Scandal-hit French director Kechiche to make comeback

PARIS: A new film by award-winning but scandal-prone French director Abdellatif Kechiche has been selected by a Swiss film festival, marking a comeback six years after his last widely panned feature, organisers said Tuesday.

The third film of his “Mektoub My Love” triology — titled “Mektoub My Love: Canto Due” — is to show in competition at the Locarno Film Festival which takes places from August 6-16.

“Thanks to the producer’s trust, we’re very proud to be able to present it in Locarno,” the festival’s artistic director Giona Nazzaro told a press conference.

In 2019, the screening at Cannes of “Mektoub My Love: Intermezzo”, the second part of Kechiche’s series set in southern France in the 1990s, sparked an uproar over its explicit sex scenes.

One actor, Ophelie Bau, walked the red carpet but left before the screening of the three-hour film, which showed young women dancing suggestively in a nightclub for extended periods.

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The Hollywood Reporter called it “three-hours-plus of jiggling female butts” while others slammed its objectification of women and voyeuristic style.

The Tunisian-born director won the top prize in Cannes, the Palme d’Or, in 2013 for “Blue Is the Warmest Colour.”

The stars of the lesbian love story, Lea Seydoux and Adele Exarchopoulos, later complained about Kechiche’s behaviour towards them on set.

Weighed down by controversy, “Mektoub My Love: Intermezzo” was never released in cinemas and Kechiche vanished from the public eye.

He reappeared in 2022 at a cinema event in Montpellier, southern France, where he said he still hoped to complete his trilogy.

“I’ve been spending all my time on it these past years. That’s practically all I’ve done,” said the filmmaker, whose appearance prompted a small protest by demonstrators denouncing his “sexism” and working methods.

Kechiche was investigated by police after a woman alleged in 2018 that he had assaulted her after a dinner party in Paris. The probe was dropped for lack of evidence.