Venice Film Festival: Damien Chazelle hopes that the strike paralyzing Hollywood will be good

Will the strike that paralyzes Hollywood be any good? A few hours before the official opening of the 80th Venice Film Festival, Damien Chazelle, the president of the jury, confided in AFP. “Hollywood is going through difficult times, explains the Franco-American director. I hope it’s for the best, that something good will come out of it.

Venice is the first major festival to be hit hard by the writers’ and actors’ strike in the United States, which deprives it of most of the stars who could have come to walk its red carpet. The Deauville American Film Festival, which opens on Friday, will also be impacted by this movement and will not be able to accommodate many of the actors who were scheduled.

For more than two months, the strikers have been asking for better pay and working conditions as well as a framework for the use of artificial intelligence. “I think some of the issues that people are on strike for had to be addressed. It’s sad to come to this, but I understand, continues Damien Chazelle, whose films have already opened the Mostra twice (La la land in 2016 and First Man in 2018). I hope it will end soon, we all have to get back to work”. Currently, no agreement has been reached. American industry had not known such a social movement since 1960.

Also read: Festivals without stars, releases postponed… Hollywood paralyzed by strike

On the use of artificial intelligence, which some creatives worry will replace them, Damien Chazelle believes that it is “important to know exactly what we are going to do and the path we are going to take” . “People have somewhat apocalyptic opinions” about digital technology, but “I don’t think it’s really going to change the art of cinema,” he continued, questioned at a reception in his honor about the lagoon. “Digital is a change that will shake up many things but art will survive,” he wants to believe.

Hollywood blocked, isn’t it the time for this Franco-American, in love with Paris, to shoot a film in France? “I would like it, maybe… We’ll see, but there are also strikes in France!”, he smiles.