ABSTRACT
The 1993 GATT talks and the vociferous campaign led by the French to exclude audiovisual productions from the GATT Agreement in the name of culture focused the world’s attention on France’s capacity to retain both a specific film culture and a relatively prosperous film industry. The survival of French cinema in a world dominated by American movies was largely explained by France’s protectionist attitude towards its domestic film industry. Little mention was made of the international aspects of French film policy, a policy which, regardless of nationality, has benefited many individuals who, for various reasons, have found it difficult to make films in their own country. In the past, France has welcomed and supported, amongst others, directors such as Losey, Wajda, Kurosawa and Tarkovski. No one would deny that France draws as much prestige and status from its international cultural policy as the film-makers it so generously assists, capitalizing on the overtones of excellence such policy implies. However, French patronage in the world of cinema has not been without its critics. It has been argued, for instance, that France’s paternalistic attitude towards its former colonies has produced a situation where black and beur 1 film-makers in France seem to be ‘too close for comfort’ to the funding bodies (Blackwood and Givanni 1988:116). Nevertheless, French artistic patronage remains impressive: in 1993, France produced 152 films, sixty of which were directed by non-French film-makers.
