news Adèle Haenel Stopped Making Movies Because Industry Is ‘Reactionary, Racist, and Patriarchal’

Adèle Haenel captivated the film world with her stunning performance in Céline Sciamma’s “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” but has not appeared in a movie since 2019. While the French actress has certainly been missed, don’t expect to see her in a new film anytime soon. In a recent interview with German magazine FAQ (via The Film Stage), Haenel revealed that she walked away from the industry due to the way she felt women and minorities were treated.

“I don’t make films anymore,” Haenel said. “Because of political reasons. Because the film industry is absolutely reactionary, racist, and patriarchal. We are mistaken if we say that the powerful are of goodwill, that the world is indeed moving in the right direction under their good and sometimes unskillful management. Not at all. The only thing that moves society structurally is social struggle. And it seems to me that in my case, to leave is to fight. By leaving this industry for good, I want to take part in another world, in another cinema.”

Her next film was slated to be “The Empire,” a new science-fiction movie from director Bruno Dumont. However, she exited that project due to disagreements about the subject matter and cast. The process appears to have been the last straw for an actress who was already extremely frustrated with her industry.

“At first, I thought it looked like a lot of fun: a kind of Luke Skywalker in space,” she said of the project. “The problem is that behind this funny facade, it was a dark, sexist, and racist world that was defended. The script was full of jokes about cancel culture and sexual violence. I tried to discuss it with Dumont, because I thought a dialogue was possible. I wanted to believe for the umpteenth time that it was not intentional. But it’s intentional. This disregard is deliberate.”

Haenel will continue to act in theater and is open to someday making independent films with collaborators she knows well enough to trust their intentions. But for now, she doesn’t feel like she can continue to participate in the film industry in good conscience.

“If I stayed today in this film industry, I would be a kind of feminist guarantee to this masculine and patriarchal industry,” she said. “My dream is to make it clear: This industry defends a capitalist, patriarchal, racist, sexist world of structural inequality. This means that this industry works hand in hand with the global economic order, in which all lives are not equal.”
 
I read - 1 of 40 actresses shows up to a film, asks to be given control of both script and casting direction, is refused, labels everyone in sight a racist, sexist, patriarchal, (fill in your own copy pasted laundry list of cancel culture NLP terms here), then goes on to mention an international conspiracy against her. This all started when she didn't like a joke she heard. This anti feminist Façade masquerading as a film production oddly stars all women in the lead roles.

Has anyone here ever directed a larger group? You have 20 people in a room, and you start reading the script, and one of the extras says, I don't like the joke about the Siberian husky, I used to have one and it died, so that joke makes me sad. Forget the politics, just a sensible request based on a legitimate reason. So you as the director decide to be nice and say, ok, lets change the joke, it's not a big deal.

Right then, every other actor on the set sees you allowing an extra to make changes in the script. Since each of them consider themselves more important than an extra, they all now feel that they have a right to make at least one change. The Scientologist you accidentally hired as the lead, has now seen you make changes for 20 other people now, and she only has one request, that the film shows the world the way it should be, governed under the watchful eye of the ghost of L Ron Hubbard and his electric soul meters. When you say no, she can't accept the idea that her idea isn't good, and goes looking for a reason.

Maybe you said no because you hate women. Maybe you said no because you are a neo nazi. It's clear that you are a heretic at minimum, for your failure to recognize and bow to the supremacy of either women or Scientology. Your film doesn't even mention seventh day Adventists, maybe you are guilty of hating them too. Something to investigate. You are undoubtedly a member of an international conspiracy of male supremacists, a sinister cabal who commits terrible crimes such as thinking that their opinions are more legitimate than the opinions of others, and saying negative things about others. The only logical solution is to say a lot of negative things about you, since you obviously don't realize that her opinion is more legitimate than yours.

This is what the internet is - groups of people getting together to hate groups of people for their crime of getting together to hate groups of people. The truly evil variety are the priests, the people that see themselves as "righteous protectors, and heroes of mankind" a designation that acts as a blank check for all sorts of bad behavior, such as insulting and attacking others, as the star did in this story, such as Indiewire is doing to this director by slanting this article to tell only one side of the story. This is what the crusades were, the Christians said they were saving the world from evil, then labeled everyone that didn't join their club as evil, then tore a path across Europe killing indiscriminately. As we know from history, ultimately the self described "heroic protectors" ended up being responsible for more evil acts than everyone else combined. At least people are burning down careers and families and projects now, instead of villages. That feels like progress. Thanks indiewire! Just throwing this out there, but maybe people should think things through a bit more before coming up with the next ideology. If you don't like supremacists, maybe don't form a supremacist organization to combat them. Did you come up with a narrative about how you and your group are the "good guys" and then quickly label anyone who doesn't accept your worldview as inferior and evil? You're a supremacist. You think you're better than the KKK? That's exactly what they did, step by step. Only the names have changed. Skin color, sex, pronoun use, or just a failure to repeat your little book chapter and verse. Whatever the reason, you're better than them, and they need to be taught a lesson by their betters. Can you still not see the template?

KKK- white people are good and black people are evil, but it's not about that, we're the good guys, just trying to make things better
Black Panthers - Black people are good, and white people are evil, but it's not about that, we're the good guys, just trying to make things better
Feminists - Women are good, and men are evil, but it's not about that, we're the good guys, just trying to make things better
Christians - Christians are good, and Moslems are evil, but it's not about that, we're the good guys, just trying to make things better
Moslems - Moslems are good, and Christians are evil, but it's not about that, we're the good guys, just trying to make things better
Republicans - Rich people are good, and poor people are evil, but it's not about that, we're the good guys, just trying to make things better
Democrats - Poor people are good, and rich people are evil, but it's not about that, we're the good guys, just trying to make things better
Christian Scientists - People that pray are good, and people that take their kids to the hospital when they have cancer are evil, but it's not about that, we're the good guys, just trying to make things better

Mentally healthy people - Hi, It's nice to meet you, I hope you are having a good day, is there any way that we can help each other succeed in life?

What would you do if an actor walked onto your set, said "oh, this is like star wars, except it's in space" and then demanded control of your script and casting, on threat of being labeled with every pejorative they could paste from their ideology manual, in the national press?

I ran an internet search on this article. This story was only reported by Indiewire, and not by a single reputable journalist anywhere. The film in question is so small that it doesn't even have pictures on the IMDB page. Indiewire is basically a feminist version of the national enquirer. Objectively, this is a story about a young girl that could afford quit her job as a movie star pointing a finger at the whole world and accusing them of acting privileged.
 
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