VI.

The Future for French Films: The End of an Era?

For the first two years of the 21st century, French cinema seemed to be going from strength to strength. However, its economic infrastructure had developed in ways that suddenly put the whole project at risk.

During the 1990s, French diplomats, prompted by the active campaigning of their country's actors and film-makers, with Depardieu in the vanguard, had been able to ensure that cultural productions, including films and television programmes, were not made subject to the free trade provisions underpinning the World Trade Organization. This agreement, the 'cultural exception', ensured that the systems of support for film production operating in France and many other European Union countries remained intact.

The first shock came when Jean-Marie Messier, chairman and chief executive of Vivendi, publicly stated in December 2001 that the 'cultural exception' was 'dead'. In 2000, at the same time as it bought the Seagram Universal conglomerate, Vivendi had effectively become the owner of the pay television channel Canal Plus, taking a 49 per cent holding. At the time of Messier's bombshell, the Canal was investing, through its production wing Le Studio Canal, in 80 per cent of all French films, making it a major pillar of the 'cultural exception'. Moreover, it had also established itself as a major player in international co-production. Worse was to come when, in April 2002, Messier fired Pierre Lescure, the Canal’s founding chief executive, provoking immediate protests from staff, in the middle of a programme while on air, and from many leading actors, film-makers, and footballers. At the same time, Vivendi Universal's stock suffered a major fall in value and, shortly after, Messier himself was dismissed from his post. Several divisions of Vivendi Universal were then put up for sale and Canal Plus's future seemed far from certain.

Though President Chirac has often voiced his support of the 'cultural exception', some believe that, had Lionel Jospin won the presidency in the 2002 election, he would have been more active in promoting the survival of Canal Plus in something similar to its present form, and in support of the existing agreements with the World Trade Organization.

As of February 2003, the words of a film-maker from the other side of the Atlantic, David Lynch, spoken a few weeks before he headed the Jury at the 2002 Cannes Festival, summed up the unresolved situation: 'France has an incredibly strong tradition of film-making, helped by a regulatory system that has permitted it to retain a local industry... If I were French I would be scandalized to see that system come under threat.'