Director Woody Allen, accused of sexual assault by his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow, faced a rape joke during opening ceremony for the 69th Cannes Film Festival. Allen was there Wednesday night for the premiere of his latest work, Café Society, which was opening the festival.
"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.," said French comedian and host Laurent Lafitte, Variety reported. The crowd, which Variety said gave the 80-year-old Allen a standing ovation minutes before, is said to have gasped at the joke.
Although Lafitte didn't name Allen, the director is thought to have been the target of the joke because his recent films—including Magic in the Moonlight and To Rome With Love—have been shot in Europe. Variety notes the joke could've also been a jab at director Roman Polanski, who was indicted by a U.S. court in 1977 for the rape of a 13-year-old girl.
The subject is near to Lafitte, who co-stars in a rape drama premiering at Cannes next week.
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Dylan Farrow came forward in early 2014 accusing Allen, her adoptive father, of sexually assaulting her as a 7-year-old. When he denied the accusations Farrow responded in a statement:
Allen denied the accusations in an op-ed writing:
Later that same year Hannibal Buress made a joke about Bill Cosby raping women, which lead to approximately 50 women coming forward to accuse Cosby of rape or sexual assault.