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Mike Leigh lays into reporter in Cannes
You can call a director’s latest film terrific, but it may not mean you get treated nicely.
Relations between filmmakers, actors and journalists inevitably come under pressure at the Cannes film festival, where people work (and party) long hours and often do not see eye to eye on the quality of a movie or performance. But in just three days of this year’s festival, there have been two terse, public exchanges between filmmakers, actors and reporters.
In Saturday’s flare-up, British director Mike Leigh took issue with a reporter from London’s Sunday Times. The bad blood between the two pre-dated the festival, but precisely why remained somewhat a mystery. The reporter was talking; Leigh wasn’t. Here is how the terse dialogue in the packed Cannes press room went:
Reporter: ”It’s a terrific film. I know we’ve had our disagreements in the past …”
