“We would make sure to make the right decision on a case-by-case basis, in consultation with the board of directors and the stakeholders. But we would also discuss the work in order to see what is best for it. It is the real one star”. In an interview with Paris Match published this Thursday, May 9, the president of the Cannes film festivalIris Knobloch, speaks about the possibility that a cinema personality present during the event be charged with sexual assault.
“We are extremely attentive to what is happening todaywe are monitoring the situation closely”, assures Iris Knobloch in the interview given to the weekly, while social networks, on which a list of leading personalities circulates, and the media are buzzing with rumors of accusations during the Festival which begins Tuesday May 14 and ends on the 25th.
Seven years after the start of #MeToo, the subject remains on everyone’s mindsin the United States, where one of the convictions of producer Harvey Weinstein has just been annulled, as in France, between the trial of actor Gérard Depardieu in October and the freedom of speech movement relaunched by Judith Godrèche.
Basing it on “the quality” of the film”
The actress, who accuses two figures of auteur cinema, Benoît Jacquot and Jacques Doillon of rapewill present Me too, the 17-minute short film she directed on the subject of sexual violence, in Cannes on May 15. The Festival indicated in a press release that it wished with this screening to “make these testimonies resonate”.
In this interview, Iris Knobloch also repeats that “the progression of the presence of women” is one of the main issues for Canneswhile 4 of the 22 films in competition and 20% of the films in the official selection were directed by women.
She does not, however, support the establishment of quotas, “double-edged”. “We must not create a feeling of illegitimacy for a woman,” she pleads. She adds that she has noted “a very clear increase in the submission of projects from female directors (…) But the Festival must remain in its role and rely only on the quality of the film“.
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