The Seventh Art

American cinema vs French Cinema

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American cinema is often defined in opposition to French cinema: the first one would be an entertainment cinema, intended for a non-cinephile public and the second one an art-house cinema which has more artistic than business goals. American movies are more seen as blockbusters with tremendous investments and huge movie stars whereas French movies are expected to be independent films with low budget and unknown actors. It is a cliché but it is quite true!

Sucker Punch is a good example of a blockbuster movie with a lot of special effects, not a great cultural value. It cost $82 million.

Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain (Amelie or literally: The Fabulous Destiny of Amélie Poulain) is the typical example of a French comedy telling the adventures of typical French people. The budget was $10 million, which is already quite great for a French production.

It seems that the American film industry has been considered from a purely business point of view since its beginning. If the films are considered like cultural properties, however, an economic logic prevails. Thus, in 1915 the Supreme Court declared that distribution of films is simply trade, driven by and developed for the benefit. This explains why the American majors are trying to establish the free-trading for movies and are fighting against cultural diversity.

American and French cinemas: friends or foes? 

However, reality is much more complex. American cinema has a history nearly as long and as much diverse as French cinema, during which numerous directors, actors and producers gave the American cinema its credentials and permitted to describe it as an artistic movement. For that matter, one of the major contributions of American cinema is the setting of esthetic codes which led to the creation of defined genders: thriller, western, horror movies, peplums, comedies… In all those genders, American cinema produced amazing movies that are now references. Moreover, American cinema found some of its inspiration in the European live-box.

On the other side, a lot of French actors and directors have had an American phase. In France, the directors of the New Wave (la Nouvelle Vague) recognized that American cinema was a wellspring of inspiration for them. There is even an entire French festival which is dedicated to American cinema, the Deauville festival (Deauville Festival website). 

One of the Deauville Festival poster

And there are several festivals dedicated to French cinema in the United States (Sacramento for instance). It should also be highlighted that a lot of French movies are adapted in the United States. For instance, the great success Untouchables is going to be adapted by Steven Spielberg.

So, the opposition is not so much between France and America. It is more between the different kinds of cinemas. Even inside the USA there is a strong opposition between Hollywood cinema and New York cinema where New York Film Critics Circle Awards is the furthest you can find from the Oscars.

Movies are one of the strongest tools to the American and French soft power (it actually is the first diffusion vector of the American culture). So it appears quite important to preserve a cultural diversity and to keep exchanging between our 2 cultures.