The French film industry under threat from the right, says actors and directors | Video

More than 600 filmmakers have said that the growing influence of the right in French film production risks turning into “socialism”.

In a an open letter published in the newspaper Libération to coincide with the opening of Cannes Film Festivalsaid the billionaire Vincent BolloréA major role in the production and distribution of French films threatens the freedom of the industry.

Actor-director Juliette Binochedirector and cinematographer Raymond Depardon and a French-Iranian filmmaker Sepideh Farsi he was among the people who wrote: “By leaving the French cinema in the hands of a right-wing owner, we do not risk the establishment of cinema, and the adoption of the ideas of the fascist movement.”

Bolloré, an austere industrialist, has a powerful media empire, including channels CNewsEurope 1 radio is the Sunday paper Le Journal du Dimanche, and it is near the figures on the far right. Politicians on the left have attacked CNews for giving a platform to a speech they say will help the rise of the right. The public prosecutor’s office in Paris last month opened a legal investigation into the racist views on the streets against the mayor of Saint-Denis, Bally Bagayoko Free Mp3 Download. This approach rejected racial discrimination.

Bolloré’s powerful role in French culture is causing a stir among designers next year. French Presidential Election. In an unprecedented event last month, more than 100 writers leaving the publishing house Grasset in opposition to Bolloré’s control of his parent company, Hachette Livre. “We refuse to be slaves to the ideological war that seeks to impose authoritarian rule everywhere in culture and media,” the authors wrote.

In the film industry, where Bolloré has long reigned in secrecy, filmmakers said they had the courage to speak out after the public revolt.

Bolloré manages the Canal+ entertainment group and its in-house production operation, StudioCanal, which is a leading European film and television production and distribution company. StudioCanal’s recent films include the Amy Winehouse biopic, Return to Blackand Paddington in Peru.

Figures from the film industry said they were shocked that Canal + took part in UGC, the third largest group of French films, with the aim of having a full participation in 2028. They said that Bolloré will be “in a position to control the entire series of films from their financing to their distribution and their release on the big and small screen”.

He said that “behind his business suit”, Bolloré was encouraging people to take action “through his TV station, like CNews and his publishing houses” and he feared that this could go beyond cinema.

“(His) emotional influence on the content of the movies so far has been brilliant, but we’re not going to lie: this won’t last,” he wrote. They called on the film industry to “create a group” that would protect independence.

Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) is getting closer as the presidential election in the spring approaches, and there is no certainty about the extent to which her party is cutting back on technology spending.

RN MPs questioned the model of public funding and tax breaks that encourage the film industry through the Center National du Cinéma (CNC), a government organization that supports the production of hundreds of films a year.

Le Pen’s party is back very critical of France Télévisions, which is the largest provider of film, drama and documentaries. The RN has said it wants to make it a state broadcaster if it comes to power. A report last week and another RN-affiliated councilor called for cuts to public broadcasters, including the entertainment budget.

The letter of objection stated that Bolloré could take advantage of his position to influence the content of the film.

“The vast amount of money in Vincent Bolloré’s hands gives him the freedom to act when it comes,” the letter said. “We can’t say we don’t know. The abolition of the CNC and the public broadcaster is part of the RN program. Do we want to risk that tomorrow what is still money is fake movies that follow the ideology?”

Bolloré, a Breton industrialist, once said that former education minister Pap Ndiaye is “very close to the extreme right”. At a senate hearing in 2022, Bolloré denied any involvement in politics or ideology, saying that his interest in acquiring media was purely financial and that his cultural empire was promoting French soft power.

Bolloré’s team did not respond to a letter from the film industry. After last month’s attack by writers on his publishing business, Bolloré wrote in Le Journal du Dimanche that those who quit were “little people who consider themselves superior to everyone else”. He said: “As for the attack on my ‘ideas’, I am a Christian Democrat.”