Film Business in France

Introduction

France continues to have a particularly strong film industry, due in part to protections afforded by the French government. In 2013, French Film Industry was the second largest exporter of films in the world after the United States. A study in April 2014 showed that French Cinema maintains a positive influence around the world, being the most appreciated by global audiences after that of the United States. France can, with some justification, claim to have invented the whole concept of cinema. Film historians call The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station, the 50-second film by the Lumière brothers first screened in 1895, the birth of the medium.

France is famous for being one of the cradles of cinema as we know it. The prestige associated with renowned award ceremonies such as the Cannes Film Festival, which is the hub of French Film Business as well as with famous film directors and film actors, it is spreading worldwide. It is no wonder that the French Movie industry plays a major role in the French audio visual and media industries.

Apart from its strong and innovative French Film tradition, France has also been a leading destination for filmmakers and film actors from around the world. Consequently, French Cinema is sometimes intertwined with the cinema of foreign nations. Film directors from nations such as Poland (Roman Polanski, Krzysztof Kie?lowski, and Andrzej ?u?awski), Argentina (Gaspar Noé and Edgardo Cozarinsky), Russia (Alexandre Alexeieff, Anatole Litvak), Austria (Michael Haneke), and Georgia (Géla Babluani, Otar Iosseliani) are prominent in the ranks of French cinema. Conversely, French Film Directors have had prolific and influential careers in other countries, such as Luc Besson, Jacques Tourneur, or Francis Veber in the United States.

Paris, being the heart of French Cinema Industry has the highest density of cinemas in the world, measured by the number of movie theaters per inhabitant, and that in most "downtown Paris" movie theaters, foreign movies which would be secluded to "art houses" cinemas in other places are shown alongside "mainstream" works. Philippe Binant realized, on 2 February 2000, the first digital cinema projection in Europe, with the DLP CINEMA technology developed by Texas Instruments, in Paris. Paris also boasts the Cité du cinéma, a major studio north of the city, and Disney Studio, a theme park devoted to the cinema and the third theme park near the city behind Disneyland and Parc Asterix.

But the best-known early pioneer, who made films with some kind of cherishable narrative value, was Georges Méliès, whose 1902 short A Trip to the Moon is generally heralded as the first French Science-Fiction Film, and a landmark in the French Cinematic special effects. Meanwhile, Alice Guy-Blaché, Léon Gaumont's one-time secretary, is largely forgotten now, but with films such as L'enfant de la barricade trails the status of being the first female filmmaker. Which is such a milestone in the Film Market of France.

French Cinema Audience has increased slightly over the last ten years and box office revenues are also on the rise. The number of French movie screens is also a testament to this popular leisure activity in France, despite the pandemic. More than half of French moviegoers reported that their cinema visiting frequency returned to what it was pre-pandemic. Revenues have also been experiencing a rebound since 2021 after dropping sharply in 2020.

“Titanic” is still the king of the French Box Office and remains undisputed, closely followed by the 2008 box-office hit “Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis”, which remains the most successful French Movies of all time. As for 2022, “Avatar: The Way of Water” and “Top Gun: Maverick” reigned over the French Box Office as the most successful films of that year, proving the French audience’s taste for high-budget and action-packed productions.

History of French Cinema

French cinema of the occupation and postwar era produced many fine films like Jean Cocteau’s La Belle et la bête, René Clément’s Jeux interdits , Jacques Becker’s Casque d’or, 1952; Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Le Salaire de la peur , but their mode of presentation relied heavily on film script and was predominantly literary. There were exceptions in the austere classicism of Robert Bresson, 1950; Un Condamné à mort s’est échappé , the absurdist comedy of Jacques Tati, 1953; Mon oncle , and the lush, magnificently stylized masterworks of the German émigré Max Ophüls, whose La Ronde (1950), Le Plaisir (1952), Madame de… (1953), and Lola Montès (1955) represent significant contributions to world cinema by the French film market. An independent documentary movement, which produced such landmark nonfiction films as Georges Rouquier’s Farrebique (1948), Georges Franju’s Le Sang des bêtes (1949; The Blood of the Beasts), and Alain Resnais’s Nuit et brouillard (1956; Night and Fog), also emerged at this time. It provided a training ground for young film directors outside the traditional film industry system and influenced the independent film production style of the movement that culminated in the French postwar period of renewal—the Nouvelle Vague, or NewWave.

French Film History, 1895–1946 addresses the creative and often unexpected trajectory of French cinema, which continues to be one of the most provocative and engaging cinemas in the world. Tracing French film and its developments from the earliest days, when France dominated world cinema, up through the Occupation and Liberation, Neupert outlines major players and films that made it so influential. Paris held a privileged position as one of the world’s hubs of scientific, social, and cultural experimentation; it is no wonder that the cinema as we know it was born there in the nineteenth century. This book presents French cinema’s most significant creative filmmakers and movies but also details the intricate relations between technology, economics, and government that helped shape the unique conditions for cinematic experimentation in the country.

Neupert explains the contexts behind the rise of Cinema in France, including groundbreaking work by the Lumière family, Georges Méliès, and Alice Guy; the powerhouse studios of Pathé and Gaumont;  film directors such as René Clair, Germaine Dulac, Marcel Pagnol, and Jean Renoir; and an array of stars, including Max Linder, Jean Gabin, Josephine Baker, and Michèle Morgan. The first fifty years of French film practice established cinema’s cultural and artistic potential, setting the stage for the global post–World War II explosion in commercial movies and art cinema alike. French film and its rich history remain at the heart of cinematic storytelling and our movie going pleasure.

The early days of the French film industry, from 1896 to 1902, saw the dominance of four firms: Pathé Frères, the Gaumont Film Company, the Georges Méliès company, and the Lumières. Méliès invented many of the techniques of cinematic grammar, and among his fantastic, surreal short subjects is the first French science fiction film A Trip to the Moon (Le Voyage dans la Lune) in 1902.

In 1902, the Lumières abandoned everything but the French film production of film stock, leaving Méliès as the weakest player of the remaining three. (He would retire in 1914.) From 1904 to 1911, the Pathé Frères company led the world in film production and distribution of France.

In 1907, Gaumont owned and operated the biggest French movie studio in the world, and along with the boom in construction of "luxury cinemas" like the Gaumont-Palace and the Pathé-Palace (both 1911), cinema became an economic challenger to theater by 1914.

Current Scenario of French Film Industry

French cinema has always remained at the forefront of cultural and intellectual life, and French film and television companies managed to finance a rich and varied group of filmmakers while also helping to support production in such other regions as Eastern Europe and Africa. Alain Resnais and Agnès Varda remained active after nearly half a century as directors, and French New Wave figures, including Jean-Luc Godard, Jacques Rivette, Claude Chabrol, and Eric Rohmer, continued to make films. In 2001 alone, among the year’s most innovative and challenging films were Rohmer’s L’Anglaise et le duc, Rivette’s Va savoir, and Godard’s Éloge de l’amour.

New works by mature and emerging French filmmakers played a central role in French art house cinema at the turn of the 21st century which has evolved the French Film Industry a lot. A partial list of prominent names, with their films, would include Olivier Assayas, director of L’Eau froide (1994; Cold Water), Irma Vep (1996), and Fin août, début septembre (1998; Late August, Early September) examined the moral quandaries involved in issues of employment and unemployment in contemporary Europe. Other notable filmmakers included Jean-Pierre Jeunet, whose Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (2001; Amélie) and Un long dimanche de fiançailles (2004; A Very Long Engagement) won widespread notice, and Jacques Audiard  who directed Un prophète (2009; A Prophet) and De rouille et d’os (2012; Rust and Bone).

French films have received a number of distinctions: four French movies won prizes at the Tokyo Anime Award Festival in 2015, three have received Palmes d’Or awards at the Cannes Film Festival since 2008 (Blue Is theWarmest Color, Amour and The Class), while eight Oscars have gone to the French cinema industry since 2006.

Government support for the French Film Industry

As the advent of television threatened the success of cinema, countries were faced with the problem of reviving movie-going. The French cinema market, and more generally the French speaking market, is smaller than the English-speaking market; one reason being that some major markets, including prominently the United States, are reluctant to generally accept foreign films, especially foreign-language and subtitled film productions. As a consequence, French movies have to be amortized on a relatively small market and thus generally have budgets far lower than their American counterparts, ruling out expensive settings and special effects.

The French government has implemented various measures aimed at supporting local French film production and French movie theaters. The Canal+ TV channel has a broadcast license requiring it to support the production of movies. Some taxes are levied on French films and TV channels for use as subsidies for French movie production. Some tax breaks are given for investment in movie productions, as is common elsewhere including in the United States. The sale of DVDs is prohibited for four months after the showing in theaters, so as to ensure some revenue for movie theaters.