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Gerard Depardieu intervened to get United Passions shown at Cannes

FIFA movie United Passions, starring Tim Roth as Sepp Blatter, has bombed at the box office. Here's how it came to be shown at Cannes

Gerard Depardieu and FIFA president Sepp Blatter at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival
Gerard Depardieu and Sepp Blatter at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival Credit: AP/Thibault Camus

The mystery over how the awful FIFA-funded film United Passions, which has been a box-office disaster, was shown at the Cannes Film Festival has been solved: it was down to hectoring from Gerard Depardieu.

Depardieu, 66, who plays World Cup creator Jules Rimet, personally intervened so it was shown at the Cannes Film Festival, allowing the film's marketers to attach the prestigious Cannes name – its palm-leaf logo and the words "official selection, festival de Cannes" – to trailers and posters.
Gerard Depardieu plays World Cup creator Jules Rimet in United Passions Credit: AP


Cannes director Thierry Fremaux admitted he initially rejected the movie because it was unworthy of selection. But in an interview with AP, Fremaux said that Depardieu, a former judge of the festival's coveted Palme d'Or prize, persuaded them to let it be shown in the open air on a beach.

"Gerard Depardieu was very insistent. He really wanted us to show it," said Fremaux. "I'm not saying we did it to keep him happy, but let's say that he insisted a lot."

Fremaux attended the beach screening with disgraced FIFA president Sepp Blatter. "I rejected the film," he added. "At the beginning, I said 'Out of the question,' because the film lacks the quality to be part of the official selection. Then they said, 'Why not on the beach?' I said, 'Ah, the beach. Yes, it's a festival. It's football. It's the general public. OK.'"

FIFA, who bankrolled the £20million film, did not pay Cannes to show the movie, Fremaux said. In United Passions, Blatter is portrayed sympathetically as a hard worker who spoke out against corruption. 

The  New York Times describes it "one of the most unwatchable films in recent memory, a dishonest bit of corporate-suite sanitising that's not good even for laughs."

The film went straight to DVD in France and took only £600 in its opening weekend in America. In one cinema in Phoenix, the takings were just £6 – from the only customer who saw the film. It's not known if he stayed until the end.

Roth has so far given no interviews about his role as Blatter.