No less than two jury members in Cannes opened up about ‘the Greek origins of the word ‘poet” during their press conference on the first day of the festival. “It means: ‘of a city’,” explains screenwriter Paul Laverty (I, Daniel Blake) out. “Or in the deepest sense: how people behave. So it seems to me […] that power and politics are inherent in every story.” Next to him, actor Isaach de Bankolé repeated it in French.
In other words, they have thought out this answer well in advance.
And logical too. Committed cultural institutions have been struggling with world news for a few years now. Activists are increasingly demanding a stand; about Trump, Big Tech or Israeli genocide. That throws festivals into quicksand. Do you choose a side? Then the other side is angry. Don’t you say anything? Then you will be accused of cowardice. The more you struggle, the more stuck you become.
At the Venice Film Festival, a demonstration of thousands demanded that the organization speak out on the situation in Gaza. The Biennale was overshadowed by politics this year, including demonstrations in front of the Russian pavilion.
And the horror scenario for a film festival like Cannes was the edition of the Berlin film festival last February. One comment from jury chairman Wim Wenders about art and politics led to pandemonium. Final score: the culture minister and Berlin mayor were angry, director Tricia Tuttle was almost fired. No one talked about the movies anymore.
Cannes
What about at Cannes this year? In any case, the festival opened on Tuesday evening as apolitically as possible. Le Venus Electrique was a farcical costume comedy about a fairground performer who seduces a brilliant painter (over two long hours). The film was apparently mainly intended to provide the luxury sponsors of Cannes with the safest possible evening.
But in the remaining ten days there is enough highly flammable material. There are two Russians in the selection and a new film by Palestinian director Rakan Mayasi. There are dissident Iranian filmmakers with new films, such as Asghar Farhadi, Pegah Ahangarani, Karim Lakzadeh and Mahsa Karampour. Hollywood actor Javier Bardem arrives – the only one who really dared to address the war in Gaza on the Oscar stage. And even before the festival, the feminist collective 50/50 criticized the small number of female directors in the main selection.
Enough fuel. But that was also there last year. And politics became the best: Robert DeNiro continued his years-long crusade against Donald Trump on the stage of his honorary Palme d’Or. Juliette Binoche led a tribute to photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, who was murdered by Israel.
But Cannes never lost control. Demonstration and protest were always neatly channeled: no conflict, but a program component – how good that it is there!
Space for politics
According to director Thierry Frémaux, there has always been room for politics in Cannes, he says at his press conference one day earlier. The festival was founded just before the Second World War, as an alternative to the Venice Film Festival, which was taken over by the fascists and ‘awarded a Coupe Mussolini’. Cannes had to be free and independent. Or as Frémaux puts it: “Cannes is political if the films (and filmmakers) are.”
But the last time politics really shut down the festival was during the 1968 edition, when nouvelle vague filmmakers like Truffaut and Godard campaigned the festival in solidarity with the student protests. According to The Hollywood Reporter This is because the festival has worked for years on a way that “allows protest, but also includes it”. There are strict rules. The premieres are very tightly directed. And on the red carpet, politics – just like nudity and “voluminous outfits” – are explicitly prohibited.
Rules that attendees don’t like to break. Especially as an art filmmaker, for whom media attention is like oxygen on the moon, you don’t want to disrupt the most important film festival in the world. In addition, Cannes may be too big and commercial to disrupt. The masterpieces demand all the attention. And Cannes remains a huge media and marketing event, with 40,000 film professionals and (it seems) just as many sponsors. Philip Oltermann van The Guardian said to The Hollywood Reporter: “Cannes remains show business. I have the impression that people who go there ultimately just obey the rules.”
Only jury member Laverty shows that you can stoke the fire despite the tight direction of Cannes. He points to the official Cannes poster, which features Susan Sarandon in a scene Thelma and Louise. “Susan Sarandon, Javier Bardem and Mark Ruffalo are being blacklisted for their views on the murder of women and children in Gaza. Shame on you, Hollywood.” And grinning: “I hope we don’t get bombed because of this poster.”
