The Cannes Film Festival started this week and listeners ask us about its editorial treatment, as well as about cinema in general, on the franceinfo antenna. Matteu Maestracci, cinema specialist, responds to the mediator of Radio France antennas, Emmanuelle Daviet.
We start with a question about the film that opened the 76th Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday May 16, Jeanne du Barry, directed and performed by Maïwenn with Johnny Depp in the role of Louis XV. Listeners write to us because they are surprised that Maïwenn’s film benefits from such media coverage. Here is a message: “I don’t understand why you talk so much about Maïwenn after she attacked a journalist, and laughed about it on a television set, and her filming with Johnny Depp, at a time when the fight against violence against women took such a magnitude.”
Emmanuelle Daviet: Do you understand these reactions? And what do you say to listeners?
Matteu Maestracci: If I wanted to be a bit ironic, I would ask this person if they listened to the franceinfo channel, since it is the one that concerns me, on the day of the opening of the festival, since we actually talked in the day, on several occasions, and of the film, and obviously of the controversy. Besides, if I go back to this question, in any case, the terms of this question, “Why are you talking about it, when she attacked journalist Edwy Plenel?”but precisely because she assaulted the journalist Edwy Plenel, and a complaint is filed, and it is made public, we have to talk about it, because it is an event in itself.
It is something that is not insignificant. Johnny Depp’s lawsuit against his ex-girlfriend, Amber Heard, was a news event we talked about. The opening of the Cannes Film Festival is an event, and obviously it is, there, it is the conjunction of two events, the fact that the Cannes Film Festival officially opens with Jeanne du Barryscreened out of competition with Maïwenn, a film in which Johnny Depp plays, with all the sulphurous, even questionable, that it calls up, on the part of feminist associations in particular, but not only, with a thought for the victims of domestic violence.
All of this obviously meant that we couldn’t not talk about the film, because at the same time it’s a film, so we talk about it as a work, as a cultural object. We talk about it because it makes an event, because it opens the Cannes Film Festival, and we talk about it, because it also brings up many other things, at the crossroads of other current events, such as that of violence against women . So, on franceinfo, we chose to talk about everything. Maybe it was too much, maybe not enough, but in any case, we didn’t hide anything.
As a cinema specialist, more generally, according to what criteria do you choose to talk about a film on the air? Because it deserves to be seen, or on the contrary, because it is better to avoid it?
On the Cannes Film Festival with my colleague Thierry Fiorile, and under the authority of the editorial staff of franceinfo, we finally work at the Cannes Film Festival, as we work during the year, that is to say that we look at the upstream program, we say to ourselves: hey, like Wednesday, 15 films are released. There are five that interest us, we will see them, and then we will say on the air what we thought of them. We will advise people what we liked. We’re going to interview the artists, either those who direct or who play in the films we liked. And then we will sometimes also talk about those we liked less. It can happen that films are highly anticipated. We will see them.
And if we didn’t like them, the last one did Asterix lately, we say it on the air, we always try to do this in an informative way, not to have fun or murder movies for free. But we still prefer to give, by definition, space on the air to the films we have loved.
So, within the framework of the Cannes Film Festival, we talk a lot about the films in competition because it’s the most important selection, and it’s the one that ends up on a prize list. And we also talk about the other events that are Indiana Jones 5, Martin Scorsese’s film, and so on, because indeed, we know it’s going to be a hit. And as it makes the event, we say to ourselves that we must talk about it.
You quote mainstream films; in your editorial choices, is there precisely a balance between these mainstream films and more independent or auteur films?
So, all year round, at franceinfo and at the Cannes Film Festival, once again, we try to have the same fairly coherent policy. When a new Asterix fate, when THE Three Musketeers are released in the cinema, these are events, because these are films that are expected. These are films that we are going to talk about, these are big budget films with famous actors. So there is also a popular and cultural phenomenon. So these films, we are going to talk about them. We will also talk about them more during the theatrical release on Wednesday.
And then we have a column with Thierry Fiorile on Saturday on franceinfo, The cinema experts, where we have some time to talk about the releases of the week. And there, we’re going to try to mix things for the general public, American films and European films, French films and international films from other regions. We really try to mix it up. But our philosophy is all the same to try to highlight films that don’t benefit from a huge promotional campaign. Because we tell ourselves that if we liked them, they also need us to put them forward.
Listeners sometimes hear on the air, “it’s a franceinfo film”. Some would like to know how a film or a documentary becomes a franceinfo film?
So you should know that we, film journalists, most of the time, and this is the case at franceinfo, we see works upstream, precisely to be able to prepare them better, and talk about them better at the time of release, with interviews or not, which enrich this statement.
The films, we try to see them sometimes a month, sometimes two months before. And sometimes film distributors and distribution companies seek media partnerships. So they show some of their films that they consider to be in line with this approach to certain media, they will show them to us of course, but also to France Inter as well, to private media as well, saying: can it interest you?
And we have a policy on franceinfo, which is that we are partners of films that talk about current events. This is our core business, so social news, news for example on migrants or other, or which relate to a major historical event, such as the Algerian war, to quote recent documentary films. We see them upstream. A person at franceinfo, who typically works on partnerships, also sees them. We discuss together.
And if we like a film, we try, sufficiently in advance, to say yes, we want to be a partner and therefore on arrival, we will be a partner in the film. It does not involve any financial exchange, I want to clarify, but we will talk about a film, and in return, the film crew will give us the director or the main actor of the film, to talk about it as a guest. , in the morning, or during the day on franceinfo. It is an exchange of good and loyal service, an exchange of good practices.