Woody Allen opens Cannes Film Festival as son Ronan Farrow reiterates sexual abuse allegations
On the eve of Woody Allen’s “Café Society” premiering at the Cannes Film Festival, Ronan Farrow denounced his estranged filmmaker father over longtime sexual-abuse allegations by a Farrow sibling.
“Tonight, the Cannes Film Festival kicks off with a new Woody Allen film,” Farrow wrote in Wednesday’s The Hollywood Reporter. “There will be press conferences and a red-carpet walk by my father and his wife (my sister),” he said, referring to Soon-Yi Previn, who was adopted in 1978 by Allen’s former partner, Mia Farrow, and her then-husband, Andre Previn. “He’ll have his stars at his side — Kristen Stewart, Blake Lively, Steve Carell, Jesse Eisenberg. They can trust that the press won’t ask them the tough questions. It’s not the time, it’s not the place, it’s just not done.”
Criticizing “how differently our press treats vulnerable accusers and powerful men who stand accused,” Farrow, 28, revived his adopted sister Dylan Farrow’s accusations that in 1993, when she was 7, Allen “sexually assaulted me,” as she wrote in a New York Times blog in 2014.
Writing that “old-school media’s slow evolution has helped to create a culture of impunity and silence,” Ronan Farrow said he was heartened that newer outlets were more willing to report on “recent Hollywood sexual assault stories.” But, he noted, “Actors, including some I admire greatly, continue to line up to star in his movies. ‘It’s not personal,’ one once told me. But it hurts my sister every time one of her heroes like Louis C.K., or a star her age, like Miley Cyrus, works with Woody Allen. Personal is exactly what it is — for my sister, and for women everywhere with allegations of sexual assault that have never been vindicated by a conviction.”
Charges against Allen were never pursued, and the filmmaker has denied the allegations. One Farrow sibling, Long Island-based photographer Moses Farrow, has defended Allen, telling People magazine in 2014, “Of course Woody did not molest my sister.” /
At the opening ceremony of the 69th Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday, the host, French comedian Laurent Lafitte, quipped to Allen, “It’s very nice that you’ve been shooting so many movies in Europe, even if you are not being convicted for rape in the U.S.” Variety said the joke drew gasps from the audience, which minutes earlier had given Allen a standing ovation.