France’s top film producer says it will blacklist figures who petitioned against rightwing billionaire | Film
The head of France’s biggest film producer Canal+ said the group will no longer work with hundreds of cinema figures who signed a petition expressing concern about the growing influence of right-wing billionaire owner Vincent Bolloré.
The open letter, published earlier this week to coincide with the opening of the Cannes film festival, was signed by more than 600 people, including actress-director Juliette Binoche, director and photographer Raymond Depardon, French-Iranian filmmaker Sepideh Farsi, and director Arthur Harari, who co-wrote the Oscar-winning Anatomy of a Fall and whose film The Unknown premiered in the main competition at Cannes.
They said that “leaving French cinema in the hands of a far-right owner” risks “not only the standardization of films but also a fascist takeover of the collective imagination.”
A conservative industrialist, Bolloré has a powerful media empire that includes Canal+ and its in-house production operation, StudioCanal, Europe’s leading film and television production and distribution group. StudioCanal’s latest films include Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black and Paddington in Peru.
It also owns the CNews channel, the Europe 1 radio station and the Sunday newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche.
Speaking in Cannes on Sunday, Canal+ chief executive Maxime Saada called the petition “an injustice to Canal+ teams who are determined to defend the independence of Canal+ and the full diversity of its selections.”
He added: “I will no longer work with the people who signed this petition and I do not want Canal to work with them anymore.”
In an open letter, film industry figures said they were concerned about the situation. Canal+ took share from UGCIt is the third largest network of French cinemas, with the aim of fully owning it in 2028. They said Bolloré would be “in a position to control the entire production chain of films, from their financing to distribution and release on the big and small screen.”
They said that “behind his business suit” Bolloré was promoting a reactionary, far-right project for society “through television channels and publishing houses such as CNews” and that they feared this would spill over into the film.
“Effect [his] “The ideological attack on the content of the films has been cautious so far, but we are under no illusions: this will not last long,” they wrote.
The turmoil mirrors similar turmoil in the publishing industry. In an unprecedented move last month, more than 100 authors left the Grasset publishing house in protest at Bolloré’s control of parent company Hachette. “We refuse to become hostages in an ideological war aimed at imposing authoritarianism in culture and media,” the authors wrote.
In a sign of Bollore’s divisive reputation, the Canal+ logo was booed at some screenings at Cannes this year, including the opening film The Electric Kiss.
At a senate hearing in 2022, Bolloré rejected political or ideological interventionism, saying his interest in buying media was purely financial and about promoting the French soft power of his cultural empire.
After writers revolted against the publishing business last month, Bolloré wrote in Le Journal du Dimanche that those quitting were “a small caste who consider themselves superior to everyone else.” “As for the attacks on my ‘ideology’, I am a Christian democrat,” he said.
