It is one of the highlights of the Berlinale that is currently taking place. Among the various films in competition, one in particular attracted attention. Empire, Bruno Dumont’s new feature film, raises many curiosities. Presented as a mixture of Star Wars And no Cabbage soup, Filmed in Hauts-de-France, this work of science fiction resembles a UFO.
A strange and singular object, Empire The rest of Bruno Dumont’s filmography (Humanities, Ma Laut, France…). For this new film, The filmmaker called many experienced actors. Fabrice Lucchini, Camille Cotin, Lina Khoudary, and Anamaria Vertolomi.
Cancellations galore
But the artistic team must be quite different in the beginning. Once the casting was announced, Virginie Efira and Lily-Rose Depp Ultimately had to decline due to differing schedules. But that’s not all. Adèle Haenel was also supposed to be there. Empire It should be his last film before his retirement from cinema.
till then The actress decided to withdraw from the project As she explained to a German magazine FAQs : “Behind this fun facade, it was a dark, racist and sexist world that was being defended. The script was full of jokes about cancellation culture and sexual violence. I tried to discuss it with Dumont, because I thought a dialogue was possible. I wanted to believe countless times that it wasn’t intentional. (…) But it is intentional. I didn’t want to support him, so I canceled my participation.
Bruno Dumont accused of racism
A turn that did not fail to surprise Bruno Dumont. in the columns of Telerama, Later on Adèle Haenel talked about withdrawing the project : “We were supposed to start filming in 2021 but everything got postponed due to covid. (…) And, in 2022, I feel Adele Hanel, who is very angry with me, although until then, we got along very well. She wanted to change the scenario which she had found to be completely crazy and hilarious, specifically accusing me of being racist, because I only filmed with white people. She has a right to think so, but it took her a long time to do so.
For the director, The choice of actress is really unpredictable : “In 2020, she said she no longer wants to do cinema but politics, but she cannot reject my film. I was very sad about this totally unexpected and unpredictable face and was a shock to everyone. This is called a missed appointment.