ABSTRACT
On May 25, the 2008 Cannes fi lm festival awarded the French fi lm Entre les Murs (“The Class”) the Palme d’Or as the best fi lm among the 22 fi lms in competition. This was the fi rst time in 21 years that a French fi lm had won the top prize at the Cannes international festival. Also, according to The Economist (“On-Screen Confi dence,” May 31, 2008, p. 89), another French fi lm, Bienvenue Chez les Ch’tis (“Welcome to the Sticks”), “is set to overtake James Cameron’s Hollywood blockbuster, ‘Titanic,’ as the country’s all-time top box-offi ce hit.” Given the signifi - cance of these two historical moments, The Economist opened its report from Paris this way: “The French fi lm industry is more often given to introspective agonizing about American cultural imperialism [italics added] or the tyranny of the market than to self-congratulation” (p. 89,). In the wake of the two milestones, it remains to be seen whether French intellectuals and critics of U.S. media practices will breathe a collective relief over the passing of American cultural imperialism in France. It is not clear whether the characterization of American cultural imperialism by The Economist, a highly respected international magazine, implies that there are types of non-American cultural imperialism.
