The Cannes film festival has been going on for a week, and aside from the new ball gown rules another pattern has emerged that I find fascinating: American filmmakers are being pressed about Trump. Perhaps I have amnesia from Trump 1.0, but it feels different this time, the degree to which the international media seems to be saying, “WTF?” Or in the case of Eddington, director Ari Aster bluntly being asked if he was worried about his cast being able to easily reenter the US, given the political themes of the film. These times, man, they’re just wild. Anyway, Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme had a star-studded premiere Sunday night, followed by a press conference the next day, where it was Anderson’s turn to field questions about Trump’s proposed 100% film tariffs. Anderson answered in the exact manner you’d expect from the stylistic director:
“Can you hold up the movie in customs?” the world’s chief auteur of cinematic whimsy asked at a press conference at the Cannes film festival. “I feel it doesn’t ship that way. I’m not sure I want to know the details so I’ll hold off on my official answer.”
Earlier this month, Trump announced on his Truth Social platform a 100% tariff on all movies “produced in Foreign Lands”, claiming the US film industry was dying a “very fast death” because an increasing number of American film-makers were shooting in other countries to take advantage of tax incentives or cheaper production costs.
“The tariff is fascinating because of the 100%,” said Anderson, who is in Cannes to promote his new film The Phoenician Scheme, which was mostly shot at Studio Babelsberg in Potsdam outside Berlin, Germany. “I’m not an expert in that area of economics, but I feel that means Trump is saying he’s going to take all the money. And then what do we get?”
The easily distracted US president has not elaborated further on his film tariff plans since the announcement on 5 May. An open letter signed by major studios, film industry unions and Trump’s own “Hollywood ambassadors” Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone instead calls on the government to try to revive America’s film industry with tax incentives, specifically mentioning those in place in the United Kingdom and Australia.
In The Phoenician Scheme, Puerto Rican actor [Benicio del Toro plays Zsa-zsa Korda], a ruthless and egocentric industrialist who grows concerned about his fortune’s future after surviving an assassination attempt and begins to glimpse the error of his ways.
Anderson described Korda as embodying “the darkness of a certain kind of capitalist”, and as “a character who is not really concerned with how the big decisions he has empowered himself to make for the world are affecting populations of workforces and landscapes”.
Ok, obviously the first thing we must address is The Guardian christening Anderson “the world’s chief auteur of cinematic whimsy.” That description is brilliant and award-worthy! Anderson absolutely needs to have business cards that say “Wes Anderson, the world’s chief auteur of cinematic whimsy.” Or at the very least, Wes should make it his email signature. I doff my cap to the fine masters of words at The Guardian. And as for Anderson’s response, like I said earlier, “Can you hold up the movie in customs?” is precisely the kind of quip I’d expect from the man behind The Royal Tenenbaums, Moonrise Kingdom, and all the rest of his oeuvre. And I’m no economist either, but Anderson sure seems to be on the money in surmising that 100% tariffs means it all goes to Trump. Since life under this administration feels like triage, with the greatest/most-imminent disasters determining order of attention, I think Hollywood is still in the zone where they can poke fun of Trump’s bigly tariff plan. But if/when it happens, yeah, it’s going to completely upend the system. Call it the Trump Touch.
PS — Bendy Batch showed up in two different slings at Cannes, a black one to match his tux for the premiere, and a polka dotted green one for the press conference. I know it’s a real injury and I wish him a smooth recovery. But doesn’t it also somehow seem perfectly in character to show up to a Wes Anderson premiere in a sling, let alone match them to your outfits?!
Photos credit: Julie Edwards/Avalon, Olivier Huitel/Avalon
This would be impossible fortrump to do being that most films are sent digitally.
I assumed Anderson was joking when he said that. I cannot express how much I long for the day that we don’t have to hear the name Trump again.
I assume, they would tax the consumer during ticket purchase, adding the additional tax. So, yeah at the end of the day, it would be paid by the people, not the companies. I don’t think Trump thought that deep though. I think, some states give tax incentives to the film makers to get them to shoot the movie in USA, however the main attraction seems to be the union power. In USA, there is a strong union for actors. That increases the production costs, meaning paying people living wages and providing union approved procedures is bad for the company profits. If they ask, I am sure Trump would be happy to destroy the unions though.
Bill Murray heard “auteur of whimsy” and dressed accordingly.
I was wondering about Bill Murray. Is he the reason there’s no women in this movie? They all passed? On another note: I love the outfits on Wes Anderson’s wife & daughter. They both look lovely.
Can’t wait til Trumpism is over.