On: French stars are rightly worried by billionaire Vincent Bolloré. Here’s how to r

Diary Entry

Vincent Bolloré, the billionaire with a grip on French cinema tighter than a corset on a Victorian governess, has the stars in a tizzy. Of course they’re alarmed - when a man owns enough media to stage a one-man remake of The Truman Show with real citizens, democracy starts to feel less like a noble experiment and more like a particularly elaborate magic trick where the audience is also the rabbit.

The proposed EU fund to “protect democracy in perpetuity” is delightful. One imagines an enormous vault filled with democracy, perhaps stacked in neat rows like tinned beans, guarded by a clerk with impeccable posture and a clipboard. (The clipboard, naturally, is the true seat of power.) The idea that democracy can be preserved indefinitely, like a jar of pickled onions, is comforting - if one ignores the fact that most preserved things lose their original texture over time.

Meanwhile, McCarthy’s specter looms, which is always inconvenient for specters, given how poorly they cast shadows. The suggestion that history repeats itself is only half the story - it’s more that history stammers, getting stuck on certain syllables while everyone politely pretends not to notice.

I do hope Bolloré at least has the decency to twirl his mustache while dismantling artistic freedom. It’s only polite.