The roar of the Patrol of France above the Croisette – in order to promote a Hollywood superproduction – was not enough to stifle this nagging antiphon: cinema is suffering from an evil which we are not Not sure he will recover. This chronic evil took a sharp turn with the pandemic. Its symptoms vary according to the region of the world.
In the United States, it manifests itself by a drop in the number of titles offered on large screens, which only welcome the “franchises” based on a brand with recognized commercial potential-superhero, video game or children’s toy. The other productions are captured by video platforms on subscription. In China or Russia, the growing pressure of censorship, the border closure limits the choice of spectators.
France continues to be an exception: despite the confinements, the closings of the rooms in 2020 and 2021, the number of films shot remains high – more than 340 in 2021. Each week, more than a dozen new titles find the Road of theaters. But most of them make only a flash pass, while Spider-Man or Batman occupy weeks during the head of the box office.
a refoundation opportunity
The lifting of the latest health measures has done nothing, there is still a quarter of the spectators there and everything indicates that the absent are those who made the success of the author’s films, the over fifty years. It is for them that the delicate architecture of French cinematographic production was built.
Their absence, partly linked to their discovery of platforms during the pandemic, runs a great danger to French production. The successful success of an author’s film did not – by far – a profitable investment. He nevertheless ensured the longevity of this work, broadcast on other supports, exported, and the sustainability of the career of its creators. All things that platforms, if they were likely to acquire this kind of production, cannot or want to offer, preferring to ensure the exclusivity of rights, even if it means making films disappear in the depths of their Catalog.
This danger can also be the occasion for a refoundation of French cinema. It supposes to make the experience of cinema indoor cinema more satisfactory. You can improve comfort, as recommended by Pathé’s boss, Jérôme Seydoux. We also know that the development of conversations on site, at the time of projection, whether thanks to the presence of the teams or by the development of the rooms, mobilizes and retains the public.
If the indoor projection remains the ideal experience to discover a film, the protection of the rooms should not take precedence over the defense of the works. The chronology of the media must be redesigned according to the latter, rather than in the concern of ensuring the sustainability of establishments which often treat films as interchangeable consumer products.
Finally, it is necessary, and above all, that French cinema learns to live for other audiences than seniors. This assumes that the public and private structures which guide creators and producers along the gestation of a feature film allow daring that they discouraged so far not to frighten this clientele. Producers, distributors, broadcasters will only be able to accomplish this mutation if they are supported by a public power concerned above all of creation, more than economic performance.