Park Chan-Wook, Demi Moore and the Cannes Competition jury embraced the political dimension of cinema at the festival’s opening press conference on Tuesday afternoon.
“I don’t think politics and art should be divided,” said jury president Park, early in a 50-minute press conference. “It’s a strange concept to think they’re in conflict with each other. Just because a work of art has a political statement, it should not be considered an enemy of art.
“At the same time, just because a film is not making a political statement, that film should not be ignored. Even if we are to make a brilliant political statement, if it is not expressed artfully enough it would just be propaganda.”
Asked if “speaking freely” about politics could damage the promotion of a film, Moore responded, “I would hope not.”
“Part of art is about expression, so if we start censoring ourselves then we shut down the core of our creativity, which is where we can discover truth and answers.”
As at the Berlinale in February, the 50-minute Cannes session was dominated by discussion of political opinions, but unlike Berlin, the discussion was good-natured and open.
UK screenwriter Paul Laverty, who has had 10 films at the festival directed by Ken Loach, brought up the topic of Gaza on two occasions. At the beginning of the conference, he said, “Cannes has given us so much, especially in these really dark times – as Shakespeare said, when mad men are leading the blind – with genocide in Gaza.
“The idea of coming to a festival where there’ll be contradiction, nuance, beauty, knocked me out.”
Solidarity
As the conference was coming to a close, Laverty asked to make some final remarks, in which he said “shame on Hollywood people” who n“blacklisted” actors who had spoken out in support of the people of Gaza.
Laverty cited Susan Sarandon – who features on this year’s poster, for which Laverty praised the festival – and Javier Bardem, who appears in Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s Competition title The Beloved.
“My respect and total solidarity to them,” said Laverty. “They’re the best of us, and good luck to them.”
Laverty also noted the roots of the word politics, meaning ‘of the city’. “It means how human beings behave with each other, not in a party political sense, but in the deepest sense of how we treat each other,” said the writer. “In every story is the question of power and how it operates, and the values within the story are implicit.
“Many times the people who say they are non-political are actually the most political and don’t realise it.”
“I am very political, and I think we need to take a political position,” said Chilean filmmaker Diego Cespdes, the youngest member of the jury at 31 years old. “I hope that cinema gets diverse, that not just rich people ‘do’ cinema.
”I think I represent that, and I hope we can push that more in the future.”
The director added his presence on the jury made him feel he was representing not just Chile but the whole of Latin America.
AI and film
Away from politics, Moore said we are “probably not” doing enough to protect ourselves against the rise of artificial intelligence.
“AI is here, so to fight it is a battle that we will lose,” said the actress, who was last in Cannes in 2024 with The Substance. “To find ways we can work with it is a more valuable path to take. Are we doing enough to protect ourselves? I don’t know the answer to that. My inclination would be to say probably not.”
The jury also discussed their duties over the next 12 days. Park, who has had four films in official selection and won the best director prize in 2022 for Decision To Leave, said, “I realised it was my time to give back and serve the film festival.”
The nine-person Cannes Competition jury consists of president Park, Moore, Chloe Zhao, Ruth Negga, Laura Wandel, Stellan Skarsgard, Isaach De Bankole, Cespedes and Laverty.
The 79th Cannes Film Festival will open this evening with the world premiere of Pierre Salvadori’s The Electric Kiss, screening out of competition.
The 22-strong Competition begins on Wednesday with Koji Fukada’s Naji Notes, while the festival will also host talks by Peter Jackson, Cate Blanchett and Tilda Swinton.
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