Australian actress Cate Blanchett – in Cannes for the out-of-competition film Rumours, which with a six-handed direction recounts between farce and demented horror the events of a G7 in which Cate Blanchett is a German chancellor and Rolando Ravello an Italian prime minister – paraded on the Montée des Marches, the red-carpet staircase that leads the stars to the Grand Theater Lumiére, sporting a white, black and green dress: the colors of the Palestinian flag; very clear message.
Recall that Blanchett is ambassador of the High Commissioner for the United Nations; on November 8, she gave a speech to the European Parliament calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. On that occasion she said, “I am not involved in politics or even political analysis, but I am one of the witnesses. The conflict has caused and continues to cause thousands of innocent victims. I cannot close my eyes.”
With few exceptions, the art world rarely backs party politics and is rarely ideological, but the film milieu and beyond, here in Cannes as elsewhere, despite the conservative wind blowing around the world, has held firm to the concept of human rights, commitment to peace, anti-racism, respect for gender freedom, and predominantly, through the works it makes, works for a more egalitarian society.
