Filmmaker Michael Moore took a jibe at US President Donald Trump at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival’s closing ceremony on 25 May 2019 in the French Riviera. Moore was there to present the Jury Price, which was a tie between France’s Les Miserables and Brazil’s Bacurau.
The director of last year’s anti-Trump documentary Fahrenheit 11/9 said, “Picasso said ‘Art is the lie that enables us to realise the truth.’ Or, as we say in America, Trump is the lie that enables us, well, more lying.”
“Art in dark times is what has helped saved humanity. It’s the arts and the filmmakers who inspired the masses to not give up, to not despair, to think, to laugh at the madness, to mourn the losses, to rise up and defeat the insanity with love.”
At the press conference, Cannes Fest Jury Head Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu concurred with Moore’s remarks, saying: “Art is a reflection of the world… Art can see the future in a past edition.”
On CBS’ Late Night with Stephen Colbert a year ago, Moore who was a guest asked why more people were not standing up to Trump. “Sadly, Trump is not going to leave,” he had said. “He plans to be reelected, he loves the term ‘president for life.’ The only way that we’re going to stop this is eventually we’re all going to have to put our bodies on the line. You’re going to have to be willing to do this.”
Les Miserables which won the Jury Prize at the 72nd edition of Cannes is documentary filmmaker Ladj Ly’s first feature-narrative debut and is inspired by 2005 French riots that went on for three weeks, a time that saw civil unrest with looting, violence and car burnings.
The director spoke about the film that, “talks about different things that are common in this territory; the thing that is common between us is misery.” And, with that, he dedicated the prize to “all the miserables of France,” Deadline.com quoted.
The statement came at a time when the yellow vest protesters are out in the streets of France for the 28th week in a row and ahead of the European elections on 26th May.
Michael Moore is an American documentary filmmaker and author, best known for his work on globalization and capitalism.