The head of Canal+, France’s largest film producer, has said the studio will no longer work with hundreds of cinema professionals, who signed a petition voicing concern over the growing influence of the studio’s rightwing billionaire owner Vincent Bolloré.
More than 600 French industry figures, including actors Juliette Binoche, Adèle Haenel and Swann Arlaud, and directors Sepideh Farsi and Arthur Harari, signed the open letter, published earlier this week, calling out Bolloré’s right-wing politics and his expanding control over the French film industry.
“Leaving French cinema in the hands of a far-right owner,” the letter reads, risked “not only the standardisation of films, but a fascist takeover of the collective imagination.”
Through his media company Vivendi, Bolloré already owns Canal+, France’s largest pay-TV company, and its subsidiary Studiocanal, Europe’s leading film production company. Bolloré’s media empire includes CNews, a popular French news channel that figures on the left have attacked for allegedly giving a platform to far-right voices.
The open letter was sparked by Bolloré’s plans to take full control of UGC, France’s third-largest cinema chain, something the letter writers equated to a “fascist takeover” of French cinema.
