..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Kim Voynar
..Michael Wilmington

French Fries ...

There are an infinite number of good news/bad news gags one can employ to illustrate the inconsistencies of the motion picture industry.

They all start out with: Well I've got good news and I've got bad news about (fill in name of picture of personality). So, let's test it out by slotting in Sahara and I add the perforce: "first the good news." (pause) "The movie grossed $125 million." After a five second delay you say: "So what's the bad news?" And I reply: "The picture cost $200 million."

Now aside from the fact that it's a hypothetical example, the routine isn't terribly funny on the ether page. It might get a few guffaws live but that's entirely dependent on timing.

The following might also seem a little flat. The good news is that French movies have almost consistently been a staple of the foreign-language diet for North Americans since the dawn of cinema. They might not be the biggest grossers in any given year but virtually without fail more titles are imported and shown in mainstream venues. The only industry that has greater representation is India but its movies play by and large in a separate circuit dedicated to Bollywood fare.

Last year about three dozen French productions received at least limited theatrical exposure in the U.S. and Canada. France produces about 150 movies annually and on its home turf accounted for about 40 percent of the box office compared to the roughly 43 percent of market share generated by American movies last year. Along with Japan, South Korea and India it's one of the few nation where indigenous movies are competitive with pictures from the Hollywood majors.

After the United States, France is the greatest exporter of motion pictures. Last year Gallic fare generated about $500 million at theaters outside of the North American domestic marketplace. It wasn't a banner year but films such as Tais-toi (Ruby and Quentin), Swimming Pool, L'Auberge Espagnole and The Triplets of Belleville sold and played well internationally.

The bad news is that while the United States is France's biggest export market, the movies it sells here accounted for slightly less than a half of one percent of the 2004 box office. Again, while not a banner year, it wasn't a gross distortion of that nation's commercial potency on these shores.

Aside from such factors as the quality of its movies, the appeal of subject matter and the development of a core audience, the French are diligent about selling their product in America. For more than a decade its film industry supported an event in Sarasota dedicated to their annual inventory but the cost and prestige never translated into a asset on the balance sheet. Sarasota has largely been replaced by annual French film weeks in New York and Los Angeles, the latter dubbed City of Lights, City of Angels is currently unspooling and features 17 recent efforts yet to secure U.S. distribution.

Closing Night is the most recent effort by veteran filmmaker Costa-Gavras whose Z won an Oscar back in 1969 and paved the way for an international career with Hollywood segues that have ranged from Missing to Mad City. Still, France has been home for the Greek-born writer-director for 50 years and he's headed the country's directors guild, the Cinematheque Francais and is currently president of a Franco-American initiative that supports events including City of Lights.

His new film is The Ax (Le Couperet), based on a novel by American Donald Westlake. Costa-Gavras is a big fan of things American - a brother in medical research is a long-time Bostonian - including its movies and literature and he found the tale of a salesman downsized from a large company who literally decides to kill off the competition as he fights to get back into the labor force an easy fit for adaptation to contemporary France. It is the driest of black comedies and has been a great success at home where it's grossed more than $4 million since its debut three weeks ago.

He's also a champion of not only the films of his adopted homeland but of any movie that promotes cultural diversity.

"No nation should ever abandon what makes it culturally unique," he says. "I'm not going to mouth all those things about that which is culturally specific is universal. Yes, it's true mostly but not always. It's more complicated than that."

Costa-Gavras was a major supporter of the cultural exception several years back when the European Union was hammering out free trade agreements. It is a hot button issue but he maintains that it was the foundation to promoting and stimulating cultural diversity.

He remembers a conversation with an American counterpart who blithely suggested the French stick to what they did best - making wine and cheese - while preference be given to the U.S. in the area of film.

"The Motion Picture Association (of America) likes to say that there should be no borders or obstacles as if there was equal access in the marketplace. But that's not true and when it encounters resistance, the association protects its turf ferociously."

Former MPAA president Jack Valenti himself was fond of telling tales in which he used the power of the movies to get his way. One yarn involved frozen funds in Eastern Europe that led him to approaching the State Department about a meeting with then Yugoslavian leader Marshall Tito. Valenti was told that there was a diplomatic logjam in that country and to expect a delay of between six and 18 months.

Valenti took an alternate route. He called his buddy Kirk Douglas about taking a trip and then called Tito's office and said he'd been in Belgrade with the movie star the following Tuesday and would he have time to meet them. The rest of the story is relatively pro forma.

Costa-Gavras doesn't have any plans to enlist Gerard Depardieu and call upon George Bush but he nonetheless feels that French government and film industry leaders have to be steadfast and creative about keeping cultural diversity at the forefront. He says that the issue of piracy has provided a bond between the two countries that could well extend into other areas.

But he stresses that the current vitality of French cinema as well as filmmaking throughout Europe and Asia is a new generation of movie makers that know their craft and audience. The problem is they might also have an audience outside their physical borders of operation and no means of accessing it. In France that's been addressed through a program that provides art cinemas with tax breaks for showing international productions. Paris has long been a haven for people with a taste for movies from every corner of the globe and in the past few years that hunger has spread to other major centers including Lyon and Nice and several collage towns.

"You have to recognize what's there; what it is people want even if they don't know what it is," says Costa-Gavras. "Many of the French politicians didn't want the cultural exception when it was first introduced because they didn't understand it. They didn't know that it was the basis of other things. I'm sure many still don't understand it but they see it has been very beneficial and maybe that's enough. But you have to keep vigilant and push them to do other things that support and expand it."

French government support for film is also structured in a way that makes it easier for new filmmakers to secure funding. About 30 percent of its annual production involves first films but many concede that the majority has a difficult time getting their next production under way. The concern is to make changes to the program that will turn the process into something slightly less Darwinian.

Another recent criticism is what's seen as the Americanization of French movies. The primary whipping boy in this area is Luc Besson not simply for shooting many of his films in English but for adopting where are seen as empty-headed genres with stunts and spectacle. He did three very successful Taxi movies in France before running the franchise into the ground with an American version last year.

The whole notion of what is French was turned on its ear in the past year when government certification for tax purposes was denied A Very Long Engagement but extended to Alexander. The panel felt the first film came up short because it was financed by Warner Bros. but allowed the latter film an exemption because writer-director Oliver Stone holds a French passport and did most of his post production in Paris.

"The situation is often absurd," observes Costa-Gavras. "You have a film with a French subject made by French filmmakers and technicians in France in the French language and decide it doesn't meet the criteria because of an investment from an American company. You're penalizing everyone for good fortune. The studio didn't come in and say we'll give you the money if you make it in English and cast an American star. It said we like the project and make it your way and use your actors and technicians and we'll distribute it around the world."

He also points to French investment in a wide variety of European and Asian productions as good business rather than the imprimatur of a cultural stamp.

"I don't think I fully realized what attracted me to The Ax until we were shooting the film," says Costa-Gavras. "Obviously it's an indictment of how business evolves into something very dehumanizing. You can read it and accept it as fact but of course it has wider significance and the way people conduct themselves is alarming and funny. It's double-edged and if we fail to see the humor in it - as in so many things in life - we are in real danger of losing our perspective and humanity."

April 16, 2005

- by Leonard Klady