A figure in the world of culture is gone. Pierre Viot, president of the Festival de Cannes for 15 years, died Thursday at the age of 95 years, said his son, at the Agence France-Presse. The former adviser to the Court of auditors had ruled for more than ten years the national Centre of cinematography (CNC) from 1973 to 1984, before being elected in 1985 to the presidency of the Cannes film Festival, in replacement of Robert Favre The Bret.

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"I've had a great passion, and this passion never left me," he said sixteen years later, during his last Festival in June 2000. Cannes is first of all "the movies and the artists," he insisted, then, before moving the hand to Gilles Jacob, who until then was executive director. "From 1984 to 2000, I worked with Pierre Viot every day. He was our president and my dear accomplice. Protector of a close-knit team, he has brought to the Festival, nobility, elegance and moral sense of the State, " responded Thursday, Gilles Jacob. "The height of view, its lucidity smiling, his class have left an indelible trace ", he added.

"Pierre Viot, it surpasses the Cannes film festival"

"Her story has crossed the History : Resistance in passing through the ENA until the Cinéfondation, its latest features," said his son, François Viot. At Cannes, he was " the guarantor of a legal, economic, moral of the Festival, and at the same time the freedom of mind to Gilles Jacob to make the festival almost already in the Twenty-first century ", has commented the current president of the Festival Pierre Lescure, saluting a man of " modernity foolish ".

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But " Pierre Viot, it surpasses the Cannes film festival. It is 75 years at the service of culture ", he added, pointing to his work "phenomenal" to the CNC, where " he has chaired the new dynamics of film funding ". "It is with affection that I pay tribute to Pierre Viot, one of those with a public commitment never waivered have made the History of the Cannes film festival ", has saluted the general delegate of the Cannes Festival, Thierry Frémaux. In the 1980s, Pierre Viot, mandarin passed by the senior civil service, had also chaired the board of directors of the public institution in charge of building the Opera Bastille.