The last Pedro Almodovar film I watched was 2019’s Pain & Glory, starring Antonio Banderas as a character loosely based on Almodovar himself (aren’t they all). It was honestly fantastic, and I still believe Antonio should have won an Oscar for that performance. Well, Almodovar is back in Cannes to promote and premiere his latest film, Bitter Christmas. It’s yet another Spanish-language film set in Spain, per usual. During the festival press conference today, Almodovar addressed the state of European film and European art, especially as Donald Trump’s second term has put the entire world in disarray.

Pedro Almodóvar declared at the Cannes press conference for his new movie, “Bitter Christmas,” that “Europe must never be subjected to Trump,” which earned a rousing applause from the international press in attendance. The director was responding to a question about censorship concerns given what’s going on in the U.S. under Trump and in France with controversy surrounding Canal+, whose head threatened a blacklist against artists who signed an open letter opposing the company’s main shareholder.

“This does effect us a lot,” Almodóvar said of censorship concerns before urging artists not to succumb to such fears.

“I don’t want to judge anyone, but I think artists have to speak out about the situation in which they live in contemporary society. It’s a moral duty,” the director said. “Silence and fear is a symptom that things are going badly. It’s a serious sign democracy is crumbling. On the contrary, creators must speak out… the worst thing that could happen would be to remain silent or to be censored. We have a moral obligation to speak out.”

Almodóvar urged his fellow artists “to act as a shield against this madness.” Ahead of the festival, the director called out the Oscars for being blatantly apolitical this year.

“You know, I’m not really blaming anyone in particular, but it was quite notable watching the Oscar telecast where there were not many protests against the war or against Trump,” Almodóvar observed to Los Angeles Times. “Maybe he wasn’t the only one, but the only real example I can remember came from a European, a friend of mine, Javier Bardem, who did directly say, “Free Palestine.’”

“People are obviously very frightened,” the director continued. “The U.S. is not a democracy right now. Some people say it’s maybe an imperfect democracy, but I really don’t think the U.S. is a democracy right now. The heartbreaking and ironic thing is that democracy has given rise, through the proper, right voting mechanism, to this kind of totalitarian regime. And it’s both a paradox and it’s also incredibly sad.”

[From Variety]

He’s right, the US is not a democracy right now. It’s not exactly a full authoritarian regime – many Americans are basically living the same lives they led under Joe Biden – but it’s not a democracy. A democracy wouldn’t have a fascistic Supreme Court gutting a century’s worth of civil progress. A democracy would have a functioning representative branch of government. A democracy would have a healthy press holding the powerful to account. It’s horrible and I wish American citizens were making these kinds of observations. He’s also right about the lack of protests and political speech at the Oscars – after all of that f–king horsesh-t in 2024, it turns out that no one in Hollywood has the stones to openly protest Trump.

Incidentally, you can go here to learn the backstory on Almodovar’s reference to Canal+. Basically, Europe has their own super-rich right-wing nutcases, and one of those people, a French billionaire named Vincent Bollore, has blacklisted 600 filmmakers and artists for opposing Bollore as the top shareholder of Canal+.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.