The president of the jury of the 79th Cannes Film Festival responded to journalists during the traditional press conference held this
“I don’t believe we should separate art from politics,” declared this Tuesday, May 12, the president of the jury of the Cannes festival Park Chan-wook, when he was questioned on the subject, echoing the events which shook the Berlin festival in February.
“It’s a strange concept to want to pit the two against each other,” declared the South Korean director during the jury’s press conference, speaking in his native language, translated into English.
“Simply because a work carries a political message, it should not be considered an enemy of art,” he continued.
Conversely, “even if you make a brilliant political statement, without any artistic dimension, it would just be propaganda”, developed the director of Old Boy.
Berlinale reviews
In February, the Berlinale had to face a wave of criticism because of its supposed silence on the war in Gaza. Jury president Wim Wenders was also the target of attacks for saying that cinema should “stay out of politics”.
Ivorian actor Isaach de Bankolé, member of the Cannes jury, declared that “cinema would not be cinema if it did not speak about the affairs of the people”. Paul Laverty, a British screenwriter very committed to the left, having worked in particular with Ken Loach, emphasized that “often, so-called apolitical films are the most political”.
“We live in dark times and as Shakespeare said in King Lear, ‘the fools lead the blind’. We see so much systematic violence, the genocide in Gaza and all these horrible conflicts,” he said.
“Honte à Hollywood”
He also launched into a diatribe against Hollywood, accusing the major American studios of boycotting “Susan Sarandon, Javier Bardem and Mark Ruffalo because of their opposition to the murder of women and children in Gaza.”
“Shame on Hollywood (…) and respect and solidarity with them. They are the best of us and good luck to them,” he said.
A few minutes earlier, the screenwriter of Me, Daniel Blakewho was arrested at the end of August on the sidelines of a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Edinburgh, had launched another charge against the emergence of artificial intelligence.
“Look at the crisis linked to data centers, which have an impact on water, on populations, I think people are starting to realize that we should not let these + tech bros + billionaires from Silicon Valley, the vast majority of them right-wing libertarians, dictate the way in which we live our lives,” said Laverty.
