French suntans beat Hollywood

  The year has been good for French cinema. Six, and possibly seven, out of the top ten hits of 2006 were French productions (list below). The titles will disabuse anyone who sees this as a case of Gallic art beating the Hollywood bulldozer.  Both the number one, Les Bronzés-3 and Camping, the next homegrown hit at number four,  are feel-good, unsubtle, comedies about the French on summer holidays.

                                                                                    

Over 10 million people paid to watch Les Bronzés-3 (The suntanned ones -3), a laborious sequel to two 1970s cult hits, starring the same actors. Over 5.5 million went to Camping, a knock-about effort on the working-class beach tradition that could be compared to Britain's old Carry On comedies. Between the two came Disney's latest Pirates of the Caribbean and Ice Age 2.

Also coming up fast is a new French Christmas hit, Luc Besson's Arthur et les Minimoys (Arthur and the Invisibles), a big budget animated/live action epic about elves that is packing in viewers in 1,000 French cinemas this week. Through a French seasonal sell-out, the film, which stars Mia Farrow and Freddie Highmore and the voices of Madonna and David Bowie, has not impressed critics as it sets out on its world release.

Three of the other hits were in the vein of the traditional French intimate comedy. Je Vous Trouve Très Beau, Prête-Moi ta Main and La Doublure were all good vehicles for popular stars. The exception to the comedy rule was Indigènes, a heavy-going, politically loaded tale of French colonial troops in World War Two that tweaked the national conscience when it came out in September. [Post]

This year's harvest is good news for an industry which has been holding Hollywood more or less at bay for the past decade thanks to elaborate subsidies, tax breaks, and a 60 percent national quota on broadcast movies.

The French share of the box office rose to 43 percent from 37 percent in 2005 -- a year in which the dopey native comedy Brice de Nice came third to the latest Star Wars and Harry Potter. [December 05 post]

An astonishing 200 French movies were turned out in the past year. Most of them vanished quickly from cinemas to await rebirth on television and DVD, the fate of most films produced under the French system. This depends heavily on Canal+, the pay television company which is obliged to spend a percentage of its income financing Gallic films. The financing system changes in 2007 with the merger of Canal+ and TPS, the satellite pay-tv group and the arrival of telecoms services in the movie business.

Not surprisingly, the movie world believes that 200 French films a year is about the limit and the focus now should be more on quality and pleasing the audience. They are right. Much quality and creativity goes into French films but an awful lot of them turn out to be wordy, slow-moving, intimiste, oeuvres. Made often by the same little clan of pals, they would have a struggle for funding in a more commercial industry.

2006 French box office

1.. "Les Bronzés-3" (France/février).....................10,35 million seats

2. "Pirates des Caraïbes 2" (USA/août)...................6,63

3. "L'âge de glace 2" (USA/avril)........................6,63

4. "Camping" (France/avril)..............................5,48

5. "Da Vinci Code" (USA/mai).............................4,18

6. "Je vous trouve très beau"(France/janvier)............3,53

7. "Prête-moi ta main" (France/novembre).................3,33

8. "La doublure" (France/mars)...........................3,08

9. "Indigènes" (France/septembre)........................2,96

10. "X-Men 3" (USA/mai)..................................2,82

Source: "Le Film Français" provisional ranking 12 December.

Luc Besson's Arthur et les Minimoys, [trailer below] which opened this month, is likely to enter the final top 10.

Comments

[Marguerite.]

Heureusement qu'il y a d'autres films francais que ceux qui sont au box office et que vous citez . Meme s'ils sont "intimistes' et ne restent pas longtemps a l'affiche, ils peuvent etre remarquables.Je pense, par exemple, a :"De battre mon coeur s'est arrete", de Jacques Audiard.

[Edward Johns]

Am I being unkind if I liken the state directed production of questionable quality films to UK car production at the British Leyland factories in the 1960's? The quality and durability of both the films and cars were/are limited, to say the least.

[Robert Marchenoir]

"Wordy, slow-moving, intimiste, oeuvres."

You mean... a bit like Proust, if we draw a comparison with the book world?

How many units a month has that guy Proust been moving lately, anyway?

I'm getting a bit fed up with those predictable characterizations of French cinema. The issue is not whether French movies are slow-moving or action-packed. The issue is: do they have real artistic value or not? Will they last throughout the decades to come?

This can happen with many or few words, lots of action or little of it, etc.

That is not to dispose of the economic issue altogether, nor to deny the right of existence to popular, funny, low-brow and quickly-forgotten movies.

It is important to find an economic system able to support both types of films.

[Sarah Hague]

My 10-yr old son loved 'Brice de Nice' and he and his friends still go around saying 'Cassé' when they suss each other out. I was pleasantly surprised by the use of actors other than the usual 6.

[christopher muir]

I certainly hope that we are not saying farewell to the great traditions of French cinema. The New Wave provided us with brilliant films written by risk taking directors such as Godard and Truffaut. Even during the Second World War the French were turning out good films. Now contemporary non-American film producers face a new kind of battle - globalisation, the extensive use of the English language and worldwide audiences' increasingly short attention spans. Would Ingmar Bergman have been able to survive today's adoration of the shallow?

[Ros]

Didn't you see "Lady Chatterley" ? Pascale Ferran may be young but she is an up and coming director - I must say I agree with Marguérite's comments.

[Frank Schnittger]

The obsession with ever more spectacular special effects in action packed moves is, if anything, making the Hollywood oeuvre ever more predictable and boring - with an absence of characterisation, plot, and even a coherent storyline. The simplistic black and white delineation of characters, the moralistic one-dimensional good versus evil storylines and the competition on the basis of ever more unbelievable special effects add little to cinematic enjoyment. Very few French films get any sort of widespread distribution in the Anglophone world, so the challenge for the future must be for France to produce films that can compete not just in the French domestic market, but in the world-wide market as well.

[Peter Mason]

Sorry, surely in any 'top 10' listing films in that countries own language are going to be in a majority? I suspect that a Chinese 'top 10' listing is dominated by Chinese language films and similarly with Malay, Japanese, German, etc.

As a measure of competitiveness against 'Anglo-Saxon' or any other language, films this list is meaningless - especially as one should factor in any protective tariffs or other protection. A more accurate assessment for how well any country's film business is doing must surely be it's penetration into other language markets. If more French films hit the top ten in Latvia, Finland or wherever compared to say American or German films then clearly the French product is outperforming it's rivals in those markets.

[Edward Johns]

My attitude towards state intervention in commercial activity, be it Motor car or film making might reflect the difference between the French and British cultures.
To reply to Robert Marchenoir,the point of Charles's piece was I felt the spending of French tax-payers money on what is arguably merely window dressing for France--if there were large-scale sales of the French films to other nations then the investment would be justifiable. As far as I can determine, Proust was from a wealthy family and did not create his works by use of money from the tax-payers.
If employment is to be created by the use of public money, would projects aimed at providing work for the disaffected youth in the banlieus not be preferable to the employment of film-makers who might well come more privileged backgrounds?

[Valentin]

Peter, the point was, comparing French made films with US made ones: it's not a question of language, films are usually voice or subtitle translated, so language is never an issue. It's more about the categorical domination of Hollywood made films, which can be observed all over the world.

National-made movies will always have the disadvantage of being too, well, national. French ones are too French, and that'll always be a problem in a different country, where they may look like too wordy, intimiste and so on. It is rather that French are like that themselves.

Hollywood's advance in terms of production means, filming techniques, let alone marketing, is SO huge, that it is indeed a shock to see 7 out of top 10 places occupied by French productions. Soon the government will probably cease to pour subventions into it ! :) (not because of taxpayers concern though, the notion of taxpayer inquiring about the use of his tax is alien in France).

[paris link]

The Germans subsidise sausage, the Italians subsidise pasta. The Finns subsidise cultural cooperation. The French subsidise films. Don't you just love a government who doesn't bake their country using "Businessweek" pastry cuts? The French use their cameras like a pen and it has never sold very well abroad. Do foreign sales make for good movies? Is the aim of film making to sell adventure to Somalia? All that kicks ass is not gold.

[Paula]

What is it about French comedies that makes them superior regardless of shallow plots and contrived situations?

I and my Australian friends have been waiting for Veber's latest farce...'La Doublure', and despite Daniel Auteuil not being entirely convincing as the duplicitous lover, and as one local critic put it, with his face 'getting more like a crumpled tissue (more power to him for avoiding the Botox)' the film had patrons laughing out loud... even with subtitles.

It may not be the sharpest of his works, but Veber still enchants with the skillful casting of three lovely women including the beautifully aging Kristin Scott Thomas, as well as a new actor Gad Elmaleh playing 'Pignon'and a wonderful scheming lawyer played by Richard Berry, not to mention the appearance by Karl Lagerfeld as himself.

Maybe it's because its set in the Ritzy part of Paris about which we all day dream, or perhaps because there's no clever American gadgets...whatever is the secret ingredient, 'The Valet' as it is called in Australia, works beautifully as a cleverly crafted piece of light entertainment.

Just keep encouraging French film directors, their work leaves most others way behind.

[Edward Johns]

As regards Paris Links comments, another Franco-British cultural division is perhaps highlighted here--the French arguably subsidise self-promotion, the British subsidise self-denigration.

[Maggie G]

Yay, Paula! for praising 'La Doublure', my favourite movie this year. I already said this a few months ago, but I'll say it again -- I LOVED 'La Doublure'!! It was so funny, so perfectly put together -- not a single moment that dragged, so clean too -- surely even the American religious right would find it acceptable.

It was such a delight!!

I agree with Paula -- French comedies ARE superior.

[Pierre]

Robert,
Carry-on films come and go in the national consciousness. Individually they may be forgotten very quickly. Does anyone have a view on whether "Up the Kyber" is better or worse than "Nursing" or "Camping"? Like Benny Hill they are formulaic and largely interchangeable. (Except for the ones with Sid James.)

But Les Bronzés, Les Bronzés font du ski, Le Père Noël est une ordure, La Grande Vadrouille, all popular, funny and low-brow, are astonishingly durable. They'd be cult if cult could apply to a whole nation rather than to a small group following.