If there is one thing the “Gladiator II” press tour taught us, it’s that Ridley Scott is at the no fucks given portion of his career. He’s willing to say whatever he wants because his icon status affords it. So, it should be no surprise that the filmmaker might have shared something controversial in a recent roundtable.
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In the THR Director Roundtable, Ridley Scott talked about his newest film, “Gladiator II,” with some of the other filmmakers who are likely competing for Best Director at this year’s Oscars. However, the portion of the discussion that might be the most controversial is Scott spilling some tea about the 1977 Cannes Film Festival.
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The gist is this—Scott is claiming that he found out that bribes had been given to the Palme d’Or Jury at the 1977 Cannes Film Festival, where he was debuting his film, “The Duellists.” He found out because one of the Cannes committee members told him as much.
“You want to hear a story about Cannes?” said Scott. “I did my first movie, it cost $800,000, called ‘The Duellists.’ David Puttnam was my producer, he said they want us to be the English entry at Cannes. I said, ‘Wow, that’s good!’ So I’m at Cannes, and I’m approached by a very important gentleman who was on the committee, a very big American director. He said, ‘Love your goddamn movie. The problem is the jury has been given $50,000 as bribery to vote for another film.’ He said, ‘I will create a prize for you.’ [Scott won a prize for debut film.] I didn’t get the Palme d’Or. Ironically, the Palme didn’t go to the guy who was paying them off. It went to two brothers who made ‘Padre Padrone.’ They earned it by having a good film. I thought, ‘Fuck this corruption, even at this level.’”
Thankfully, as Scott said, the Palme d’Or did go to the most deserving film that year, and the bribe didn’t work. Sadly, the filmmaker doesn’t open up about who was bribing the jury at that time. Perhaps, he’ll share more at a later date.
And obviously, things worked out well enough for Scott. He would go on to direct “Alien,” “Blade Runner,” and a number of other influential and beloved films. Scott is a true legend, even if his debut was in a tainted Cannes.
You can watch the full director roundtable discussion below:
