Filmmaker Abdellatif Kechiche is no stranger to critical acclaim…and controversy. The director’s career has been consistently appreciated by film fans and critics alike, earning him numerous awards, including the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2013. But throughout his almost 20-year career, Kechiche has also seen disparaging reports about his on-set and off-set activities. And so it shouldn’t be any surprise that the filmmaker’s latest work, “Mektoub, My Love: Intermezzo,” which premiered at this year’s Cannes, now finds itself with yet another controversy for Kechiche.
The director’s latest, ‘Intermezzo,’ is actually the sequel to “Mektoub, My Love: Canto Uno,” which premiered in 2017. And if you haven’t seen either of them, don’t worry. For the context of this latest news, all you need to know is that Kechiche’s new four-hour film features an absolute plethora of shots of women dancing seductively in a club and engaging in intimate relations. Some reports say that this content comprises at least two-thirds of ‘Intermezzo’s’ extended run time.
And it’s during the filming of these scenes where Kechiche finds himself criticized, yet again.
According to an anonymous source, speaking to a regional newspaper (via French outlet Le Figaro), the controversial filmmaker seemed to take things a bit too far when filming his latest Cannes-premiering project.
“The director had the nightclub scenes go on for hours and hours deep into the night, exhausting all the actors,” said the source. “He absolutely wanted to catch an unsimulated sex scene, and the actors were not willing to do it. But as he insisted, as the hours went by and the alcohol consumption grew on set, he eventually managed to get what he wanted.”
Our review of the film echoed the idea that the director seemingly had a singular focus while filming and said, “Kechiche languidly trains his camera on jiggling female bodies for long swaths of time, occasionally interspersing short bouts of conversation so banal, they’re almost as painful as the gratuitous ass shots.”
There’s no indication of who might have said the remarks about Kechiche’s filmmaking style on ‘Intermezzo,’ but this isn’t the first time that people have speculated about tensions on set. Actress Ophélie Bau, who stars in the recent film (and is featured in the sex scene in question) and the first ‘Mektoub,’ was conspicuous in her absence from any Cannes press for the film, including the premiere. Many have wondered if Kechiche and Bau have had a falling out of sorts.
READ MORE: ‘Blue Is The Warmest Color’ Filmmaker Abdellatif Kechiche Accused Of Sexual Assault
For those that aren’t familiar with his career, Kechiche is the filmmaker that famously brought “Blue is the Warmest Colour” to fans in 2013. That film has stood the test of time, earning fans even to this day, while also being marred by controversy surrounding the director’s on-set antics with his female leads, who complained of his lack of professionalism while shooting their graphic sex scenes.
The filmmaker also recently was accused of sexual assault, stemming from an incident with an anonymous 23-year-old actress. These accusations claim that the actress went to dinner with Kechiche, but blacked out and woke up with her pants open and the filmmaker fondling her.
Needless to say, the idea that the director is involved in another controversy surrounding a film that depicts graphic sexuality is not all that surprising. However, at this point, Kechiche has avoided any sort of backlash from his alleged actions. So, we’ll have to see how many times he’s able to dodge the proverbial #MeToo bullet.
Pressions de #Kechiche sur le tournage de #MektoubMyLove in «Midi-Libre» :
«Il voulait absolument arriver à avoir une scène de sexe non simulée, ce à quoi les acteurs n’étaient pas disposés. Mais à force d’insister (…) il a réussi à obtenir ce qu’il voulait» pic.twitter.com/0BoJOgW7Jt— Destination Ciné (@destinationcine) May 25, 2019