Luc Besson
Information
Live from the Hôtel Majestic in Cannes, Luc Besson, president of the jury of the festival in 2000, congratulates himself on being able to watch movies. He takes advantage of the situation to highlight the fact that, previously, he wasn't able to watch the films during the festival because he didn't have a card. He doesn't want to start a conflict between American and French cinema, he just says that there are both good and bad films. He talks about his new activity of producing young talent.
Context
It was an apparent paradox that the choice of Luc Besson, at the turning point of his career, to preside over the Cannes Jury 2000.
The French director had been badly treated until then in Cannes with The Big Blue (1988) and The Fifth Element ( 1997), popular future successes that were lambasted by a group of critics. In fact, the public endorsements for Nikita (1990), Léon (1994) and Taxi - that he wrote and produced, but didn't direct, in 1998 would largely contribute to Besson's divorce from the press who slated his films' advertising aesthetic.
From then on, would appear less frequently and gave way to the producer and distributor who had just launched his company. EuropaCorp, a true economic success, would endeavour to offer the French cinema new titles for mainstream viewing (Taxi 2 and 3, Arthur and the Minimoys, an animation film he made in 2006) while aiming for international recognition with more ambitious titles, an approach that perhaps took roots with Dancer in the Dark by Lars Von Trier, awarded the Palm d'Or by Besson in 2000.