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France’s New Culture Minister Rachida Dati Makes a Splash in Film Industry, Welcoming Vitriolic Criticism: ‘My Great Weapon Is Combativeness’


This week's news of conservative politician Rachida Dati becoming France's Culture Minister shocked the country's left-leaning film and TV industry.

Dati, who is currently under investigation in a corruption case involving Carlos Ghosn, the disgraced former Nissan CEO, reacted to the backlash in an interview with Le Parisien over the weekend, saying that she was being slammed because she comes from a lower class. The timing of her exit raised eyebrows, happening only weeks after she voiced her disapproval of the controversial immigration bill endorsed by Macron’s government and passed by the Senate last month, and after saying on French TV that Gerard Depardieu could potentially see his Legion of Honor get revoked amid new accusations of sexual assault. “It’s important that we continue to have this diversity and that we don’t limit ourselves to movies that we think will be the most profitable and have the biggest audience,” Thion said, “because it’s impossible to predict success, as we saw with ‘Anatomy of a Fall’ — some smaller films on though or dark subjects can be surprise hits, too.”

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Controversial Politician Rachida Dati Appointed France’s New Culture Minister