Overseas, there has been some pushback to the #MeToo movement in certain corners of the industry. For example, in France, a recent open letter published in Le Monde compared the campaign to “puritanism” saying that “rape is a crime, insistently or awkwardly hitting on someone is not.” The letter also blamed the #MeToo campaign for “expeditious justice” to men who “may have touched a knee, tried to steal a kiss” or “spoken of “intimate” things during a professional dinner.” More than 100 “prominent French women,” from the industry had signed that letter, including Catherine Deneuve, as a right to try and defend “sexual freedom.”
Meanwhile, in Italy, the #MeToo movement has faced considerable pushback from the public. However, even as some strides are being made to raise awareness, Asia Argento is among those saying more must be done to identify those who have harassed or assaulted women in the Italian industry.
Now, “Amour” and “Cache” director Michael Haneke has denounced what he calls “the hatred of men” that has emerged due to this movement.
In an interview with Austrian daily Kurier (via Huffington Post France) the 75-year-old filmmaker stated, “This new puritanism imbued with a hatred of men, which comes in the wake of the #Metoo movement, concerns me.” The important and groundbreaking movement, which has helped free women’s voices and denounce sexual abuse, was described as having turned into a “witch hunt” by Haneke and “a new kind of puritanism which could hinder artistic creation.” The director went on to say, “as an artist, we are beginning to face the fear of this crusade against all forms of eroticism.” Haneke gave as an example Nagisa Oshima‘s sexually explicit classic “The Empire Of The Senses“, which he says would “never be shot or accepted today.”
Haneke maintains that he believes firmly in the spirit of the #MeToo movement and why it was started, but that it may have run its course and gone too far over the edge. “Of course, any form of rape or sexual coercion must be punished, but I find hysteria and condemnations without trial that we now witness quite disgusting,” he said. He went on to add that the “thoughtless rage” manifested has “destroyed lives even with a lack of evidence to back up the accusations.” He then took it a step further by condemning the media which he claims, have “murdered lives and careers in the process.”
Haneke’s assertion that “each shitstorm that these revelations triggers poisons the climate within the society”, tells us so much about the rage that is brooding deep inside him at the moment. I had spoken to him late last year about social media which he described as a “Machiavellian chain of horrors”, and went on to say, “social media wars that happen on a daily basis eventually lead to larger, more destructive wars.” The whole interview was just a fascinating rumination on what he saw as the troubling change happening in social interactions today. Thus, his statements today on #MeToo aren’t exactly a surprise and further exemplify the divide between European and American reactions to #MeToo.