It's official: the French would rather watch American movies. Last year, French films captured less than a third of the tickets sold at cinemas in France and the market share of the indigenous movie industry is deteriorating while American action movies are getting more bottoms on seats, according to the latest figures from Centre National du Cinema et de l'Image Animée. The struggle by French film producers to withstand a cultural war of attrition from Hollywood will sound familiar in Canada but recent efforts by the French government to erect a regulatory Maginot line against the advance of American commerce and culture are probably mistaken.
In a show of defiance last week, the French parliament unanimously approved a bill that would seek to stop Amazon's juggernaut from bulldozing French independent bookstores. The law, which is now before the Senate, would prevent Amazon from offering free delivery to its customers, thus undercutting local bookstores. In France, booksellers are prohibited from offering discounts greater than 5 per cent, a law dating from the 19th century which seeks to protect book shops and prevents Amazon from luring customers away from shops by offering much lower prices.
The campaign against Amazon is part of a drive by the French government to prop up "l'exception culturelle," the notion promoted by General Charles de Gaulle that the French language and sense of self need protection in a world dominated by Anglo-Saxon economic power. The cultural exception threatened to scupper the launch of a new round of EU-U.S. trade talks as France insisted on its right to levy a tax on television and the internet to support the domestic film industry. Indifferent to the cries of scorn and derision from transatlantic free marketeers, the French parliament went on to wave the finger at Amazon. Meanwhile, ordinary French cinema-goers seem to be turning up their noses at French culture, exceptional or otherwise, and you might think that Hollywood's free market case is proven. The answer, of course, is much more complex.
Firstly, French cinema is hugely successful, artistically and sometimes commercially. Even during last year's relatively poor crop of movies, the home team captured 32 per cent of tickets sold in French cinemas, down from almost 40 per cent in 2011, a performance that Canadian producers can only dream about. Canadian movies took only 2.5 per cent of the box office in Canada last year. And French movies can do well overseas: consider the success of The Artist, winning a clutch of statuettes at last year's Oscars ceremony. French television has recently produced a gritty police drama series, L'Engrenage (Spiral) and an eerie psychological horror, Les Revenants (The Returned) which stand up to the best that U.S. television has to offer.
The point about French cinema and culture is not whether it is exceptional (although it can be) but that it is different. The American film industry is unashamedly populist and blue collar in its outlook and aspiration. Its action heroes from John Wayne to Sylvester Stallone ape the struggle of ordinary working men, battling and winning against overwhelming odds. Dramas, such as Erin Brockovich or The Shawshank Redemption, tell the same story – the little guy (or gal) fighting the big corporation or big government. French films are mostly internal dramas, about adult relationships, love triangles and emotional ambiguity. Unlike American films, French films don't always end happily. It is therefore hardly surprising that Woody Allen's films are more popular in France than in America. Nor should we be surprised that in a fair fight between Paris and Hollywood, more French people, more of the time, would choose to drift into unconsciousness watching the Terminator rather than stay awake with Truffaut.
What the French are really saying is that they want both; the challenge is to find a formula that can finance the one without unduly penalising the other. Nations have always subsidised culture, whether through the patronage of the aristocracy or the tolerance of the taxpayer. It is part of being civilised. For a company such as Amazon, its licence to operate in France has to mean more than a licence to get rich. It must play a part in French culture.
Carl Mortished