Palme d'Or winner Justine Triet polarizes with anti-government rhetoric

May 28, 2023

In the aftermath of the anti-government speech of the winner of the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, the director Justine Triet, reactions rained down, from the denunciation of her “ingratitude” on the side of the presidential majority to the thanks on the left.

By criticizing government policy on the stage of the Palais des Festivals, the 44-year-old filmmaker threw a stone into the pond.

Receiving the Palme d’Or from the hands of Jane Fonda for her film “Anatomy of a fall”, she strongly denounced the way in which the French government had “shockingly denied” the protest against the pension reform.

“This pattern of dominating power, increasingly uninhibited, is breaking out in several areas”, she added, believing that the power also sought to “break the cultural exception without which (it) would not be (t) there today”.

In the wake of this declaration, the Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul Malak, said she was “flabbergasted by her unfair speech”: “This film could not have seen the light of day without our French film funding model which allows a unique diversity in the world. Let’s not forget that,” she wrote on social media.

The pass of arms then continued through the media.

“There is still a slow shift towards the idea that we have to think about this profitability of films”, explained Justine Triet at the microphone of France Inter.

“Obviously, in my position, I find it very easy to finance my films, but I can see around me that for people who are starting up, the smaller productions are more difficult”, she reported. .

– “Anatomy of Ingratitude” –

“I find it ungrateful and unfair”, replied Sunday morning on BFMTV the Minister of Culture, recalling having announced last week on the Croisette a plan to aid audiovisual and cinematographic creation of 350 million euros. by 2030.

“In Justine Triet’s speech, there is clearly an extreme left ideological background,” she said.

“I would like her to give me the figures, the facts on which she bases herself to consider that, today, culture is commodified and the cultural exception broken”, declared Rima Abdul Malak, insisting on the support from the government to the sector, particularly during the health crisis.

Roland Lescure, Minister Delegate for Industry, also tweeted on Saturday evening referring to the title of the award-winning film: “Anatomy of the ingratitude of a profession that we help so much? and of an art that we love so much”.

On the same line, David Lisnard, mayor Les Républicains de Cannes, tackled on Twitter a “speech of a spoiled child and so conformist, receiving the prestigious Palme d’Or for his subsidized film”.

On the other hand, on the left, the speech of the scenario writer met its echo.

“Thanks to Justine Triet for her courage in addition to her talent. Cannes is returning to its tradition. It is the resistant left that created this festival”, reacted the leader of LFI Jean-Luc Mélenchon on Twitter.

“Six months that all of France is contesting. Six months that we are undergoing the will of a single person. Thank you, Madam, for keeping your neck stiff”, also supported the number one of the PS Olivier Faure, while Marine Tondelier, boss of EELV , was ironic about these “news of Macron’s 100 days to appease, live from the Cannes Film Festival”.

“Commodification of bodies, Commodification of culture, Congratulations to Justine Triet for her Palme d’or and her speech which strikes so rightly”, added the national secretary of the PCF, Fabien Roussel.

Rima Abdul Malak’s reaction also made people jump to the left. Olivier Faure said he was “flabbergasted to see a Minister of Culture who thinks that, when you finance a film, you are buying the conscience of its authors”.

“Don’t think any more, take your subsidies and silence in the ranks”, launched the PCF.

But “it may be time to stop distributing so much aid to those who have no awareness of what it costs taxpayers”, threatened the chairman of the Assembly’s Economic Affairs Committee, Guillaume Kasbarian (Renaissance).

This latest protrusion was seen as a call for “censorship, blackmailing subsidies” by environmentalist Benjamin Lucas. “It’s Le Pen in the text,” he concluded.