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| Keeping the mood buoyant at the Grand Hotel in Paris launch party: (from left) Jean-Paul Salomé, president of Unifrance, Isabelle Giordano, general director of Unifrance and Nicole Bricq, French Minister for Foreign Trade Photo: Richard Mowe |
Although the general mood may not be as buoyant as in previous years the French film industry is putting on a brave face in the face of economic adversity. Richard Mowe reports from the annual Gallic film jamboree in Paris.
Despite the effects of recession at home and forecasts in some quarters that 2014 may be a very difficult year, the French film industry put on its best bib and tucker for a glamorous champagne-fuelled opening last night at the fabled Grand Hotel in Paris.
Hundreds of distributors and buyers from all over Europe as well as South America (for the first time) have gathered to look at the wares of the the French sales companies at screenings in the Gaumont cinemas, just a hop, skip and jump from the refined surroundings of the hotel.
Box office statistics for last year show that the French share of the domestic market fell by 6.9 per cent to 33.2 per cent or 18 million fewer admissions for French films during the 2013. Although the previous year (2012) was regarded as a vintage period with such titles as The Artist, Untouchable, and Taken 2 pulling in the crowds all around the world, there are worries in the industry about soaring budgets and disappointing commercial performances.
Jean-Paul Salomé, the new President of Unifrance who now has been in post for more than a year was determined to keep the mood upbeat, praising “the dynamism” of the French exporters and sales agents who had ensured “an excellent performance for French and European films around the globe.”
“It may be a difficult economic period but cinema generally and French cinema in particular is doing fine and is alive and kicking,” he said, stressing that the French marketed internationally not only their owns films but also titles from their European neighbours, including Italy and the UK.
Nicole Bricq, French Minister for Foreign Trade, (officially inaugurating the four day event) equally was gung-ho, pointing out that seven out of ten visitors to France had come to the country because their interest had been whetted by watching French films.
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| Edward Scissorhands meets Belleville Rendezvous in Jack And The Cuckoo-Clock Heart |
One commentator was quoted as saying: ““We’re clearly at a key moment for our industry. We’re in a period of transition from, what I would call, a traditional model of financing and distribution to a model where we can see we’ll have to make and distribute films differently, producing less expensively.”
Indisputably there is a mood of change in the air – but unlike the big Parisian department stores whose sales have just started with a feeding frenzy by hordes of shoppers, M Salomé underlined that the value and asking price for French films would not be discounted.
The gala opening film priori to the party was the animated Jack And The Cuckoo-Clock Heart by Mathias Malzieu (lead singer of the French band Dionysos) and Stephane Berla. This modern fairytale that opens with a boy being born in 1874 on the coldest night Edinburgh has ever seen. His heart succumbs to the cold and he is revived by the doctor attending his birth who affixes a cuckoo clock to his heart as a primitive sort of pacemaker. Named Jack, the child is assured he will survive but is warned of three things: first, never touch the hands of his miniature clock, second, never get angry, and finally, never to fall in love. It has been billed as "billed by producers EuropaCorp as “Edward Scissorhands” meets “Belleville Rendez-Vous."
The film's release (now at the beginning of next month February 2014) was delayed by the bankruptcy of the studio charged with the animation - just another sign of the troubled times.
Once the industry event finishes on Monday evening the following weekend will see an invasion by journalists from Europe, Israel and Quebec who will interview key cast and directors of French films to be released in their countries from February to June. UniFrance describes it "as the biggest press junket in the world."
