Luc Besson receives a six-minute Venice standing ovation after rape charges are cleared
French director Luc Besson has received a six-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival in a career comeback following rape charges. Besson’s new movie is called Dogman, which has been competing for the Golden Lion award.
Critics have been split on Dogman so far, but the audience at Venice seems to have lapped it up in great aplomb, following up on the screening with six minutes of applauding admiration for the director.
The six-minute cheer has tied Michael Mann and his movie Ferrari for the longest standing ovation given at the festival so far. Besson did not offer any thoughts on the reception but smiled and gave his cast and crew embraces.
Dogman focuses on a young man, played by Caleb Landry Jones, who finds peace in the life of dogs after suffering the slings and arrows of misfortune. It also stars Jojo T. Gibbs, Christopher Denham, Clemens Schick and Grace Palma.
In an interview with Variety, Besson opened up on whether he thought actors didn’t want to work with him amid the rape charges. “That’s not my problem,” he said. “I’ve been trying to focus on my work for the last several years.”
He continued: “I consider myself an artist and the most important thing to me is to write good scripts, like Dogman. I want to write better and better stories because I only have a few more films to make – and in 20 years, the only thing that will remain are the movies.”
Check out the trailer for Dogman below.
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