French culture dies again

There is a type of story that American and British journalists in France know will always score in their papers. It is the genre that we call "The death of..." On quiet news days, you fill in the blank. It can be corner café, baguette, the concierge, the railway sleeping car and so on (I am as guilty as anyone).

It's an easy hit because ancestral envy in the Anglo-Saxon soul is tickled by the idea of the demise of some cherished Gallic tradition. The winner in this field is culture. We have been writing this obituary periodically since... well, about the mid-18th century when Voltaire proclaimed the demise of French thought.

Time magazine has just taken the old chestnut out for a whirl with a cover story in its European edition. "The Death of French Culture," mourns the cover with a picture of a fake Marcel Marceau, the mime who died two months ago, weeping over a rose. Alongside, it asks: "Quick, name a living artist or writer from France who has global significance."

That question of course says more about the self-centred obsession of American -- "Anglo-Saxon" culture than anything else. If you ask the question on continental Europe, Latin America, Africa, China or Japan, you'll be told plenty of French names, from cinema and music to architecture and fiction. You don't need to read Time's long article because you know that it will run round the old pitch, touching the familiar bases.

 

I don't want to mock my colleagues at Time. Our trade likes cycles. We revive the cafe and the baguette periodically and I notice that Time ran a special reviving French culture only seven years ago.   

This year's version says that the land of Proust and Monet, of Sartre and Piaf, has "lost its status as a cultural superpower". France has produced no great cinema since the 1960s new wave of Truffaut and Godard. The nouveau roman has killed French writing. Contemporary art has abandoned Paris and so on....

The Time thesis has attracted some attention here because France is in a defensive mood. "The attack could just be laughed off if it were not for the fact that some of the criticism hits home," said Libération. "Our country is said to have sunk into introspection at a time when the world is moving very fast and it's struggling to produce popular culture."

Antoine Compagnon, an eminent literature professor, wrote in Le Monde, that it is true that the American intellectual avant-garde is no longer inspired by French thinkers as they were in the post-war era by André Malraux, Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida.

But the French don't have to be so gloomy. If the world is no longer looking to France for inspiration, it's not for lack of French energy. The main reason is the ascendance of American global might and the weight of the English-speaking cultural -- or rather entertainment -- outlook that comes with it. As much as France would like to be, it is no longer a universal model. It is less accessible. You can be well educated without being conversant in much that hails from this mid-sized nation of 60 million.

France has done a good job of holding on to its separateness and not just because the state protects and subsidises native production. There may be a lot of self-indulgent dross movies, but for the past two decades, French films have kept their audience and their share of about 50 percent of the box office. No other European country comes close. A new wave of young directors is making a splash. The most admired film of the season is La Graine et le Mulet, an immigrant family drama made by Abdellatif Kechiche, a director of Tunisian origin [picture below]. French movies -- and not just Gallic nostalgia trips like Amélie and La Vie en Rose -- sell well abroad. Sixty-million people watched them outside France last year. France's latest to next February's Hollywood Oscars is Persepolis, an animated version of the caustic comic strips of Marjane Satrapi, a French Iranian.

The new mixed culture verve is scoring in music, whether rap and electro or the French-bred international artists such as Manu Chao. A French firm, Vivendi, owns Universal Music, which is the global number one recording major. French painters may be unsung, but their architects are stars. Look at Paul Andreu and his new Beijing Opera and Jean Nouvel's forthcoming Guggenheim museum for Rio de Janeiro.

On the publishing front Time mocks the fact that France publishes 700 novels in the fall yet few are translated for the United States. Perhaps, but they are still translated there more there than those of any other language.

But the best proof of the still powerful attractions of French culture is the broadest one. Paris is the world's most visited city and France the top tourist destination. People are not just coming to look at old museums. They come to admire and enjoy the most permanent of all French arts -- l'art de vivre. Gilles Martin Chauffeur summed it up in Paris Match this week.

France does not to pretend to rule any more with its literature or its music but with a certain sweetness of life. .. France charms less with its books and its canvases than with its Chanel No5, the banks of the Seine, its cafe terraces, its foie gras and the Christmas lights on the Avenue Montaigne

Comments

[Claudia]

Thank you ,Charles!

[Monika]

Sometimes I come to think that the fact that one country's culture is not internationally successfull is not necessarily something to mourn.
It can mean chance. Chance to avoid standardisms that go well everywhere in any country. Chance to develop a niche culture that bursts with originality. That's where avant-garde may come from.

[Frank Schnittger]

"A French firm, Vivendi, owns Universal Music, which is the global number one recording major" -CB

It's not really a good idea to have spent a fortune buying a business which has been in freefall for the past few years. They would have been better off buying Google or Youtube.

Yes, its great being a popular tourist destination - so was Ireland when it was in almost terminal decline - but is that all France aspires to be? France used to lead the world in so many ways, and not all of them could be measured by GDP or tourist numbers.

Has France given up that aspiration?

[Helene]

As Charles wrote, it's not France who has given up "leading the world", but rather the Anglo saxon might and way of thinking that have become global.

[Daniel Strohl]

Charles,

Nice and interesting article. Good "pour le moral", since too many French are permanently complaining and criticizing instead of enjoying what they have got in most parts of France – plenty of space, beautiful countryside, architecture, peace, most of the time well functioning « services publics » and health care and, last but not least, good food at an affordable price for most of the people, at least if they take the time to cook at home.

"They come to admire and enjoy the most permanent of all French arts -- l'art de vivre".

Sunday, at 1h30 pm on TF1, in « Reportages », there was an interesting reporting on a few British working in the UK, but having their families living in France, either close to the UK in Northern France – for instance, a farrier crossing the Channel once a week with his van fitted with his tools, to work in Derbyshire - or in SE France or elsewhere, travelling to the UK with low costs flights.

Their families live most of the time in small and unknown villages where housing prices are still affordable. They all seemed to have adapted quite well (the reason obviously being that they had made the necessary and not always easy efforts). They found that the cost of living and transportation was cheaper than in the UK; that they had relations with their neighbours, which apparently was not always the case back home. Most of the « émigrés » seemed also to appreciate the local village markets with their fresh products and « couleur locale ».

It seemed to be almost (too) idyllic...

[Valerie]

I have no pity for the French talking heads who react and over-react to this type of article. At least 2 or 3 talk shows on FR TV have used this article as an opportunity to debate the question and make the point that American culture sucks by their standards.

It's one guy writing for Time Europe, after all, not some planetary concensus. What thin skins these people have!

The French don't even believe that the USA has any culture worth mentioning and don't hesitate to reiterate that belief at the drop of a hat, even to an American's face and on most FR TV/radio shows going, so, you know what? If they can't take an occasional article about the state of French culture, to heck with them.

[Daniel Strohl]

Frank,

"They would have been better off buying Google or Youtube".

Yes, no doubt. But Google is probably not (or even was not at the time of purchase of Universal Music) in the same price category ...

"Has France given up that aspiration?"

If one wants to "lead the world" in at least a few ways, one should have first of all an economic weight lost by France in the past 20 years or so. And second, a will which has been diluted thanks to our various socialist theories ("work less and earn more", egalitarianism through levelling by the bottom while having the people believe that it was levelling by the top - I am referring to our "Education Nationale" - and so on).

May be the aspiration will truly come back if things improve through steady efforts. But this will take time. For the moment, economics have priority.

[unkle]

Funny how people overreact on this... Every body agrees that US have a culture. I love Philip Roth, Norman Mailer, Jeff Koons and Tony Kushner, among many others. Just sad that we just get Letterman/24h on TV, but what people start to get is that TV is NOT culture. Equivalently, french culture is no longer on TV, and this is what make us fear its disparition: its has changed its targetted audience. This is true from any country. Any body .ooking at US TV knows this. France is just getting the same: we need to go out again, and that's great.

[Marguerite.]

Merci Charles de dire du bien de la France!
Vous auriez pu aussi mentionner dans les "atouts" de ce pays pour les etrangers: le charme et l'elegance des Parisiennes. Meme s'ils sont un peu decus car la realite ne correspond pas toujours exactement a leurs reves, c'est la premiere chose que les etrangers mentionnent quand ils parlent de Paris...avec les restaurants !

[Jorg Andersen]

You're right about the self-obsession of the American world and their British subsidiary. Every time you read a US magazine list of "all-time greatest" this or that, it's about 85 percent American and British, with a few Anglo-friendly imports thrown in, like Pedro Almodovar, Gabriel Garcia Marquez or Solzhenitsyn. It's stunningly ignorant for Time to sneer that no living creative French person is world famous.

[Terry]

I dont think Time's article and Sarkozy's latest visits to the President and the rapprochement are a coincidence. Dont forget, most U.S. media are leftist. That means pro-France and ANTI-U.S. Time Magazine is vehemently anti Bush. It enjoyed poking Bush about the fallout with Chirac and how the French were right. Time Mag., which I consider a liberal, anti-US paper probably annoyed with Sarkozy's chumminess with Bush. This is probably their petty little way of tweeking the French for it.

Anyway, right this day down because here's where I will defend French culture and bemoan mine. If culture is determined by movies then we are in trouble. The U.S. puts out nothing but "cookie cutter movies". These are movie ideas you have seen but the plot slightly different. Then there are the bloody sequels-over and over again. American movies have little to offer.

As to books, some of my favorite authors are foreigners and some French. Dumas, Hugo, Voltaire, Rand, Hayek, Tolkien. Who are the American writers who can compare with these persons? It may be true that none have arisen to that stature more recently. But I dont think many of our writers have ever risen to this level. I dont think much of modern art, but I got engaged under a picture by Boucher in the New York Museum of Art. As for music, the English and Americans still dominate this area.

My wife would tell you that the French still have quite a lot of influence over fashion although it has declined a bit. French food is always popular.

It's really in the area of political influence as a world power that France has declined. But, as a culture, I think rumors of its' death are widely exaggerated.

(a million francs if you identify the author of that quote I just stole)

[Mary Chin]

I read the same article, and at the end, it states that any hope for the revival of French culture comes, not from mainstream French tradition, but from its immigrants. Charles mentions two, "Abdellatif Kechiche, a director of Tunisian origin" and "Marjane Satrapi, a French Iranian". Perhaps Charles and Time Magazine do not disagree that much.

[Becca]

Regarding Universal Music, I work there and so have something to say about it. It was purchased for a particular reason, so that J6M could have content to sell over his cellphones. And we all know what happened with him. But YouTube or Google would not have fulfilled that ambition. The ironic part is that what he predicted is coming to pass and is one of the few bright spots in this industry.

Why does Vivendi hold on to the music unit? I don't think they really want to. When the sale of all the other entertainment properties to NBC happened a few years ago, we were told "The French" (as Vivendi is always called amongst the execs here) wanted to unload Universal Music as well. NBC wouldn't take it.

Any sale now would come at a great loss, thanks to what Messier paid. That's the only reason Vivendi owns Universal Music.

[Bob in Colorado]

Mr. Bremner - some observations:

Why would anyone care what Time Magazine has to say?

You have made a fundamental error - one should never use the words "rap" and music in the same sentence (except perhaps in contrast).

Modern/contemporary art is largely a sham and a scam, and will ultimately be recognized as such.

The American intellectual avant-garde is a pack of idiots.

"Anglo-American popular culture" is a vast wasteland.

The British deserve to rot in hell for the invention of Banality TV.

The dreck and drivel broadcast on American TV is beneath me. Most of it is beneath my notice; the rest is beneath my contempt. I haven't watched it for at least a decade. I would rather be stuck in a confined space with a smoker than someone watching the idiot box.

I actually went to the movies twice last year - to see "The Phantom of the Opera" and the latest "Pride and Prejudice." Otherwise, I haven't been to see a movie this century. I can't imagine going again for at least a decade. It's not that I don't get out - I recently spent $500 for three tickets to a mediocre production of La Traviata.

There are many things I would like to see in France (Notre Dame, la Palais Garnier, the grave of la Dame aux Camellias, le Chateau de Cirey), but I doubt that I will ever come. My French isn't good enough to hide the fact that I am an American, and I will not pretend to be Canadian, so I would not expect to be welcome.

[Seb]

Very good piece of journalism, thank you. That's what we can expect from a foreign correspondent: going against clichés. Now I'm glad to go back to France for the Xmas recess.
I will dance TECTONIK for sure, another French modern cultural aspect that could cross the Channel very soon, couldn't it?

[Robert Marchenoir]

Thank you, Charles. That's a gallant gesture from you.

Unfortunately, I'm afraid you are wrong. Or you'll be proven wrong in a very few years.

Check the different international studies about educational achievement. French pupils' scores are much lower than American or British ones.

Alain Bentolila, who teaches at university, says that a full third of his students are unable to find the right words to express their thoughts (don't ask how brilliant these might be).

That's during their third year into university.

And what are these young people studying?

Linguistics.

[Chris Smith]

The Time article was crude but it made a point that Mr. Free Market Sarkozy would be well to heed. Despite spending megamillions of French taxpayer euros on promoting its cultural product abroad, and despite protectionist laws, quotas, subsidies, and grants (as well as bribes in the form of medals and other “honors”), France is churning out movies and books that fewer and fewer people care about.

On the bright side (as I try to highlight in my website Frenchculturenow.com) much of the successful “French” art that the government takes credit for is produced by first-generation immigrants from Asia, Africa, latin america, and eastern Europe. Without this new and alien creative blood (for whom France is a convenient host), the country’s name would even be less present in the world’s cinemas, libraries, and concert halls.

Unfortunately, the French government has a combative, cold war mentality and still fights the “guerre des idees” against the boogeyman of Anglo-American influence, with massive diplomatic and financial counter-propaganda. Every French embassy and consulate around the world has 2-3 full-time staff distributing money and medals and throwing champagne parties in an effort to promote French language and culture. But to what end? And cui bono? The main beneficiaries are not France’s creative types, artists and writers, but the political appointees and Enarque-technocrats who monopolize the hundreds of cushy sinecure posts as cultural counselors and attaches.

[Graham Palmer]

@Jorg Andersen
Having some one that has visited France often since 1960 and spent about 6 months a year since 2000 I find his comment irrelevant. Almodovar is Mexican, Marquez is Colombian, and Solzhenitsyn is Russian . Where are the French Examples? As much as I would like to I cannot quote one (don't give me Celine Dion), and as much as I am a fan, Aznavour and Sardou and not well known outside of France.

[rockinred]

Why on earth should an American magazine - even the venerable Time - be given any credibility at all when commenting on culture? America doesn't understand that there's a difference between art and entertainment, and in the movies for example, box-office is the benchmark of success, not content or intrinsic worth.

[Actu75]

Of course most French would as I share Mr Brenner's revigorating views. It definitely feels good to see the representant of the most eminent anglo saxon media relevantly attack the endless repetition of the most common anglo saxons clichés towards gallic culture.
The cultural exception stance surely has produced more than it should "self-indulgent dross movies" (or other formes of creation). And as far as TV or cinema is concerned I wish our directors or screen writers could take more inspiration from british productions. But that's another story.
And however as Terry's old foe would have put it "le bilan est globalement positif".
It also has not prevented french artists to mix cultural influences (as in fact we have always done since the Renaissance in this country).

[christopher muir]

Much as I have enjoyed visits to the US and been stimulated over the years by her writers and composers, I feel that something has gone very wrong in that country. Time Magazine knows it well and is thrashing around trying to maintain a cultural superiority in the face of an increasingly critical world reaction to the present US administration. One day, special French-US cultural liaisons, as exemplified by the Aaron Copeland-Nadia Boulanger days, should blossom again - in better and less confrontational times.

[Frank Schnittger]

Terry - people seem to have missed your positive comments about France (has your monkey surrendered?) and your Mark Twain reference. Can I have my million Francs in Euros please?

[Valentin]

Funny, I always considered Time a conservative rightwing magazine. It declared GW Bush Person of the Year twice, in 2000 and 2004 - and not for bad reasons. I was a Time subscriber for a while, but especially since 2003 it displayed SUCH a support for the war in Iraq, such admiration for W's policies that I couldn't renew that subscription.
(btw I consider Newsweek quite leftish)

[Axel]

I believe that the new national theatre in Beijing has been built by Paul Andreu.

[Yes, you're right of course, Axel. I have inserted Andreu's name with Nouvel. Thanks. CB]

[Mads]

Terry,
I claim the million francs!! Was it not Oscar Wilde who originally uttered this famous phrase?

[colin grayson]

when I discuss this with my french neighbours they describe french culture as something they pay for through inflated taxes for the self aggrandisment of the ruling classes , nothing to do with the overwhelming majority of french people ; in other words just like everywhere else; TV is mostly imported junk ...the same junk as in the anglosaxon world

I can no longer speak of paris as I spend almost no time there due to the pollution , but as for the rest of france the change in the last 40 years has been dramatic ...at that time you knew you were in france by the clothes people wore , what they ate and drank , the cars they drove , and the way they furnished their houses

now , working wives buy frozen meals , jeans and cheap chinese imports are universally worn , german and japanese cars are taking over [ together with UK 4WD for those who can afford them ] ; wine consumption must be down by at least 50% [ and le gin tonic is on the up since I arrived ] ; as in the uk , university standards are plummeting towards american standards ;ordinary french homes are now being painted and decorated so that people are non longer ashamed to invite you in if you are a foreigner... in my part of france the young people no longer spend their early working years in paris , they go to the uk instead ...I don't mean the PhD's , but ordinary youngsters with a trade or profession

why has all this come about ? quite simple ... the information age and mondialisation ; maybe french is now finished as a world language , but the french are not stupid , they can pick out what they want and no longer are conned into being told that french is automatically best , and that most certainly includes so called culture

btw , I thought celline dionne was canadian except when she wanted to enter the eurovision song contest

[Johnny Foreigner]

Dear Bob in Colorado

Don't be so downbeat. If your living in cultural purgatory, give yourself a break, and go see the things you want to see. There are a lot of chin strokers who like to tick off the US, but, as has been widely said on here, the French love the US. Music, books, films, clothes, TV, the lot. Parisians love to cultivate their US friends. You don't even have to speak French these days. English-speaking has quietly been getting better; I know a number of hugely popular Americans here and their French is often pretty "sketchy". The papers love to stir it up, like CB says above. On the ground, it's a different picture. You'll be fine.

[Dominique]

The issue is not about death of french culture, but the death of culture, weather french or not.

Art and Culture may exist, but they are no longer considered as "above" trading, marketing and entertainment. They are now part of it. This may sound normal to anglosaxons, but this goes against the "mécène state" France cherishes so much.

Things are complex as talented people therefore go in new directions. While it is sad to see that "50 cent" is today's Maryline, that Marc Levy took Alexandre Dumas's place, it is normal to see the scenarii writers of "six feet under" or "desperate housewife" replacing Balzac with great talent! Image and screen replaced the book!

Regarding french music abroad, many french artist are world famous but no one knows they are french! Hair, Daft Punk, JUSTICE to name the first that come to my mind (if you get the first three secunds, you'd recognize them). They sing in "globish", and are no longer part of what used to be called "french culture".

More seriously and sadly, some start to say that the European civilisation is a "civilisation de l'écrit" (writing) that will have difficulties to adapt to the "civilisation de l'image". Africa will find it's way if oral language finally kills writen language.

[John Gregory Flinn]

"...Voltaire proclaimed the demise of French thought."

Perhaps Voltaire had in mind the collective polemic that Dr Pangloss preached. And the need for independent thought outside the modish received wisdoms of the day.
Which situation still appears to exist today albeit on a wider international scale.

There is a collective (anglo-saxon?) "democratic viewpoint" which even includes Art as Charles outlines. To be different or stray from these viewpoints, as France often does, can invite such philistinist clichés about French Culture as in 'Time' magazine.

"...the American writers who can compare with these persons?"

TERRY;- I feel you do your writers down somewhat. Arthur Miller and John Steinbeck made profound commentary on America of their time in a similar way that, e.g., Voltaire did on France of the mid 18th century.

[dot king]

If France's culture is to be judged by the standards of the rest of the world - ie Time journalists, then living French persons who are known outside France: certainly Charles Aznavour despite what is said above, Brigitte Bardot was certainly alive this morning or I'd have heard differently on the news, Jean-Michel Jarre is pretty damn famous too, Mireille Mathieu is much-loved in Japan. In the cinema, well, Audrey Tautou made a splash in both "Amélie" and the "Da Vinci Code", Lambert Wilson is one of Hollywood's favourite bad guys - and he's no slouch. More later, duty calls . . .

[qwerty]

When I think of Anglo-Saxon film directors I like, I think primarily of: Tim Burton (everything), the Coen Brothers (the Big Lebowski and just about everything), Stephen Frears (Dangerous Liaisons, My Beautiful Launderette). For English-language authors, I’d put: Brett Easton Ellis (everything), Philip Roth (the Human Stain), Ishiguro (Never Let Me Go), McEuan (Atonement).

Obviously it’s a question of taste, but isn’t there a difference in sheer scope and ambition between these directors and authors and French (or rather, “Germanopratin”) writers/film-makers such as Florian Zeller and whoever made the forgettable film I saw on Canal Plus the other day named “les Amitiés Maléfiques”?

Are there any living French authors who’ve written anything as intellectually and artistically satisfying, and such sheer fun, as “Possession” by AS Byatt? Is there a single young French author who has published, at twenty-four, a book of the scope of “White Teeth” (Zadie Smith)? What about Pessl’s “Special Topics in Calamity Physics”, whatever the hype?

Of course there is Modiano, and I also love Emmanuel Carrère (la Classe de Neige, Roman Russe) and Benaquista. Michel Gondry makes really good movies - but in the US (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). But it’s the SCOPE and the UNIVERSAL APPEAL that seem to lack generally in French production.

However, I’d say that there probably isn’t a single author of whatever nationality or epoch who can touch Céline, who invented an entirely new language (maybe Joyce, but he’s unreadable for me) -- but he’s dead so cannot be categorised here.

[dot king]

To continue my list of famous French living people - but I realise we have no working definition of "culture" so like everyone else I'll make this as elastic as I can:
Gérard Dépardieu has surely been in films other than French? Carole Bouquet has certainly been a James Bond girl. How about Nathalie Dessay, recent recitals in NY? And how about Hélène Grimaud, concert pianist who until recently lived in Maine USA? Robert Alagna is French despite the Italian appellation. We can surely count Maurice Béjart who died so recently. I'm told that Arielle Dombasle went down well in Vegas (OK French by marriage not by birth) and her husband, the famous BHL, spends lots of time Stateside and has written a book about American culture . . .
Someone above said that if you choose to ignore what comes to you from elsewhere then you ignore and/or deny the culture of others - whatever definition you choose to give the word.
That's true - but the French don't do this. They read authors in translation from almost any original language, you can nearly always see "films d'auteur" américains in VO (version originale) - Woody Allen, Robert Altman, Coppola, Wang Kai Wong, Tarantino. And so on.
Peter Brook works in Paris, John Elliot Gardener is on the radio as I write.
Your honour, I rest my case. ;}

[Terry]

"Terry - people seem to have missed your positive comments about France (has your monkey surrendered?) and your Mark Twain reference. Can I have my million Francs in Euros please?"

Apparently, only you missed it. Did I not pay homage to Voltaire, Hugo and Dumas? Boucher is my favorite painter maybe next to Ruisdale.

For the most part, american movies are awful and have been since the 1970s ended. I dont think we judge culture just on movies, art, music, etc. Defining culture is rather elusive. There's much more too it.

As to the million francs, you are the winner. Of course, as you recognize francs are no longer worth anything. You may collect your winnings by coming to North Bergen, New Jersey by 4:00 p.m. today. Please bring two forms of i.d. Socialist Party cards are not accepted.

[Terry]

Mads said:

"Terry,
I claim the million francs!! Was it not Oscar Wilde who originally uttered this famous phrase?"

You lose. The answer was Mark Twain.

[Terry]

John Flynn said:

"TERRY;- I feel you do your writers down somewhat. Arthur Miller and John Steinbeck made profound commentary on America of their time in a similar way that, e.g., Voltaire did on France of the mid 18th century."

You are probably right. There are some noted American writers. Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway. One might say Emerson and Thoreau too. In some ways, it is a manner of personal preference. Im am a little down on American writers. As far as novels go, I really cant stand any of these writers, especially John Steinbeck. He was a communist who really had nothing very interesting to say. The Red Pony-Of Mice and Men, yawn. Rather than the classics, my high school used to shove Steinbeck down are throats like bad medicine. I think I actually dozed off reading Old Man and the Sea. With the exception of maybe Hemingway, I dont think that these authors had the worldwide influence or stature that Hugo or Dumas did. However, the most influential English writers far outnumber the French writers. Dickens, Locke, Hobbes, Tolkien, Adam Smith, I can go on and on.

Unfortunately, I do agree with much of what Bob said about American tv. Although, I dont share is self loathing of America in general.

[Albert]

Neither England (note: England is a European country and not part of the US or some Anglo-Saxon federation -- I know it's difficult, and politically inconvenient, for our neighbours to accept this) nor France are at their peak when it comes to 'serious' culture at present, but they still do better than the US. Americans can't separate the word popular from culture, and, as surveys have shown, even college students struggle to answer questions like 'Name the capital of France?' They can hardly be expected to know who Patrick Modiano is (I recommend his new novel, ‘Dans le café de la jeunesse perdue’). Let's be fair, though, and admit that America produces some great art, both serious and popular. Tonight Bruce Springsteen performs in Paris.

[dot king]

ps - I mean of course Wong Kar Wai - je ne sais pas ce qui m'a prise - ça doit être l'émotion causée par le bonheur du président . . .
émue, oui c'est ça :)

[Pierre]

The problem is how self-centered America has become, not the end of French dominance (should Sarkozy invade the US just to please TIME Magazine ?).
The American Film Institute best movies' list doesn't include any foreign films. Foreign movies never win Academy Awards (but crap like "A Beautiful Mind" wins !). And foreign countries can only have one nominee...
By the way, if one look at the latest Grammy Awards nominees' list, one would say that American culture is six feet under. Can Amy Whine-house compare to Émilie Simon, for instance ?

[Pierre]

I forgot to mention the issue of Japanese animation "remade" for the USA, the remakes of movies and the US aversion to foreign cultures in general.

In France, songs in Turkish, Romanian, Italian and German managed to become hits. Many foreign filmmakers are well-known.

[Graham Palmer]

@Flinn

If you know any sizeable sample of Americans (most of whom have never left their State, let alone the USA) you will discover Aznavour = ??, Bardot (at least for the under 40s) pareil, Jarre-He gave a spectacular laser show in Houston in the 90s (I was there) and I can assure you that nobody in Houston today will recognize that name; Tatou-She was great in Amelie but that was seemn by less than 0.1% of movie-goers in the States because it was not shown in the mainstream theaters and a onetime appearance in a popular movie (DaVinci Code) may not bring recognition. Wilson, I do not know. Truffaut perhaps in "Close Encounters" and more recently Jean Reno.
Names that are recognized include Chanel, Cardin, Cartier, Hermes, Baccarat, Lalique...which may tell you something.

For you to appreciate my comments, I will tell you that I live and work in an University environment but have daily contacts-through family-with mainstream Americans. Thus I do not think that my perceptions are distorted in any way.

[isobel]

In response to Qwerty asking for a French Zadie Smith - I must confess I haven't read any Zadie Smith but how about Faiza Guene? I think she was 18 when her book "Kiffe kiffe demain" came out and she's definitely got talent.I agree about Benacquista, he's great , unfortunately I think I've read all his books now.
The French also have a brilliant radio station called FIP - plays every type of music imaginable, no adverts no ridiculous chat between tracks.Anyone not in France can get it on the internet via the radio france site www.radiofrance.fr.

[christopher muir]

It's not difficult to imagine a general American reaction, for example, to a French magazine headline such as: "La Culture Americaine - est elle Morte?" A French publication should promptly fire back a deserved salvo or two in the direction of TIME's bows.

[dot king]

Graham: what you say reinforces the point about rejecting or ignoring other cultures - of course it's true that if you live in the Apalachians or the Louisiana Bayous, or some point in Middle America you aren't likely to have heard of Audrey Tautou or Charles Aznavour (or maybe you do your fellow Americans a disservice) - and possibly you aren't likely to have read the latest Toni Morrison or Margaret Atwood - and maybe no Steinbeck or Mailer.
However if you live in France, you can go to Country & Western Music Festivals (there's even one here in the Back of Beyond) you will hear Kajun music on the radio and even whole programmes dedicated to it.

I think that although someone like Nathalie Dessay sings to packed houses in NY, her concerts wouldn't hold the same attraction in those parts of the USA where most people don't know anything or anyone outside their own state (as you say).
French culture is still going strong IMO, there's more originality in new "pop" music here. France has "la chanson française" - which still to some extent imposes a minimum of sense in the lyrics of new songs. A music of "wah wah, baby baby" is likely to be less popular than something with originality, observation and intelligence. There's a lot of "sameness" around of course, but while the world has a rash of voices like Norah Jones, there aren't that many Camille or Philippe Catherine around. Originality plus intelligent lyrics plus performance. This type of music doesn't export to the USA because of the language, but does it matter? I don't think so. Tastes in music, art, fashion, literature, any form of culture are somewhat personal anyway (les goûts et les couleurs, hein?), if we then talk about access to culture then that's a different matter.
Marc Lévy is one of France's most successful authors at present, though I don't rate his work as literature. He is translated into English though and Stephen Spielberg (no less) bought the rights to "Si c'était vrai", so the USA has been spoonfed a bit of adapted French culture.
I know that Amélie Nothomb is translated by American published-only authors, for Faber & Faber, for the USA market. "Stupeur and Tremblements" was a successful and excellent film (Ms Nothomb is Belgian - but French language) and I've been able to get both hers and Eric Emmanuel Schmitt's books in English for non-francophone friends.
So my message to the Time journalist is that French culture is there for the taking, alive and well thank you very much, and with an originality that apparently escapes him. His loss.

[Frank Schnittger]

"As to the million francs, you are the winner. Of course, as you recognize francs are no longer worth anything. You may collect your winnings by coming to North Bergen, New Jersey by 4:00 p.m. today. Please bring two forms of i.d. Socialist Party cards are not accepted. - Terry"

Trust an American lawyer to add some small print to the contract after it has been signed...

[QCD]

Terry: "Dickens, Locke, Hobbes, Tolkien, Adam Smith, I can go on and on."

Baudelaire Verlaine Rimbaud Apollinaire Larbaud Char Michaux Prévert, so can I. Maupassant Montesquieu Chateaubriand Zola Rousseau Du Bellay Saint-Pierre Mallarmé Fontenelle Mauriac Camus Sartre Molière Colette Sand Montaigne Saint-Exupéry Racine Corneille Ronsard Rabelais...

[Maggie G]

Hi Frank,

I was reading your piece about European identity on the other blog a few days ago, and then today I went back to see the new comments and discovered that the discussion has been hijacked by someone we know here on this blog (the lawyer, in fact, who added some small print to the million-franc Mark Twain contract).

And I was thinking, "Poor Frank! He's probably kicking himself for inviting us to check out his topic!"

Very sorry about your million francs, Frank -- better luck next time!

[Terry]

QCD:

The difference is that none of the authors you mentioned have really had the worldwide impact that the ones I mentioned. Rousseau excepted, of course.

[Monika]

Before we start a contest of "whose country has more writers", just let me say: it is difficult for a writer to cross language borders with having as much success as at home ....

Furthermore we could discuss eternally which writer may appear in that list and which not.

I for instance wouldn't have put Tolkien on the same list as Dickens but that's more of an ideological question ...

Btw. I think particularly in the recent years there had been interesting American movies far from pure commercial productions. Movies like "Babel", "L.A. Crash", just to name those which were successfull, put the emphasis on story and story-telling rather than fx fireworks.

[azloon]

we're all screwed, i'm afraid

(he says after a few days camping on a deserted mexican beach)

[dot king]

I think the time journalist's challenge was to name any LIVING French cultural figure.

Frank, I too went on to your Eurotribune site and had a couple of points to make about your initial post on Russia and its position in Europe, but by the time I had time to do anything the discussion had gone elsewhere!
Good intentions and all that.

Azloon, I take it you were alone on your Mexican beach, then how did you manage to get . . . ? I guess you just got lucky!! ;)