Puerto Rican actor Benicio Del Toro and US director, screenwriter and producer Wes Anderson attend a … More
Wes Anderson is back at the Cannes Film Festival for the premiere of The Phoenician Scheme, his latest movie which is in competition for the Palme d’Or and stars Benicio del Toro, Mia Threapleton, Michael Cera, Riz Ahmed, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright and Scarlett Johansson.
During a press conference held this morning, Anderson gave a caustic answer to a journalist asking him what his thoughts were on President Trump’s threat made earlier this month, to impose a 100% tariff to movies made outside the U.S.
This announce keeps stirring a lot of confusion and fear amongst professionals of the cinema industry, particularly the foreign and independent studios that would be extremely impacted if a tariff such as this one actually sees the light of the day.
Anderson said, “The tariff is fascinating because a 100% tariff? I’ve never heard of a 100% tariff before. I’m not an expert in that area of economics, but I feel that means he’s saying he’s going to take all the money? And then what do we get? So it’s complicated to me.”
He added: “Can you hold up the movie in customs? It doesn’t ship that way. So I just don’t know, I’m not sure. I want to know the details, so I’ll hold off my official answer.”
As noted by Screen International during the conference, Anderson’s own film was shot in Germany and was just presented at one of the most important international film festivals, which explains why the question of the tariff keeps being raised at Cannes.
Yesterday, May 18th, Richard Linklater, who was giving a press conference for his new movie Nouvelle Vague was also asked about this same topic. He said, “I mean for the tariff, that’s not going to happen, right? The guy changes his mind 50 times in one day, whatever. It’s the one export industry of the U.S, it’d be kind of dumb.”
Linklater then added: “I really admire the French film industry in the way they’re so focused and they really take care of their industry and they make sure it’s healthy and they nurture it and they help it. The government, everybody is on it, I so admire that, from production to distribution, they care. And our country, the U.S. could use a little bit of that.”