence the water column below, by tides in deep waters or by differences in water density due to temperature and salinity, known as thermohaline currents. Rare events known as benthic storms - which are generally linked to eddies at the surface - can also cause powerful, sporadic currents that can carry material along the seabed.

The information we have on the underwater currents around the Titanic, which was divided into two main sections after the bow and stern separated during the sinking, comes from research into the shapes of the seabed and the movement of squid around the wreck.

Part of the wreck of the Titanic is known to lie close to a section of the seabed affected by a southward-flowing current of cold water known as the Western Boundary Undercurrent. The flow of this 'undercurrent' creates migratory dunes, ripples and ribbon-like patterns in the sediments and mud of the seafloor, which have enabled scientists to understand its force. Most of the formations observed on the seabed are associated with relatively weak or moderate currents.

The ripples of sand along the eastern edge of the Titanic's debris field - the scattering of personal effects, fittings, coal and parts of the ship itself that spilled out during the sinking - indicate the existence of an east-west undercurrent, while within the main wreck site, the scientists say, the currents tend from north-west to south-west, possibly due to the larger pieces of the wreck changing their direction.

To the south of the bow, the currents appear to be particularly changeable, flowing from north-east to north-west and south-west.

Many experts expect that the winnowing of these currents will eventually bury the wreck of the Titanic in the sediment.

Deep-sea marine archaeologist Gerhard Seiffert, who recently led an expedition to scan the wreck of the Titanic in high resolution, told the BBC that he did not think the currents in the area were strong enough to pose a risk to a submersible - provided it had electricity.

"I am not aware of any currents posing a threat to an operational deep-sea vehicle at the Titanic site," he said. "In the context of our mapping project, currents represented a challenge to the accuracy of the mapping, not a safety risk."

Sediment flows

After more than a hundred years at the bottom of the sea, the Titanic has gradually deteriorated. The initial impact of the two main sections of the ship colliding with the seabed twisted and deformed large parts of the wreck. Over time, microbes that feed on the ship's iron have formed icicle-shaped "hardnesses" and are accelerating the deterioration of the wreck. In fact, scientists estimate that the higher bacterial activity on the stern of the ship - largely due to the greater damage it has sustained - is causing it to deteriorate forty years faster than the bow.

The wreck is constantly collapsing, mainly due to corrosion," explains Mr Seiffert. Every year, a little bit. But as long as you stay at a safe distance - no direct contact, no penetration through openings - no damage is to be feared."

Although extremely unlikely, sudden flows of sediment at the bottom of the sea have already damaged and even washed away man-made objects on the ocean floor.

The most significant events - such as the one that severed the transatlantic cables off Newfoundland in 1929 - are triggered by seismic phenomena such as earthquakes. There is a growing awareness of the risk posed by these events, although there is no evidence that an event of this type was involved in the disappearance of the Titan submarine.

Over the years, researchers have identified signs that the seabed around the wreck of the Titanic was affected by huge submarine landslides in the distant past. Huge volumes of sediment appear to have slid down the continental slope from Newfoundland to create what scientists call an "instability corridor". They estimate that the last of these 'destructive' events occurred tens of thousands of years ago, creating layers of sediment up to 100 metres thick. But these events are extremely rare, explains David Piper, a marine geology researcher at the Geological Survey of Canada, who spent many years studying the seabed around the Titanic. He compares these events to the eruption of Vesuvius or Mount Fuji in terms of frequency - on the order of once every tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of years.

Other phenomena known as turbidity currents - where water becomes loaded with sediment and flows along the continental slope - are more frequent and can be triggered by storms. "We show a repetition interval of around five hundred years," explains Piper. But the topography of the seabed in the area should direct the sediment flows towards a feature known as the 'Titanic Valley', which would mean that they would not reach the wreck at all.

How will the next "supercontinent" be formed?

According to Seiffert and Piper, it is unlikely that such an event could have played a role in the disappearance of the Titan submersible.

Other geological features around the wreck site have yet to be explored. During a previous expedition to the Titanic with OceanGate, Paul-Henry Nargeolet, a former French Navy diver and submersible pilot, visited a mysterious anomaly that he had detected with sonar in 1996. It turned out to be a rocky reef, covered in marine animals. He was hoping to visit another landmark that he had detected near the wreck of the Titanic on previous expeditions.

As the search continues for the missing ship, there are few clues as to what may have happened to the Titan and her crew. But in such a harsh and inhospitable environment, the risks involved in visiting the wreck of the Titanic are as relevant today as they were in 1986, when the first people to set eyes on the ship since it sank embarked on the journey to the depths.

Text by Richard Gray / BBC Future

One year after the slap in the face at the Oscars, Chris Rock's scathing response to Will Smith

The comedian, who was punched live by the actor in the middle of the Oscars ceremony after making a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith, returned to the episode with some anger in a show broadcast on Netflix

A year after being slapped by Will Smith in front of a worldwide audience, American comedian Chris Rock hit back on Saturday, unleashing his punches in a stand-up routine broadcast on the Netflix platform.

In March 2022, the American actor took to the stage at the Oscars and hit out at the comedian who had just mocked the very short haircut of his wife, actress Jada Pinkett Smith, who suffers from alopecia. A few minutes later, Will Smith received the Oscar for Best Actor for his role in King Richard. He later apologised to Chris Rock, but was banned from the Oscars for a decade.

The comedian refused to press charges and has remained virtually silent about the incident ever since. But on stage in Baltimore on Saturday, he came out swinging, accusing the Hollywood star of "selective indignation", and claiming that he had attacked a man shorter than himself because he was upset that his wife had cheated on him.

"Will Smith practices selective outrage," Chris Rock said during the show, which was broadcast live on Netflix. The comedian added that Will Smith was widely mocked after an episode of his wife's podcast in which the couple talked about her affair and how it affected him.

"It still hurts

"Why would you do that?" asked Chris Rock. "Everyone called her a slut. They called his wife a predator. Everybody called him a slut," he said, noting that he tried to offer his support after news of the affair became public.

"People (ask me), 'Does it hurt? It still hurts," he said, referring to the slap he received. "Will Smith is definitely bigger than me. Will Smith played Mohamed Ali in a film. Do you think I auditioned for that?" he quipped.

The comedian, who seemed angry at times during his performance, said that before the slap he had always liked Will Smith, first as a rapper and then as an actor. "He'd made some great films. I've supported Will Smith all my life." But now he says he sides with the slave master who beats up Will Smith's character in his latest film, Emancipation.

Text by Le Temps with AFP

"Mummy, I won an Oscar": Ke Huy Quan's incredible revenge

Awarded Best Supporting Actor for "Everything Everywhere All At Once", Ke Huy Quan, the child star of "Indiana Jones", had hardly made a film in 36 years.

Some revenges are more savoury than others. That of actor Ke Huy Quan, Oscar winner for Best Supporting Actor - it was his first nomination - at the age of 51, surpasses all others at this incredible 95th ceremony. For there were many thwarted destinies in Hollywood who finally received recognition during the evening. Like Brendan Fraser, a former leading man who was blacklisted following health problems and a sexual assault, who won the Best Actor statuette for his performance as a hyper-obese man in "The Whale".

He too was nominated for the first time, as were two of the actresses in the feature film that won the evening's seven statuettes, including Best Film, "Everything Everywhere All At Once": Michelle Yeoh and Jamie Lee Curtis. The former, at the age of 60, walked away with the Oscar for Best Actress, after a long and magnificent career previously ignored by the Academy. At 64, the daughter of Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh won the Best Supporting Actress award, again thanks to this crazy film.

But the man who has followed the most tortuous path in life - both personally and professionally - is Ke Huy Quan. As he tearfully recalled on stage at the Oscars: "My journey began on a boat". Born in Saigon in 1971, the young Vietnamese fled his country in precarious conditions with his parents and other "boat people" when he was just 4 years old. Taking refuge in the United States with his family, he was spotted by Steven Spielberg in California, where he was attending school, when he was just 12. The filmmaker gave him the role, adored by the public, of Half Moon, opposite Harrison Ford in "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom", the huge success of 1984 that launched the now young actor.

"Mummy, I've won an Oscar!

The following year, he followed this up with another Spielberg production: "The Goonies". A few series followed... and that was about it. In the space of 36 years, Quan would only appear in five feature films, in minor roles, and three TV projects. Hollywood has forgotten him. But he wasn't about to give up film for all that. Armed with degrees in languages and cinema, he is also a specialist in taekwondo, a martial art to which he was introduced on the set of Indiana Jones. So, to earn a living, he became a behind-the-scenes actor, more precisely a stuntman and a stand-in, setting the highly choreographed scenes in action films thanks to his mastery of taekwondo on features such as "X-Men".

So he was almost surprised when the "Daniels", aka Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, the directors of "Everything Everywhere All At Once", asked him to play Michelle Yeoh's husband in the film. But they, who are such film buffs and pop culture aficionados, hadn't forgotten Half Moon. And they know that his martial arts skills will serve him well in the film's many action sequences. Since then, he and his new film 'family' have been living a daydream. In the space of a few months in 2022, the feature film that audiences have dubbed "EEAAO" has become the phenomenon that everyone in America is talking about. This has brought the team of Hollywood veterans even closer together, and two young filmmakers have been able to call on them.

It's easy to understand the emotion that gripped each of them in turn on the Oscar stage. Ke Huy Quan in particular. The boat-people child, who shouted "Mummy, I've won an Oscar", saw "EEAAO" announced as the winner of Best Film by Harrison Ford, the one-night winner, and Steven Spielberg, the unfortunate contender, was in the audience to witness Half Moon's belated triumph... A story that would make a fantastic screenplay, and one that Spielberg may already be thinking about...

Text by Le Parisien Renaud Baronian

Edward Norton discovers he is descended from Pocahontas

The "Fight Club" and "Glass Onion" actor was revealed on a programme that the Indian princess was his 12th-generation great-grandmother.

On Tuesday 3 January, host and historian Henry Louis Gates Jr revealed to Edward Norton that he was a direct descendant of the Indian princess Pocahontas. She is in fact his 12th great-grandmother.

The actor of "Fight Club" and recently "Glass Onion" knew that such a rumour existed in his family, explains CNN, but the historian told him that there were written traces of this lineage. He is therefore a direct descendant of Pocahontas and her husband, the colonist John Rolfe, whose marriage took place in Virginia in 1614. The couple had a son, Thomas Rolfe, in 1615, but Pocahontas died on her return from London in 1617, aged 22, probably of pneumonia or tuberculosis.

"It just makes you realise what a small... piece of the whole of human history you are," Norton remarked after the revelation.

The actor was less pleased to learn that his third great-grandfather owned slaves, including children. "It's uncomfortable to know that and there's a lot to be uncomfortable about. An 8-year-old child slave: you want to die reading that".

Cousin of Julia Roberts

Invited to the same evening, Julia Roberts also discovered that she had a slave-owning ancestor. And that she shared a DNA lineage with Edward Norton. "This means that you have inherited this shared DNA from a distant ancestor, somewhere at the heart of this family tree", explained the historian.

Text by Le matin.ch

Amber Heard vs Johnny Depp: a risk of backlash post #metoo?

Broadcast live on television, Johnny Depp's libel suit against Amber Heard unleashed a torrent of hate speech against the actress. Five years after #metoo, these reactions point to a backlash against victims who dare to speak out. Feminists and organisations fighting domestic violence are worried.

1 June 2022: the jurors in Fairfax District Court, near Washington, USA, deliver their verdict at the end of six weeks of legal wrangling between the defence of actress Amber Heard and the lawyers for her ex-husband, actor Johnny Depp. Both accused each other of violence and defamation.

Broadcast live on television and on the Internet, the trial turned into a grand unpacking of the couple's private life in full view of the general public. The extracts relayed on social networks gave rise to torrents of insults against Amber Heard and misogynistic messages that went viral, while Johnny Depp, who is 22 years older than his ex, benefited from a wave of "love". himpathy - a phenomenon that the Australian philosopher Kate Manne describes it as " the inappropriate and disproportionate sympathy shown to men of power in cases of sexual assault, domestic violence, homicide and other misogynistic behaviour".

Did the 36-year-old actress defame her ex-husband in her column published in 2018 in the Washington Postin which she presented herself as " a public figure embodying domestic violence" without explicitly mentioning Johnny Depp's name? That was the question the jury answered, finding her guilty of "defamation with actual malice" against Johnny Depp. Amber Heard was ordered to pay him $10 million, plus $5 million in damages. The jury also ordered Johnny Depp to pay $2 million in damages, considering that he had also defamed his ex-wife in the Daily Mail.

Settling scores

The legal and media war between the two ex-spouses dates back to 2016. Amber Heard filed for divorce, accused Johnny Depp of violence and obtained a restraining order - charges that were extinguished by a financial settlement. In 2020, the actor filed his first libel suit against the British newspaper The Sunwhich published comments made by Amber Heard accusing her of violence. The courts ruled that the actress' accusations were well-founded, even though Johnny Depp had also accused his ex-wife of violence. This was followed by an article by the young woman in the Washington Post leading up to the trial, which closes on 1 June.

On the one hand: Amber Heard presents evidence of bruises and scenes of violence, insults and threats, generally under the influence of alcohol, by Johnny Depp. On the other: the actor produced recordings of Amber Heard admitting to hitting him, and proof that she had already been arrested in 2009 for domestic violence against her ex, Tasya Van Ree. In the end, Johnny Depp claims that he accidentally headbutted Amber Heard while trying to stop her from attacking him. She justifies the violence she may have indulged in by describing it as self-defence.

Beyond the merciless settling of scores between the two parties of a toxic couple, the Fairfax trial, because it was delivered live to the public's vindictiveness, gave rise to a wave of hateful comments against Amber Heard, the woman who caused the scandal. And in turn against all victims of domestic violence who dare to speak out. Amber Heard put it this way when she expressed her disappointment at the verdict: " I am devastated that the mountain of evidence was not enough to stand up to the far greater power, influence and clout of my ex-husband.she said after the sentence was read out. I'm even more disappointed by what this verdict means for other women. It is a setback. It calls into question the idea that violence against women should be taken seriously." .

Toxic media coverage

Judge Penney Azcarate had decided to authorise the television broadcast of the hearings in this high-profile case, one of the most closely watched in the world, despite the opposition of Amber Heard's lawyers. It was " the worst court decision in decades for victims" says Michele Dauber, a law professor at Stanford University in California and campaigner against sexual assault on campus. A decision that reveals " a profound ignorance of sexual violence on the part of judges" .

Amber Heard had to " describing her alleged rape in graphic detail on television. It's shocking and should offend all women and victims, whether they agree with the verdict or not....", explains Michele Dauber. In fact, the trial has fascinated a global audience unaccustomed to watching allegations of sexual assault within a couple, since the last time a rape victim had to testify publicly was in 1983..

Whatever the opinions on the verdict, it's a problem: " I don't think our society yet understands the dynamics of domestic violence." Ruth Glenn, President of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV), told AFP. This context was not sufficiently explored during the court proceedings, she believes. For her, there is "no doubt" about the types of abuse that were revealed at the trial. " You have to make sure that the people present understand it. But until they do, don't show this sort of thing on television." .

Denigration, insults, mockery

"Every time Amber Heard has spoken out to detail the domestic violence of which she accuses Johnny Depp, her words, relayed on social networks, have immediately provoked mockery, sexist remarks and denigration, which have an undeniably disastrous effect on the objective of encouraging women to lodge complaints against violent spouses or public figures," writes women's rights activist Fatima-Ezzahra Benomar on Facebook. As is often the case in cases of sexist and sexual violence," she deplored, "the actress has been accused of acting when she cries, or on the contrary of not doing enough when she doesn't cry.... "

From now on " every victim will think twice before coming forward and applying for a restraining order or telling anyone about the abuse they have sufferedlaments teacher and activist Michele Dauber. Women are at risk of being injured or even killed because they did not call for help. This case is a complete disaster. It is potentially catastrophic" she concludes.

Misogyny in full force

The law professor also notes that public opinion was supportive of Johnny Depp, while his ex was the target of insults and jeers". openly misogynistic "on social networks. Amber Heard suffered " the metaphorical ordeal of tar and feathers" she asserted, while the ruling was welcomed by the American right. Her comments triggered an outcry of hate speech against Michele Dauber - slut, slag, criminal, shrew, etc. - to the point where one of her Twitter accounts was blocked.

Backlash after #metoo?

The media coverage of the Heard vs Depp affair raises the question of the future of the #MeToo movement, which since 2017 has encouraged women to denounce the perpetrators of sexual harassment and assault. Five years on, the irresistible tidal wave is marking time. " It's impossible not to see this as a backlash against #MeToo - women have gone too far. Ladies, we've listened to you and condemned a few men. Don't be too greedy" wrote one user on Reddit.

Others, like NCADV's Ruth Glenn, see it as a reminder of the work still to be done. For Tarana Burke, founder of #MeToo, "the movement is very much alive. It's the system that's corrupt". The instigator of #MeToo calls on us to focus on the courage of the millions of women who have denounced violence rather than on the legal battles, won or lost.

Tarana Burke's words are echoed by those of Anne-Cécile Mailfert, President of the Fondation des femmes en France, who reacted to the thousands, if not millions of insults from tiktokeurs who are making Amber Heard pay for having damaged the image of Johnny Depp, the "perfect male". For her, this backlash will not stop the movement, because "#metoo cannot be summed up in just one trial and is resonating around the world: there is no stopping it a movement whose time has come" .

Following the trial, Amber Heard's lawyer said that her client "absolutely cannot" pay the more than 10 million dollars in damages that she has been ordered to pay to her ex-husband. Believing that the actress had been "demonised" by the opposing party, she said she would appeal against the jury's decision.

Text by Terriennes Liliane Charrier

Johnny Depp in the court of public opinion

Unlike Amber Heard, the actor enjoys massive support, whether on social networks or outside the courtroom.

The defamation trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard comes to a close at Fairfax Magistrates' Court on Friday, and its outcome remains uncertain, but the "Pirate of the Caribbean" can count on widespread support in the street and on social networks.

The mutual accusations are heavy, however. Johnny Depp claims that his ex-wife ruined his reputation by claiming, in a column published in 2018, that he had been a victim of domestic violence two years earlier. He rejects these allegations and is claiming 50 million in damages.

Amber Heard, 36, has counter-attacked and is demanding double the amount, claiming she suffered years of violence, including a rape in 2015, and accusing her ex-husband of wanting to "ruin her career".

The public for Johnny

Every morning, several hundred people greet the actor outside the courthouse in this small Virginia town near Washington, compared to a handful of placards in favour of Amber Heard. On social networks, the advantage is also clearly in favour of the 58-year-old actor. Passions are running high on Twitter and TikTok, where with 15.3 billion "views" on Tuesday, the hashtag "Justice for Johnny Depp" far outstripped "I'm with Amber Heard" (8.4 million).

"Nothing surprises me about social networks and celebrities", and this case concerns "two major celebrities", Jason Mollica, professor of communications at American University, told AFP. According to Mollica, Johnny Depp is a world-famous actor who has always shunned the mundane and retained the "mysterious side" that fans love.

Amber Heard, on the other hand, is much less well known. Since the beginning of the trial, she has tried to appear "more normal and close to people", according to Mr Mollica, but her former assistant, Kate James, described her personality as "aggressive" and "theatrical".

Internet users "express their opinions without being experts in justice", says the former journalist. This trial has revealed "the flashiest sides of the case, but we may never get to the truth, buried in the muddy waters of social networks".

Hostility towards Amber

Hostility towards Amber Heard, the civil rights organisation ACLU's domestic violence ambassador, has a long history. The actress' career "was on the verge of a meteoric rise" after the global success of "Aquaman" released at the end of 2018, entertainment industry expert Kathryn Arnold said on Monday. But she suffered "a lot of negative publicity" after the op-ed published in the "Washington Post", she added.

The cyberstalking campaigns generally followed statements made by one of Johnny Depp's lawyers and surrounded the actor's first defamation lawsuit in London in 2020, according to Ron Schnell, an expert in social network analysis.

However, a Warner Bros studio executive pointed to the "lack of chemistry" between her and actor Jason Momoa during "Aquaman" to explain her limited appearances in the second opus, filmed in 2021. And in Hollywood, few stars have shown their support for Amber Heard, unlike Johnny Depp.

The future of #MeToo

In an opinion piece, the "New York Times" recently feared that the outcome of the trial, if the jurors did not find in favour of Amber Heard, could mean the "death" of the #MeToo movement against violence against women. "I don't think it will influence victims in their willingness or otherwise to report abuse", says Shana Maier, Professor of Criminal Justice at Widener University.

Similarly, she dismisses the risk of "backlash against victims or women's associations". She stresses that this trial has the merit of "highlighting the issue of domestic violence". "There will always be people who will say of Amber Heard: "Why did she say that if it didn't happen?" agrees Jason Mollica.

A precedent?

However, Mr Mollica believes that this case could influence other celebrity defamation cases, such as the one brought by singer Marilyn Manson, a friend of Johnny Depp, against his ex-girlfriend Evan Rachel Wood.

Jury selection could thus be complicated if one of the rocker's lawyers believes that "the jurors may not know all the facts, but they know the names Depp, Heard and Manson, and that alone prevents them from being impartial", says Jason Mollica. For Shana Maier, on the other hand, the Marilyn Manson trial "will be judged on its own merits".

Text by Le Matin.ch (AFP)

Category: Cinema