Courtesy of Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes Film Festival managed to avoid pension reform protests and a blackout throughout its duration, but Palme d’Or award-winning director Justine Triet made up for both with a heated political speech targeting the French government. Her impassioned appeal immediately went viral, dominating French media headlines.
After Jane Fonda introduced her on stage and thanked her partners in the film and the Cannes jury, Triet said the country “was rocked by an unprecedented protest movement that was extremely powerful and unanimous against pension reform.” She argued that “protest has been rejected and repressed in a shocking manner and this pattern of increasingly unchecked dominating power is now at work in several areas; Of course it’s most shocking socially, but we also see it in all sectors of society and the film industry hasn’t been spared,” Triet said, earning cheers and a few boos from the enthusiastic Lumière Theater audience.
She accused the “neoliberal government” of promoting a “commodification of culture” and “destroying France’s cultural exemption”.
Triet dedicated her “award to all young directors and those who are not able to make films today.” We have to make room for them and give them the place that I had 15 years ago when I first started in a world that was a little less hostile and where it was possible to make mistakes and start over.”
The director appeared to be alluding to discussions that took place during last fall’s fair convention, in which a number of prominent industry figures attributed the country’s plummeting box office to so-called French “auteur cinema” and called for a reduction in the number of French films being funded and produced. Shortly after the exhibitors’ conference, some French producers and filmmakers, notably Arthur Harari, Triet’s partner and co-author of “Anatomy of a Fall”, organized a large conference entitled “Appel aux Etats Generaux” (Call for General Assemblies). During the event, attendees called on the French government to take concrete steps to protect the industry’s unique financing and distribution model at a time when the viability of local films was contested.
French Culture Minister Rima Abdul Malak was the first to respond to Triet’s comments on Twitter, saying she was “stunned by her speech that was so unfair”. “Without our French film financing model, which enables a diversity that is unique in the world, this film would never have seen the light of day. Let’s not forget it,” continued Abdul Malak.
Others have slammed Triet for criticizing the government, despite the fact that ‘Anatomy of a Fall’ was funded with the help of subsidies from the National Film Board and regional support and pre-orders from French pubcaster France Televisions.
Triet later justified her speech by saying, “Cannes has always been a place where filmmakers could voice their political or social concerns.”
In “Anatomy of a Fall,” a feminist courtroom drama, Sandra Hüller (“Toni Erdmann”) plays a successful German writer on trial for the murder of her husband (Samuel Theis), who was living under mysterious circumstances in a remote corner of the… snowy landscape French Alps. Her visually impaired 11-year-old son (Milo Machado Graner) is called to the witness stand, leading to an analysis of Sandra’s behavior as a wife and mother. Represented by Mk2 films, Anatomy of a Fall was purchased by Neon shortly after its critically acclaimed world premiere in competition.
Anatomy of a Fall is expected to be a strong contender to represent France in the international feature film race at the Oscars, even though the film features plenty of English dialogue.