Exception Taken: How France has Defied Hollywood’s New World Order by Jonathan Buchsbaum

Abstract

Buchsbaum, Jonathan. Exception Taken: How France has Defied Hollywood’s New World Order. New York: Columbia UP, 2017. ISBN 978-0-231-17067-3. Pp. xxvii + 393. Given the widely-held notion that government can do nothing right, it is somewhat refreshing to read a detailed case study of a largely successful set of governmental programs. Buchsbaum examines the ways in which successive French governments reacted to the generalized decline (in terms of production as well as attendance) that affected nearly all European film industries in the 1980s. His principal thesis is clear and remarkably well-documented: “France has shown that in the increasingly globalized and digital world, national industries can survive if—and probably only if—the state intervenes judiciously to support both commercial success and artistic ambition”(2–3). The historical starting point of Buchsbaum’s analysis is well-known: the increasing competition from television, followed by such innovations as videotape and DVDs, led to a drastic reduction of ticket sales at film theaters. The loss of revenues in turn impacted film production. Cinema was losing its status as the most popular form of entertainment. This socieconomic transformation occurred in the United States first, because television had become a widespread phenomenon at least a decade before most European countries. In the 1970s, Hollywood studios managed to counter the trend in various ways: the production of blockbuster films (with associated merchandising), the spread of multiplex theaters, turning videotape and DVDs into sources of revenue, etc. With smaller national markets and therefore more limited production budgets, European film industries could not compete with such American blockbusters as Jaws (1975). American films gained ever-increasing market shares abroad, resulting in the near-elimination of national film industries in several European countries. As is detailed in Buchsbaum’s study, under the leadership of Jack Lang, François Mitterrand’s long-serving ministre de la Culture (1981–86 and 1988– 93), France sought to preserve its own film industry, for both economic and cultural reasons. While state-sponsored agencies such as the CNC already supported French cinema, through such means as the avance sur recettes, Lang developed innovative ways to turn television into a source of investment for the production of films. The goal was to transform the competition between cinema and television into a symbiotic relationship, with revenues from television used to finance new films that would later become televised content. At the international level, as part of his “two-pronged” strategy “to strengthen the French film industry” (59), Lang lobbied—and obtained European backing—for the famous exception culturelle, which eventually became la diversité culturelle. Successive French governments have mostly maintained Lang’s policies, which since the 1990s have produced increases in market share for French films, along with other positive trends (the number of film theaters throughout the country, as well as the yearly levels of film production). Despite the traditional attacks against French “protectionism,” mainly from the American film industry, what 208 FRENCH REVIEW 91.1 Reviews 209 Buchsbaum describes in Exception Taken is largely a success story: the rebuilding of a healthy industrie culturelle through the sensible use of governmental policies. Western Washington University Edward Ousselin Carrier-Lafleur, Thomas. L’œil cinématographique de Proust. Paris: Garnier, 2015. ISBN 978-2-8124-4930-7. Pp. 713. Peut-on dire que Proust est davantage cinéaste qu’écrivain? Comment aborder et interpréter l’œuvre si l’on complique/multiplie les perspectives sur la création et les rigueurs (inter)disciplinaires? On ne se rapporte pas à l’œuvre d’art“par la connaissance ou par le savoir, mais par la transformation et l’interprétation”, nous dit Carrier-Lafleur dans la riche conclusion de son ouvrage (678). Dans la création, ce sont la reprise, la différence et la répétition qui permettent de traduire puis de transcrire les “hiéroglyphes ” (terme de Proust) du réel et de la vérité. L’enjeu de L’œil cinématographique de Proust est séducteur et peut se résumer par un effet de ponctuation: dans un retournement joliment proustien, le postulat Proust est“cinéaste”, qui fonde l’enquête, perd à la toute fin les guillemets et...