Wes Anderson opposed to rewriting works by Roald Dahl

American director Wes Anderson presented his short film adaptation of Roald Dahl's The Marvelous Story of Henry Sugar on Friday at the Venice Film Festival, and opposed the rewriting of the Briton's books which would remove terms deemed offensive. .

“If you ask me if Renoir should be allowed to retouch any of his paintings, I would say no. I don't even want the artist to modify his work,” said the American director, who received an honorary award.

"I understand the motivation for removing words like 'big' or 'crazy', but I'm one of those who think that when the work is finished, the audience interacts with it, gets to know it, then c is over,” Anderson added, responding to reporters.

“And no one who isn't an author should edit someone else's book. Roald Dahl is dead,” concluded the filmmaker.

His 40-minute short features Benedict Cumberbatch, Ben Kingsley, Dev Patel and Ralph Fiennes in the short story 'The Marvelous Story of Henry Sugar', which tells the story of a man who learns to see without his eyes.

“It's more of a small theatrical performance that we found a way to film,” explained Anderson, who directed four short adaptations of the author for Netflix, with the same actors. He had already adapted Dahl in 2009 with the animated film Fantastic Mr Fox.

In February, the announcement of a smoothing of new editions of Roald Dahl's books, in order to remove terms deemed offensive on subjects such as weight, gender, race and mental health, caused an outcry. The British publisher finally announced that it would continue to publish the original versions in a special collection.