The Guardian proudly summarizes Robert de Niro’s speech at the opening of the Cannes Festival 2025: “Yeah, you always think about it, of course,” de Niro says. “But I’m too old for all that. The man is a bully and you can’t let bullies win. If a bully comes for your lunch money on Monday, he’s going to ask for more on Tuesday. You have to stand up. And I wouldn’t want to look at myself if I didn’t.” “I look at people like [secretary of state Marco] Rubio. I see him sitting by when they [Trump and JD Vance] beat up Zelenskyy, after all the times that he has defended Ukraine in the past. And I think, what the hell does he tell his kids about that? It won’t be forgotten,” “Historically, this will not be forgotten.”
De Niro, a mega-rich mega-star from Hollywood spoke about he beloved subject: Trump trashing. This was the Cannes opening sound.
De Niro added to his speech: “We have to stop what’s going on, it’s insane.” He precisely meant Donald Trump with this attack. It is a shame that he is allowed to carry over US political insanity. What is there to stop? A democratically elected president? Some of Trump’s measures are attacked in US courts, but almost all are legal and continue.
What else? Ukraine? Trump wants to terminate “Biden’s War”, a proxy war launched by the Obama/Biden Administration and now continued by some European governments (where the majority of the people clearly reject an implication in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict). So why does de Niro speak out what most people in Europe do not want to hear? And why at the Cannes Festival, why on a scene offered to him to honor him as actor not as activist?
De Niro is more and more on a lost position in the US. He does not need to work, he is extremely rich. But his outburst against Trump is excluding him further from the US public. Now, trying to make his point on a European scene is disappointing.
The Cannes Festival should have reacted to clarify that there is not position taken regarding the US internal politics.
The Cannes Festival has elected as winner, best movie, the film of an exiled Iranian producer and filmmaker. Another political statement but closer to the moral and sentiments of the film watching public. While the film was shocking, it became boring over time and could be classified into the categories of films of which the majority of spectators will switch to another channel. Politics do not sell and do not interest, unless a small leftist class of activists.
And on the final day in Cannes, all lights were switched off. It was an attack on the electrical network. All day in Cannes no electricity, just back on time for the final when winners’ trophies were remitted.
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