"If I don't do something else, I don't eat": an investigation into the harsh reality of film directors
Published on , updated on
Simon Bailly for “Le Nouvel Obs”
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Investigation While the Cannes Film Festival is in full swing and conveys a glamorous image of the profession, the reality is not so rosy for many writer-directors.
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Before the latest Oscars, Brady Corbet, the director of "The Brutalist," admitted that he hadn't earned a penny during the three years he spent producing and promoting his film and that he had to agree to direct commercials in Portugal to pay his rent. Meanwhile, Sean Baker, the director of "Anora," pointed out the difficulty for an independent filmmaker to earn a living, let alone support a family.
The fact that the directors of the two most celebrated American films of the moment are suffering and worrying about the precariousness of their profession is a cause for concern: what about in France? The context here has nothing to do with the United States, where the desertion of theaters and the studios' disinterest in anything that cannot be franchised are deadly. We benefit from a system, the cultural exception, which allows us to produce around 250 films per...
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