Paul Thomas Anderson has added his voice to the ongoing debate about whether artists have a duty to address political issues, insisting he prefers to communicate through his films. The director was speaking after winning the Bafta for Best Director and Best Film for One Battle After Another at the ceremony on Sunday night (22 February).
When asked in the press room whether high-profile film figures should speak out on politics, Anderson sidestepped the question, saying: “I’ll ultimately fail here, in this situation. Where I have confidence that I won’t fail is by making a film. I have significantly more confidence in myself communicating my feelings about the world through the film, and I think that’s what we’ve done with this film.” He added: “I’m not a politician, but I’m a filmmaker, so [I] try to do it through the work.”
The film, inspired by Thomas Pynchon’s novel, has been widely interpreted as a satire of Donald Trump’s America. It follows a revolutionary group fighting a corrupt white-supremacist officer, played by Sean Penn, and stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Teyana Taylor and Chase Infiniti. The movie has drawn backlash from right-wing commentators in the US, with Ben Shapiro calling it “an apologia for radical left-wing terrorism”.
Anderson’s remarks come weeks after the Berlin Film Festival, where president Wim Wenders told filmmakers to “stay out of politics”, prompting author Arundhati Roy to withdraw and 81 artists, including Javier Bardem and Tilda Swinton, to sign an open letter questioning “institutional silence on the genocide of Palestinians”.
Asked for comment on the debate, Anderson’s representative did not respond.
