2023-05-15 16:57:04
Ein a film festival stands and falls with the films it shows. To become legendary, however, you need a symbolic surplus, a surplus, as the French say. The 24 steps up to the Festival Palace are part of the magic of Cannes. Berlin and Venice are content with the horizontal; on the Croisette, the red carpet leads straight into the cinema sky. Anyone who climbs it can be sure of the attention of the entire film world. Directors, producers and actors are caught in the flashbulbs of thousands of photographers. In the ritual of climbing stairs myth and reality of the festival crystallize.
Of course, it is also of enormous importance who receives the guests in this Olympus of the cinema world. In a few days, Iris Knobloch will be standing at the end of the festival stairs for the first time. The new festival president has to fill intimidatingly large footsteps. Until 2014, the distinguished Gilles Jacob held the office, who performed it with unwavering commitment. He has been the face of Cannes since, first as director, he made it the world’s most important film festival in the late 1970s. He was succeeded by Pierre Lescure, who, as the founder of the pay-per-view channel Canal Plus, was of inestimable importance to French and world cinema and approached Jacob’s legacy with a somewhat more rustic elegance, but just as devotion and cinephilia. On Tuesday, when it starts again in Cannes, the film world will take a close look to see what style the new hostess will cultivate.
Knobloch is very familiar with the Croisette: she has been attending the festival for 25 years now. Until 2021 she held various managerial positions at the American media group Warner; Most recently, as Managing Director, she was responsible for the branches in the Benelux countries, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. She credits her greatest achievement with bringing the silent black-and-white film The Artist into competition in 2011, where it began a triumphant run that culminated in becoming the first French production to win the Oscar for Best Picture. Knobloch is also a pilot fish in her new role: she is the first woman and the first non-French woman in this prestigious honorary position.
The fact that the trained lawyer is the youngest child of Charlotte Knobloch, former President of the Central Council of Jews, may have great appeal in Germany. In France, however, it is of at most anecdotal interest. The cosmopolitanism to which she was raised in her family is definitely interpreted as a malum by parts of the film industry, which is chronically patriotic in France. They accuse her of being too close to the Hollywood studios. Her motto “Make money, have fun and do some good” sounded suspicious to many. Added to this was an anti-German affect. If there is a female president, then a local one is better! Few of her opponents had the courtesy to spell her name correctly.
Knobloch was seen as the incarnation of Macron’s neoliberal policies. In fact, it was then Culture Minister Roselyne Bachelot who offered her the post in December 2021. It was clear from the start that a woman should succeed Pierre Lescure. A former Minister of Culture, a former head of film funding and the director of a television station were in conversation. Last but not least, Bachelot hoped that Knobloch would be able to attract more Hollywood cinema to the Croisette. After all, she is close friends with players like Clint Eastwood and Christopher Nolan – who of course also like to come to Cannes on their own. Knobloch is the only one who fulfills the secret criterion: she gets along well with Thierry Frémaux, who pulls all the strings as the general delegate of the festival. It’s not easy standing alongside the strongman from Cannes. Gilles Jacob did not just give up the presidency for reasons of age. However, Knobloch and Frémaux have already worked well together on the selection committee for the French Oscar candidates.
Bachelot’s preferred candidate met with bitter resistance on the festival’s board of directors, which is made up of representatives from politics, state bodies and numerous professional associations. The key objection was that she might have conflicts of interest as a co-founder of acquisition firm I2PO, which specializes in investing in the entertainment industry. In addition, a partner in the company, François-Henri Pinault, is the main sponsor of the festival. The fact that Knobloch had left a film company at the peak of the pandemic also fueled the skepticism of industry representatives: how resilient might their love of cinema be? In the end, Dominique Boutonnat, the President of CNC film funding, who was persistently sponsored by Macron, exerted such massive pressure that Knobloch won the secret ballot.
Strengthening the Cannes brand
So far, the dictum in the press has been “Nobody cares who is President of Cannes unless it is Gilles Jacob.” Because the real power on the Croisette lies in the hands of the General Delegate, who is responsible for the program. The fact that Knobloch’s candidacy became a political issue underscores the more than just symbolic importance of this position.
It is by no means just representative or exhausted in the conception of the opening and closing gala. It requires diplomatic skills: the President must be in dialogue with local and national authorities as well as international partners. She is also responsible for the hefty festival budget, which should suit a business law specialist like Knobloch.
The political expectations of her are high, what visions she has remained a bit vague in her first statements: she wants to give everything to keep the festival relevant, strengthen it as a brand and lead it into the future. At the press conference in which she and Frémaux presented the festival program in mid-April, she wasn’t much more specific. At least she disarmed those skeptics who accuse her of a lack of cinephilia: She is overjoyed that the audience has fallen in love with the cinema again. The President completed her baptism of fire in perfect, albeit solemn, French. Since then, everyone has spelled their last name correctly.
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