the Hollywood industry put to the test

Their faces are known, their voices carry and they were quickly heard. Anthony Hopkins, Mel Gibson and Billy Cristal are among the American cinema stars who saw their villas reduced to ashes in the Los Angeles fires. For ten days, fires have been wreaking havoc in several neighborhoods in the nerve center of the Hollywood industry.

On CNN, the star of VideodromeJames Wood, burst into tears while talking about his home going up in smoke. The actor Milo Ventimiglia, famous for the series This is uswas also very moved in front of the France Télévisions cameras and the charred debris of his house. “It happened so quickly. I think about all our memories here, in every room of this house… my heart is in pieces. »

A HARD-HIT INDUSTRY

Behind these stars, 680,000 professionals working directly or indirectly in the entertainment industry live in Los Angeles. The Pacific Palisades neighborhood, particularly affected by the fires, “was filled with actors, technicians, screenwriters and composers between the 1970s and 1990sexplains Didier Allouch, French journalist corresponding to Los Angeles for more than a quarter of a century. “ Today it is a wealthy area but others, like Altadena, more modest, where many technicians live, are also affected. »

SCENERIES GONE IN SMOKE AND DESERTED STUDIOS

The flames also destroyed infrastructure immortalized in films, such as Palisades Charter High School, where Brian de Palma filmed his version of Carrie (1976), and which also served as a setting for the teenmovie Freaky Friday (2003). Or the ranch of the famous silent film actor Will Rogers – a setting seen in Funny Lady (1976) with Barbra Streisand. One of the most expensive homes in Pacific Palisades, seen in the fourth season of Successionno longer exists.

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With fires at their doors, several studios have closed. Disney therefore stopped filming the series Abbott Elementarythe ABC channel that of Grey’s Anatomy. “The good news is that we no longer shoot many films, especially blockbusters, in Hollywoodtells us Didier Allouch. There was only one last year, the adaptation of The Mandalorianbecause director Jon Favreau reused the same sets and the same teams as for his series. But Marvel has its studios in Atlanta, a lot of filming is done in Australia or Canada because it costs less… The debate before the fires was also about the question of bringing them back to Los Angeles. » The large production drivers of the industry therefore do not seem to be threatened, even if it is difficult to assess all the economic consequences for the sector.

A CONTINUING CRISIS

These are all the more scrutinized as the American film industry emerges bloodless from two crises, that of Covid-19 and the screenwriters’ strike of 2023. “It would be difficult to overcome a third, analyzes Didier Allouch. The money has to come in. » Hence the extreme caution surrounding the organization of the various award ceremonies. The Critics Choice Awards have been postponed, as has the announcement of the Oscar nominations, but a cancellation seems difficult to envisage as these big events keep so many people working.

A compromise could be found by removing the red carpet, as in 2003 during the Iraq war, to preserve the event without giving in to an inappropriate display of glamour. Above all, this could turn into fundraising to help the victims.

Because so far, on-site support has mainly been about resourcefulness and solidarity. President Joe Biden recognized on January 8 the equivalent of a state of natural disaster in California, opening the way to federal aid, then released an additional check of $770 for each victim. But the ball is now in the court of a Congress suspended from the inauguration of Donald Trump on January 20.