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From: deb5@ellis.uchicago.edu (Daniel von Brighoff)
Subject: Re: American movies abroad [was Re: International Language.
Message-ID: <1995Jan14.183417.5937@midway.uchicago.edu>
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Reply-To: deb5@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago
References: <D28A3v.1o3u@austin.ibm.com> <1995Jan12.081935.27907@midway.uchicago.edu> <D2D07J.4sD@spss.com>
Date: Sat, 14 Jan 1995 18:34:17 GMT
Lines: 49

In article <D2D07J.4sD@spss.com> markrose@spss.com (Mark Rosenfelder) writes:
>In article <1995Jan12.081935.27907@midway.uchicago.edu>,
>Daniel von Brighoff <deb5@midway.uchicago.edu> wrote:

>It seems only appropriate for French authorities to show some gall...

Ow!  Jack Lang will hunt you down like the dog you are for that pun!

>France still has, perhaps
>because it has taken steps to ensure that it has, a viable film industry.
>An indication is that the same year _Jurassic Park_ was the top-grossing
>film in Germany, Italy, and the UK, the biggest film in France was
>_Les visiteurs_.

That's actually very impressive considering what a monster hit it was
elsewhere.  Maybe the demise of French film has been exagerrated.

>A resigned acceptance of the decline of a national industry is a bit
>easier when it's somebody else's problem, isn't it?  

If the industry is declining because of competition from abroad, then
this reveals a weakness in it that should be corrected from within,
not through government controlls.

>What possible reason
>is there, even on mere economic grounds, for the French government to sit 
>still and allow an important industry to go down the drain?  

Efficient use of resources.  Why isn't the money being spent on bolstering
other industries in which France can better compete instead of being
wasted on protectionism, which any economist will tell you backfires in
the long run?  If the generous grants to French filmmakers from the
government merely encourage them to be inefficient and out-of-touch 
with their market, then the controls are destroying what they mean
to preserve; they'll end up in the same position American automakers
found themselves in 20 or so years ago.

The French say that their national culture is important to
them and they won't see it killed off; if that is really true for the
majority of Frenchmen, then they have nothing to fear from foreign com-
petition.  If that is merely the opinion of the French intellectual 
elite, however, then it is as doomed as the NEA is in the US.  Time
will tell what the truth is, but in the meantime, the French (and 
German, and Italian, and Swedish, etc.) public do seem to be voting 
with their pocketbooks.
-- 
	 Daniel "Da" von Brighoff    /\          Dilettanten
	(deb5@midway.uchicago.edu)  /__\         erhebt Euch
				   /____\      gegen die Kunst!
