Five months have passed since the controversial speech of the filmmaker, recipient of the highest award awarded each year on the Croisette, but the pill, still indigestible, seems not to pass. The Prime Minister, Élisabeth Borne, estimated on Sunday October 8 that Justine Triet, director of the film Anatomy of a Fall, should “reflect on her relationship to reality”, while the winner of the Palme d’Or had harshly attacked the government in May. Indeed no one has forgotten, and obviously not the boss of the government, that during the awards ceremony in Cannes, Justine Triet had criticized the “commodification of culture that the neoliberal government defends”, which according to her is in train “to break the French cultural exception, this same cultural exception without which (it) would not be here today”.
Also read: “Cannes Film Festival: Justine puts up resistance”
The filmmaker also mentioned “an extremely powerful and unanimous historic protest” in France against the pension reform that the executive had “shockingly denied”. “I will go see this film, obviously, which looks excellent,” however affirmed Élisabeth Borne, interviewed on BFMTV. “I was told (that) it’s a film about the relationship with reality. Perhaps the director needs to think about her relationship with reality when she finds that we are not supporting creation enough,” added the Prime Minister with a bit of humor, nevertheless judging the speech by Justine Triet “in a country where there is so much support for creation”.
Then the head of government added to conclude: “I think that many actors in the cultural sector remember the massive support that we were able to provide during the Covid crisis.” Palme d’Or in Cannes, Anatomy of a Fall , which intends to dissect the balance of power within a couple of artists, exceeded one million admissions in theaters in September, a month after its release.