Has Cannes gone all political on us? The French movie pageant, which used to satisfaction itself, typically to a fault, in being the apolitical “cinema for cinema’s sake” pageant, seems to be storming the barricades.
The 78th Competition featured one of many most political opening ceremonies in dwelling reminiscence. In his speech accepting an honorary Palme d’Or, Robert De Niro lambasted U.S. President Donald Trump, labelling him “America’s Philistine president” and rallying the viewers to “act now…with out violence, however with nice ardour and dedication” to defend democracy. “It’s time for everybody who cares about liberty to prepare, to protest, and when there are elections, vote. Vote. Tonight, and for the following 11 days, we present our power and dedication by celebrating artwork on this wonderful pageant. Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité.”
Ceremony host, French actor Laurent Lafitte, gave a equally passionate and extremely political speech, calling on actors to make use of their public platform to make real-world change. He name-checked the likes of James Stewart, Josephine Baker, Marlene Dietrich, Adèle Haenel, and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky (whom Lafitte referred to as an actor turned struggle chief), as artists who’ve had a optimistic affect on points like local weather change, fairness, racism, immigration, homosexual rights and extra.
Cannes President, the Oscar-winning actress Juliette Binoche, continued in the same vein, saying artists had an obligation to name out the abuses of struggle, local weather disruption, misogyny, and the “demons of our barbarities.”
The political tone was set on the eve of the pageant, when greater than 350 world movie figures, together with Richard Gere, Javier Bardem, Mark Ruffalo and Susan Sarandon, printed an open letter on the web site of France’s Libération newspaper condemning what they referred to as the “silence and indifference” of the worldwide movie neighborhood in direction of the lethal impression of Israel’s ongoing navy marketing campaign in Gaza. The letter was addressed “For Fatem” in reminiscence of the 25-year-old Gaza artist and photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, the topic of Sepideh Farsi’s documentary Put Your Soul On Your Hands and Walk, which debuted in Cannes Thursday evening. Fatima was killed on April 16 in an Israeli airstrike on her residence in northern Gaza, alongside 10 members of her household.
Two-time Palme d’Or winners Ken Loach and Paul Laverty shared the letter on social media and referred to as on the international movie neighborhood in Cannes to advocate for peace.
“For a couple of brief days, the world’s consideration rests on Cannes as film-makers from many nations strive their greatest to make sense of what’s occurring round them,” their put up learn. “Cannes has a practice of engagement within the affairs of the day, and a few nonetheless have vivid reminiscences of the occasions of 1968,” recalling the final time a Cannes film festival appeared as politically-charged as this yr.
On the struggle in Ukraine, Cannes made it place clear, dedicating the pageant’s opening day, Could 13, to the Ukrainian individuals of their ongoing combat towards the Russian invasion. The pageant screened three documentaries, exterior its official choice, that have a look at considered one of key figures within the battle — Zelensky, which follows the lifetime of Ukraine’s wartime president Volodymyr Zelensky — and on life on the entrance line. 2000 Meters to Andriivka, from Oscar-winning director Mstyslav Chernov (20 Days in Mariupol), sees the director embedded with a Ukrainian platoon as they inch ahead making an attempt to liberate the strategic village of Andriivka. Bernard-Henri Lévy and Marc Roussel’s Notre Guerre, was filmed on the Pokrovsk and Soumy fronts in japanese Ukraine between February and April this yr.
The #MeToo motion, which has been given brief shrift at festivals previous — there was not a peep from the pageant when Johnny Depp, who had confronted accusations of home violence, walked the crimson carpet in 2023 for the opening night film Jeanne du Barry — is entrance and middle in Cannes this yr. On the identical day as Cannes’ opening evening, French star Gérard Depardieu was handed an 18-month suspended sentence for sexual assault and Binoche credited #MeToo with the watershed second within the French trade’s reckoning with institutional abuse.
In an unprecedented transfer, the pageant banned Théo Navarro-Mussy from strolling the crimson carpet Thursday evening for Dominik Moll’s competition film Dossier 137, as a result of the French actor faces accusations of rape and sexual assault. Three former companions have accused Navarro-Mussy of “rape, bodily and psychological violence.” A court docket dismissed the unique felony criticism, however the alleged victims have stated they plan to file a civil case.
Cannes normal delegate Thierry Frémaux defended the ban, saying the pageant wanted to make sure that the “security, integrity, and dignity” of all individuals concerned within the movies it screens.
It needs to be famous that the allegations towards Navarro-Mussy usually are not linked to File 137 and predate the taking pictures of the movie.
Given all this newfound activism, it appeared incongruous that, forward of the pageant, Cannes organizers issued stricter inside tips, asking their very own workers to take care of “political neutrality” of their interactions with visitors and on social media. The directive, a brand new addition to plain protocol, comes as labor activists from the unofficial union of pageant momentary employees, Sous Les Écrans La Dèche, staged protests on opening evening over working circumstances.
Some additionally see a discrepancy between requires Liberté, Égalité and Fraternité and its crimson carpet trend police. Competition officers confirmed that this yr it has banned full nudity and “voluminous outfits” from its gala, particularly clothes with a big prepare, that “hinder the circulation of visitors of visitors and complicate seating within the theater.” A fest spokesperson clarified that the gown code will not be meant to control apparel “per se,” however that it did get refreshed to replicate sure guidelines “which have lengthy been in impact.”
However it was an oddly conservative measure from a pageant that, at the least this yr, seems to be conjuring the sprit of ’68.
