By Angela Charlton
PARIS (AP) --American director Spike Lee will lead the jury of this year's Cannes Film Festival, the first black person to hold the post in the event's 73-year history.
Festival organizers hope Lee will "shake things up" among the world's cinema elite at the festival which runs May 12-23. And anti-racism campaigners hope Lee's appointment wakes up the French cultural world to persistent discrimination and the damaging stereotypes it perpetuates.
Lee said he was "honored to be the first person of the African diaspora" chosen for the prestigious position.
Festival organizer Thierry Fremaux said Lee is the first black president of any major film festival, calling the decision a "message of universality." Speaking on France's RTL radio, Fremaux said it wasn't a political decision, but noted that black artists are underrepresented in the cinema world.
Many of Lee's films have been shown at Cannes, and his "BlacKkKlansman" won a major prize at Cannes two years ago. This year's festival runs May 12-23, and the rest of the jury members will be announced in April.
"When I got the call … I was shocked, happy, surprised and proud all at the same time," Lee said in a letter. He said Cannes "changed the trajectory of who I became in world cinema."
Several of Lee's films first screened at Cannes, including "Do the Right Thing" in 1989.
Without explicitly mentioning Lee's career-long fight against racism or other political views, the festival said Lee's "perspective is more valuable than ever" and that "Cannes is a natural homeland and a global sounding board for those who (re)awaken minds and question our stances and fixed ideas."
Ladj Ly, whose film "Les Miserables" echoes some of Lee's work and tackles tensions between police and minorities in a poor Paris suburb, hailed the move by festival organizers. "Les Miserables" screened at Cannes last year and won an Oscar nomination Monday for best international film.
The honorary president of French black rights group CRAN also welcomed the appointment of a filmmaker who confronts viewers and powers-that-be with strong opinions about discrimination and police violence.
"The arts world considers itself above questions of discrimination," Louis-Georges Tin told The Associated Press. "But the #MeToo campaign showed that sexism is all too present in the arts world. And racism is too."
Tin expressed hope that Lee's role in Cannes could prompt the French cinema world to take a hard look at how it treats minorities and France's own colonial history. In French cinema, he said, "it's always the blacks who make you laugh and Arabs who scare you."
Last year's Cannes jury president was Mexican director Alejandro Iñárritu, and the festival's top prize went to Korean director Bong Joon-ho's "Parasite," who was nominated this week for best international film at the Oscars.
Rom-Com Mainstay Hugh Grant Shifts To The Dark Side and He’s Never Been Happier
After some difficulties connecting to a Zoom, Hugh Grant eventually opts to just phone instead.
"Sorry about that," he apologizes. "Tech hell." Grant is no lover of technology. Smart phones, for example, he calls the "devil's tinderbox."
"I think they're killing us. I hate them," he says. "I go on long holidays from them, three or four days at at time. Marvelous."
Hell, and our proximity to it, is a not unrelated topic to Grant's new film, "Heretic." In it, two young Mormon missionaries (Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher) come knocking on a door they'll soon regret visiting. They're welcomed in by Mr. Reed (Grant), an initially charming man who tests their faith in theological debate, and then, in much worse things.
After decades in romantic comedies, Grant has spent the last few years playing narcissists, weirdos and murders, often to the greatest acclaim of his career. But in "Heretic," a horror thriller from A24, Grant's turn to the dark side reaches a new extreme. The actor who once charmingly stammered in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and who danced to the Pointer Sisters in "Love Actually" is now doing heinous things to young people in a basement.
"It was a challenge," Grant says. "I think human beings need challenges. It makes your beer taste better in the evening if you've climbed a mountain. He was just so wonderfully (expletive)-up."
"Heretic," which opens in theaters Friday, is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of "A Quiet Place." In Grant's hands, Mr. Reed is a divinely good baddie — a scholarly creep whose wry monologues pull from a wide range of references, including, fittingly, Radiohead's "Creep."
In an interview, Grant spoke about these and other facets of his character, his journey... Read More