The China Mail - French films tackle war and fascism as crunch election looms

The most overtly political of a trio of major domestic productions premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday, "Notre Salut" ("A Man Of His Time"), winning rave reviews for its portrayal of an ambitious local official following France's defeat by the Nazis in 1940.

Called a "masterpiece" by left-wing Liberation newspaper and widely praised by critics, French director Emmanuel Marre's film skewers the moral failings and casual cruelty of people who decided to work with France's war-time collaborationist government in Vichy.

"Never again!" Marre told the audience to cheers at the premiere on Wednesday. "I'll say it another time: never again."

The film, based on letters by Marre's great-grandfather, invites viewers to look at "how political movements can play on our inner neuroses and make us tip over … by using our failures and resentments," he told AFP.

Like other surging populist movements across the Western world, France's far-right National Rally led by Marine Le Pen has tapped into widespread anger about immigration, joblessness and fears about crime.

Polls currently show it having its best chance yet of winning the presidency in elections expected in April or May next year, having emerged as the biggest single party in parliament.

This year's Cannes Festival, the last before the election, has become embroiled in politics after a petition last week signed by 600 film figures, including Marre, denouncing billionaire media industry mogul Vincent Bollore.

The petition called people to mobilise against "the growing grip of the far right" on the film industry under the influence of Bollore, who owns France's biggest movie producer Canal+ and is close to far-right figures.

- Questioning history -

The film selection in Cannes, which wraps up on Saturday, features two other French-language films set in World War II, "Charles de Gaulle: The Iron Age", about France's war hero and political colossus, and "Moulin".

"Moulin" focuses on the capture of Jean Moulin, a hero of the Resistance and top de Gaulle confidante who helped unify the underground anti-Nazi movement before being tortured to death in custody.

His tragic destiny, put on screen by Oscar-winning Hungarian arthouse director Laszlo Nemes, poses questions about our capacity for action.

“What can a human do?" Nemes told AFP. "I believe we have a very broad range of possible actions and paths, and history carries within it all the possibilities -- the best and the worst."

Other major war-themed films in Cannes include "La Bola Negra" (The Black Ball), set during the Spanish civil war, "Fatherland" about writer Thomas Mann's return to war-shattered Germany in 1949, as well as World War I feature "Coward" from Lukas Dhont.

Cannes supremo Thierry Fremaux insists the festival does not make political statements.

But with Europe facing its biggest conflict since World War II in Ukraine, and far-right nationalists on the rise across the continent, he has hinted at why historical dramas might resonate with audiences now.

The selection "is a way of bringing history into the present, of questioning it in the present," he said as he explained the line-up in April.

L.Kwan--ThChM