La Cinématographie Française (1938)

□œ ♦♦♦♦♦ ♦♦♦♦♦♦ ♦♦♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ cimmsmïRi FR^I&IS RAPHIE SE 135 ♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ of Work and Organization the French Cinéma Indusfiv What is the cost of production of a feature picture in your country ? Put this question to an Englisman, an Italian, an American, a German, a Japonese, or a Frenchman, Their answers will astomsh you. For, using the same number of stars, extras, scenery, and feet of film, you will discover that what one produces with ten millons, the other does with one. And each one will tell you that this is absolutely the minimum cost of a good film, and that there is no other way. As a matter of fact, the cost of entertaming an audience for almost two hours is extremely variable. One is always too ready to spend a fortune for a story, lavish scenery, and the exhorbitant salaries of a star, a writer and a director. This folly has only one restriction : the remarks of the distribuer when he looks at his renting contracts. If the receipts cover the expenses, the film is good, no matter what it may hâve cost. The public gets exactly what it paid for. In a country where the public pays a thousand, the film must be made for 1 ,000. Likewise, in a country where the public pays for a million, the film must be made for 1,000,000. The trade balances the production. BUT WASTING MONEY IS NEVER AN ELEMENT OF SUCCESS Now here is a curious thing : the best films are not those that cost the most. There is, of course, a minimum of expense. And, as we hâve just said, this minimum varies with the different countries. It is necessary to hâve modem technical equipment and a staff wel! trained in its use. But it is also cssential to hâve good screen-play writers, authors, adaptors, and production managers. This is exactly what France has. For the past three years independent writers and producers hâve been working with compl te freedoin. To be sure, one finds talent in ali the countries of the world, but also how many restrictions ! Puritanism, social principîes, strict censorship régulations, ail combine to shackle the :reative mind. The idea of rational film production, regisiered, classified, and even standardized by a :oinmercial staff, which has been the artistic ’Aredo” of the cinéma for ten years has chilled ind sterelized ail Creative desire. In the material realm of the film industry, — film manufacturing, studio developing and Jrinting, — this method is necessary. But, for he birth of art, liberalism is indispensable. Like the carefree spirit of children at play, hke the dreamy saunter of a poet out for a stroke, so must the fantasy of these “searchcrs of ait” be left free to roam. How can one submit the variety of programs to the brain of one Production chief, or a Minister of artistic entertainment ? The resuit is always bad. It mak:s for mediocrity, and highly respectable boredom. Thus we see 1 0 or 12 pictures in succession ail aüke in spite of their different subjects ! H owever, let us mention a case that is over more regrettable; i.e., when a high executive décidés that one must make only works of art, of a high social morality, and that the film directors who hâve not sufficient g nius to produce asuper”-maste:pieces worth of the people, be sent to a working camp. This method bnngs an unexpected resuit : nobody dares make pictures. One might without hésitation attribute the variety of the French films of the current year fo the fact that 1 20 films are made by one hundred different units and more particularly, fhat the stories are selected by producers and writers unhampered in spirit, only solicitous of bringing forth something new, unlike the works already created by other producers. Another fact that has împroved this situation of continuous novelty is that direcotrs, cameramen, actors, are engaged only for one film, and do not work under a yearly contract with a big company. Work is ha.drr for these moving teams tlian for standard units, but, here, as everywhere else, it is from the hardest effort that real art cornes. A STABLE DOMESTIC MARKET IS INDISPENSABLE The French cinéma possesses a very old domestic market. Its 4,000 Motion Picture Théâtres, which starded in backrooms of cafés and were transformed from year to year into modem and comfortable théâtres, are mainly private enterprises, where each exhibitor is the owner, knows his public, and selects the programs himself. Very often, journalists are tempted to protest against the exhibitors for their tardiness in improving the comfort of their houses, or for their este in pictures. But one must recognize that even if the French exhibitors are not very daring, they are extremely prudent. In spite of the heavy taxa‘:on, heavier than in any other country of the world, few théâtres hâve gone bankrupt, even in times of financiaî and social dépréssion. In this branch also, work is individualistic. In much the same way as each French peasant, on his small family estate, works his field according to personal methods, proved by ancient customs, it is with an equilibrium coming straight from the nature of things, that the French exhibitor runs his business. Each country has its character. The French pattern cannot be followed by ail other countries. What is to be noticed is that the form of work in the French cinéma Industry, lirs on an independent film production, based on a market of stable exhibition. Without doubt, the variety and quality of the présent production corne, on the one hand from its fine techmcs maintained by a rcgular yearly production of 120 films since 1933, due to its stable domestic market, and on the other hand, from the liberalism and the individualism, which are the features which are the featurcs of its conception, realization, and artistic genius. The Ministers of Fine Arts, or the large Associations which desire to create in their country a national cinéma art ought not to try to copy Hollywood or to create a big artificial machinery, which centralized would produce pictures in the same way as one manufactures automobiles. The case of America is very spécial. No other country possesses a market of 1 20 million patrons who go to the movies in the same way as they eat and sleep. The French cinéma Industry has no more than four or five million regular patrons. For them it produces pictures at a low price. It lives without ups and downs, pays its staff, and makes good films. We hâve explaimd why. If one wants a stable Industry, one must hâve firsdy Independent exhibitors, attract the producers, writers, actors, and allow them to work as they pîease and support them liberally. The French King Louis XIV above ail — never used any other method. The modem rage for technics, culture, and social methods f ails on this natural principle. NO FILM FOR PRESTIGE WITHOUT FREEDOM OF TRADE Films made for prestige, with the purpose of national propaganda, are only exceptions. A country that desires nothing but a film production made for prestige would hâve to spend an enormous amount of money with very little results. In such a case, is it not more profitable to build new roads or to equip the sea-ports ? P.-A. HARLE.