La Cinématographie Française (1939)

19 ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ . tTXXXrTXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXin THE FRENCH IS A VERY LIVING INDUSTRY By P. A. HARLÉ The most important fact of the quarter has been the successful hght sustained by the Paris Cinéma Exhibitors against the new entertainement taxes voted at the end of December by the Paris Municipal Council. For ten years the Motion Picture Théâtres of the French Capital had been paying spécial taxes which exceeded by one third those paid by the Provincial Exhibitors. But the amount of these taxes paid by Paris Exhibitors was going exclusively to the State, while the Municipal Council wanted a part of them. In présence of the total closing of the 300 Paris Motion Picture Tehatres, last january, the Governement has admitted that the Paris Exhibitors were right to protest. The Municipal Council has maintained the new taxes, but the State has reduced those previously paid to it. At the same time, the Finances Department has obliged Paris Exhibitors to raise their admission rates unchanged since 1935, so that the amount of the collected taxes would be also increased. Ail this has been done, and the public has accepted it without much protest. As a resuit, the Exhibitors hâve realised the deep value of acting in a very close front and what real strenght the Cmema Industry represents when it unités for a right cause. * * * * Another important fact, which a is matter of current news, is the recent introduction, into the Parliamenl, a few days ago, of a cinéma bill elabotorated by the Minister of National Education. Discussion on this bill will start very soon before the Chamber of Deputies. One knows that for fifteen years the French film industry has been constantly asking for the cleansing of its trade and lor the élimination of its unwanted or dishonest members. For the same time the French Producers hâve claimed for an casier way to obtain financial support. But this support could only be granted by the banks or the private enterprises if films had an insured value and if the mortgages taken on them could be exactly known. Unfortunately the French Industry has never been able to décidé on the necessary measures for this purpose. The resuit is that the Minister of National Education has established by himself a very drastic bill on which Parliament will hâve to vote. This bill includes, besides cleansing of the market and the création of an official register to record film mortgages, drastic régulations such as the élimination of double bill programmes in the French cinémas, the institution of a dubbing tax, a percentage on théâtres receipts to be collected by the societies of films’authors, the obligatory use of non-flam raw film. Opinions are very divided on this bill : the Exhibitors and Distributors agréé on the fact that it is necessary to protect and to help the French film Production. But they refuse to suffer for it. The question is to know whether the Minister of National Education will be able to impose its law, whether the French film Industry is able to operate without any State’s interférence. The remarkable exemple of M. Will Hays in the United States ought to be imitated in France : M. Louis Aubert who was once one of the leading personalities of the French film Industry and who is now a member of the Parliament would be the right man in this post. * * * The question of stars’ salaries, without reaching the sharpness it has met in America, has just been raised in France. The French Cinéma possesses now some excellent stars of international famé who, because they are just a few, ask, for considetable salaries. This practice has brought the habit of excessive wages, even for players of smaller réputation. The casting department costs now in Dorville et André Lefaur dans une scène du film tourné par Serge de Poligny, Le Veau gras de Bernard Zimmer. rnany productions as much as for ail the other expenses. This is much exaggerated for a market which scarcely covers the production expenses of a film, even after two years of exhibition. The resuit is there is at présent in the French Production a trend to reduce the stars’ salaries. The same care for saving money has brought upon the problem of théâtres’ redundancy, at least in the principal tcwns. * * * However, these problems are those of a well living Industry. The French Cinéma is in good health and in spite of the international crisis and of the Country s domestic difficultés, it produces regularly 120 feature films per year. These films hâve among other qualifies their variety. A good thing is at présent the decrease of the heavy and depressing melodramas and the production of gay ccmedies with a typical gallic spirit. On the other hand, it seems that the French Producers and film writers hâve discovered at last the French Colonial Empire. There is at présent a few films in the making of which action takes place in Africa and which will show i.ie power of expansion of the French Nation. French Empire has now become a film star ! This vitality of the French Cmema is an example, among hundred others, that this Country has waken up in front of the international events. It is a country of peaceful and conscientious workers where the troubles of current Iife hâve not killed the very living flam of the National sense. P. A. Harlé.