Art is made to entertain, but also to warn: in Cannes, Goncourt Prize laureate Laurent Mauvignier supports the signatories of the anti

The novelist is at the Cannes Film Festival where the adaptation of his work “Histoire de la nuit” is being shown in the official competition.

The writer defended the signatories of the anti-Bolloré petition on Friday, May 22. “Literature and cinema, contrary to what is often heard, are not just a question of entertainment. Art may be partly made to entertain but also to warn,” Laurent Mauvignier, winner of the 2025 Goncourt Prize, told AFP in Cannes, where the adaptation of his book “Histoires de la nuit” is in the running for the Palme d’Or.

The world of cinema has been in turmoil since Sunday’s decision by the head of Canal to boycott professionals who signed a petition on “the influence of the extreme right,” attributed to Vincent Bolloré, a key shareholder in the group. “I look at this with some concern and a bit of consternation. I find it all to be extremely violent,” says the author of “La Maison vide,” who speaks of a “tipping point” and “an ideological hardening.”

In mid-April, the announcement of the removal of Grasset’s head Olivier Nora, a publishing house under Vincent Bolloré’s control, had already caused a storm in the publishing world, with over 200 authors showing support. “I sometimes hear it said that it’s just a small corporate problem when it raises questions that absolutely affect everyone,” details the writer, calling to “preserve a space of freedom but also of potential openness.”

According to him, the Canal+ and Grasset affairs show that the extreme right understands well the stakes to “shape the famous national narrative.” “The extreme right has a quality at this moment,” he jokes, “they know that culture is dangerous, it’s important.”