Italy-born writer, director and actress Asia Argento ( xXx, Land Of The Dead, Marie Antoinette) made an impact during the Cannes Film Festival award ceremony Saturday night in France. While presenting at the famed festival, Argento made a powerful statement against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein regarding his assault on her and his connections to Cannes.
“In 1997, I was raped by Harvey Weinstein here at Cannes,” she started, with director Ava DuVernay standing by her side at the podium. “I was 21 years old. This festival was his hunting ground.”
While she did acknowledge that Weinstein received what was coming to him from the festival after his assualts were made public, she went on to say the following:
“I want to make a prediction. Harvey Weinstein will never be welcomed here ever again. He will live in disgrace, shunned by a film community that embraced him and covered up for his crimes.”
Asia went on to claim that there are still those within the festival itself, even some seated in the very rows before her, who are as guilty as Weinstein. She finished her speech by promising that those offenders will no longer be allowed to go unpunished for their despicable behavior.
“And even tonight, sitting among you, there are those who still have to be held accountable for their conduct against women. For behavior that does not belong in this industry, does not belong in any industry or any workplace. You know who you are. You do not belong in this industry. But most importantly, we know who you are, and we’re not going to allow you to get away with it any longer.”
Argento’s entire speech was digitally captured by Konbini News journalist Hugo Clément and posted on his Twitter:
https://twitter.com/hugoclement/status/997898324857491456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fvariety.com%2F2018%2Ffilm%2Fnews%2Fcannes-asia-argento-harvey-weinstein-1202816859%2F&tfw_creator=ecnyren&tfw_site=variety
Related – A New Allegation Against Harvey Weinstein Comes From The U.K.
Argento was one of the many women who initially came forward in Ronan Farrow’s New Yorker article that brought forward the massive amounts of allegations against the now defamed producing mogul. Argento eventually left her home in Italy and moved to Germany due to the amount of “victim blaming” criticism she received in the Italian media. Meanwhile, Cannes has received its own level of criticism due to its slow reaction to the #MeToo Movement. While the organization did form a hotline with the French government, it declined to update its code of conduct to explicitly prohibit harassment.
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Source: Variety.
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