Thierry Frémaux: “David Fincher makes films for platforms, he is in a different world”
The general delegate of the Cannes festival repeats that the director of The Killer “has left the cinema.”
Invited to the Gothenburg film festival, in Sweden, the general delegate of the Cannes festival was interviewed in duo with the president of the last edition, director Ruben Östlund. After a joke about his altercation with a police officer, which occurred on the Croisette last May (“My role is sometimes to speak to the press, and other times to fight with police officers”), Thierry Frémaux returned very seriously to the mission of his festival, and others, to make cinema shine throughout the world.
“We are truly at the service of artists, the press, the public and professionals, he explained in the preamble, relayed by Deadline. If these roles are fulfilled well, then we are happy.”
Thierry Frémaux on Cannes and Netflix: “I almost lost my job. It was very violent”
During the discussion with the holder of two Palmes d’Or (for The Squarein 2017, then for Without filter, in 2022), Thierry Frémaux once again justified his choice of no longer hosting platform films, but only works produced for cinemas. An exception was made with Okjaby Bong Joon ho, and The Meyerowitz Stories, by Noah Baumbach, both broadcast on Netflix in 2017, but for a handful of years, the rules of this festival have been very strict regarding platform films. More than the Venice Film Festival, for example.
Frémaux says he regrets no longer being able to select films from David Fincherwhose work he loves, but who has signed an exclusive contract for several years with this same streaming service.
“For us, it was important that this discussion took place in Cannes, and it took place with a certain violence, he explains. But it still allowed us to open a dialogue with these platforms. David Fincher, for example, is a great filmmaker, but he no longer exists on the same level in our hearts and minds as he once did. He wants to work alone, without clashes, he makes his films for platforms. It’s a different world, and we miss it. We would like him to come back to our world.”
Recently, the director selected for example in the past for Zodiac in Cannes, released all its films (and series) on Netflix. So that neither Mankneither The Killer were not in competition for the Palme d’Or, despite Thierry Frémaux’s admiration for his staging in general.
“Fincher left the cinema, had already said the general delegate of the Cannes festival to Konbiniin 2020. Today he works for platforms, where he does fantastic things. I tried to explain to him, very modestly, that he no longer exists. At least more for us. Cinema, he invented the cinema, the audience, the box office, posters, DVDs… A sort of all-round posterity, which means that at the table, in restaurants, we talk about cinema. Him, for his own reasons, and which we know: he wants his freedom, he was tired of having to fight, he does very expensive things… (he signed with Netflix) but I would like that he comes back to the cinema. He’s one of the great, great, great, great filmmakers.”
David Fincher once again extends his contract with Netflix
