Ken Loach said Tuesday he felt relief at France’s election of a left-wing president, but the British director said he hoped Francois Hollande did not turn out like Tony Blair.
“It is a movement to the left, thank God for that,” the 75-year-old director told AFP after a screening of his new film “The Angel’s Share,” one of 22 vying for the Cannes Film Festival’s top prize.
But the politically minded director, whose new film is a bittersweet comedy about a gang of Scottish young offenders who discover the art of whisky-making, added: “I don’t know how socialist this socialist France will be.”
“We know from our terrible experiences with Blair and (Gordon) Brown that they got in on a left-wing ticket but were actually very right-wing underneath,” he said.
“And it’s very important that there is a strong left to the left of Hollande to pull him in that direction.”
Loach, who is in competition at Cannes for the 11th time and follows French politics with interest, came out during the presidential campaign in support of the extreme-left New Anti-Capitalist Party.
“Those are the people I feel most close to,” he said.
Loach is the second Briton to comment in Cannes on Hollande’s election after Tim Roth opened the “Un Certain Regard” new talent section, whose jury he chairs, with a “Welcome to Socialist France!”
The director’s latest film is set against the backdrop of rising unemployment across Europe.
“These are very dark times, obviously for most people across Europe,” Loach said. “For a lot of young people particularly, because of the mass unemployment and no prospect of living a secure life.”
But in bringing the lives of poor, jobless kids to the screen, he also said he “wanted to break the stereotype that poverty equals misery.”
“Spend some time with them and you spend your time laughing, because they are funny, and they are witty, and they are surprising.
“If you want to tell the truth about people, you’ve got to have a smile in there.”
Ken Loach hopes Hollande not another Blair
