Criticized on Twitter, the magazine
Le Film français
regretted Friday, September 30 for having put only men on the cover of its last edition to illustrate the
"reconquest"
of French cinema, evoking an
"unfortunate choice"
and
"unrepresentative"
of the sector.
Specializing in the seventh art, the weekly created a stir on social networks by putting on the cover, under the title
"Objective reconquest"
, seven men: Jérôme Seydoux, the president of Pathé, surrounded by actors Pio Marmaï, Guillaume Canet , Vincent Cassel, François Civil, Pierre Niney and Dany Boon.
Read alsoFor Jérôme Seydoux, French cinema must get rid of its dogmas
Either
"the headliners of the company's upcoming event films"
production:
The Three Musketeers
,
Asterix and Obelix: The Middle Empire
,
Masquerade
and
Life for Real
, as the discreet caption of the photo states. .
“Any discomfort with this blanket?”
, commented the 50/50 collective, which campaigns for equality, parity and diversity in the film and audiovisual industry.
"If we bother you, don't hesitate to say so
," also tweeted director Audrey Diwan, who won the Golden Lion in 2021 in Venice with her film
L'Événement
.
And Alexandra Lamy to answer him:
“No women, no diversity.
High class !"
.
Asked by the
HuffPost
, Audrey Diwan developed her point, explaining that this cover
“is the complete opposite of what we are trying to do at the moment”.
"
We are at a fragile moment in our industry.
We never cease to have the idea that rediscovering the public means reinventing ourselves, changing forms of narration, opening our arms, renewing the images.
Inclusion is obviously one of the ideas that are driving us at the moment
," she explains, suggesting in passing a cover with Alice Diop, whose film
Saint-Omer
won two prizes at the Venice Film Festival (Grand Prix and first film award) and will be France's candidate in the race for the international film Oscar.
"The choice to publish this photo on the cover, and the choice of terms, turned out to be unfortunate and regrettable"
, replied the magazine for professionals, on Twitter.
"We have involuntarily, by wishing to highlight some of the promising films of 2023 (...) conveyed an image that is not representative of French cinema, artists and Pathé"
, continues the weekly.
"This proves how much vigilance must be required at all times for the fight for parity to win"
.
Shaken since 2019 by the #MeToo wave, French cinema is also regularly criticized for its lack of parity and diversity.
According to a study by the 50/50 collective published at the end of 2021, women represented only 38% of the main characters of the 115 feature films with the biggest budget or having met with the greatest success in theaters in 2019.
