French filmmakers Cedric Klapisch, Bertrand Bonello and Gilles Lellouche, and actors Laurent Lafitte, Romane Bohringer and Isabelle Carré, are among the more than 1,000 film and culture professionals and organisations who have signed an open letter warning of the dangers of a potential far-right government and its implications for the industry.
The open letter, published in Le Monde newspaper, and spearheaded by producers union the ARP, comes two weeks after French president Emmanuel Macron’s surprise decision for a snap election to elect a new National Assembly that will see voters head to the polls for a two-round process on June 30 and July 7.
The letter encourages people to vote against Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) party “not only to block hatred of others, but also to ensure that the France of the Enlightenment retains a future”.
It points to the absence of culture in current RN programmes and warns of “a dismembered public broadcasting service”, “drastically reduced public funding”, and “the directors of major festivals and heads of national theatres replaced by henchmen in the service of the government, obeying the regime’s editorial line”.
There are industry fears a far-right administration would put the country’s film financing system into jeopardy.
“Culture is totally absent from the programmes of the far right, yet it is the first victim when they come to power,” the letter adds.
The RN has previously publicly expressed its desire to privatise France’s public broadcasting service, in particular France Télévisions, which invests upwards of €60m per year in French and European films, and plans to reduce rights for “intermittent” entertainment industry workers who fuel the film and audiovisual industries.
The first round of elections in the two-part process will take place next Sunday, June 30.
Among the nearly 50 organisations supporting the statement alongside the ARP are directors’ fortnight organisers the SRF and unions for producers, distributors, crew members and artists like, ADAMI, ACID, CGT Spectacle, and SDI.
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