French movie stars demand exorbitant payments

By Dinesh WEERAWANSA in France

PARIS, Jan 12. - France's cherished film industry was hit by finger-pointing and soul-searching after a reputed local producer's newspaper interview accused the country's movie stars of demanding exorbitant payments.

After 'The Artist' which swept the 2012 Oscar awards and International box office smash 'The Intouchables', movie ticket sales at home are healthy, and leading ladies, Marion Cotillard (of Rust and Bone) and Emmanuelle Riva (of Amour) are racking up Best Actress honours abroad.

Instead of celebrating those cherished moments, France's film world is in the throes of bitter internal strife.

Endless rounds of debates and finger-pointing have been the order of the day after popular daily newspaper Le Monde featured a prominent French producer who accused the country's movie stars of demanding unreasonably high salaries.

Vincent Maraval, the author and co-founder of distribution company Wild Bunch, also calls into question France's longstanding practice of subsidising filmmakers. Actor Gerard Depardieu has declared that he would turn in his French passport over a proposed 75 percent tax from millionaires. Maraval's editorial is the latest bombshell to hit what is widely seen as one of France's proudest and most thriving industries.

Maraval claimed that last year "has been a disaster for French cinema," noting that all the French films of 2012 "billed as important". Those included 'Astérix et Obelix', 'Au Service de Sa Majesté' and 'La Vérité Si Je Mens 3' the latest instalments in popular franchises which lost millions of Euros.

A major share of blame for the French film industry's failure to turn a profit could be attributed to skyrocketing contract payments paid to French stars, according to Maraval who singles out Vincent Cassel, Jean Reno, Marion Cotillard, Gad Emaleh, Guillaume Canet, Audrey Tautou, and Léa Seydoux for pocketing up to two million Euros (USD 2.6 million). Moreover, those payments have been made to headline films that never went beyond France. In contrast, they had accepted just 50,000 Euros (USD 65,000) to appear in American films released all over the world.

According to Maraval, French film production costs often surpass what the movies make back at the box office due to the super salaries paid to actors and actresses.

In a bid to reform the entire system, he suggests a public and private financing that drives the French movie industry, and to put a cap of USD 530,000 on actors' salaries in any film that receives subsidies.

"At a time when François Hollande wants industry bosses to cap their salaries, should the film world's top earners continue to make more than they are worth, thanks to public money and an exceptional and unique finance system" Maraval said in his newspaper article which was reproduced by france24.com.

A public administrative body called the National Centre for Cinema (CNC) uses roughly 11 percent of ticket sales at the box office to finance films in France. That includes smaller 'auteur' works that would otherwise have a hard time scraping up necessary funding. However, the French government also requires private television channels to invest in films; in return, the channels can show the movies they sponsor only 10 months after they hit the big screen. Worried about competition from internet downloads, French channels now mainly finance films starring "bankable" actors in order to guarantee good ratings. Aware that they are in high demand, those stars consequently ask for huge salaries.

Nevertheless, Maraval's call to change those practices has been met with fury by some who view the French film industry as a pillar of French culture.

A number of experts have debated that Maraval's comparisons of French and American film industries are misleading. In another article published in Le Monde, former director of the National Centre for Cinema, Jerome Clement pointed out that an average American film costs five times as much as a French film.

France has a rare robust domestic movie industry, putting out more than 200 movies per year, compared to 100 in the UK, 600 in the US, and 1,000 in India. France is the only country in Europe in which nearly half of the films are watched by people in their own language.

Prominent French critics such as Jean-Michel Frodon, formerly of film magazine Cahiers du Cinema, have also leapt to the defence of the French film industry. In an article published on Slate.fr, Frodon stated what he called a rich and varied slate of big-screen French offerings in 2012 (films like Leos Carax's "Holy Motors" and Benoit Jacquot's "Farewell, My Queen") as evidence of the "decisive virtues" of the French system.

Serge Toubiana, the head of the Cinémathèque Française, also struck a protective note, writing on his blog that "the requirement imposed on public and private TV channels to participate in the financing of films" is part of France's "cultural exception" - a lofty term referring to government subsidies for artists. Those subsidies allow French filmmakers to remain productive amid fierce competition from Hollywood.

Culture Minister Aurélie Filippetti is organizing a series of meetings, starting January 23, to address the issue and to find a methodology to finance French cinema. It would give an opportunity for everybody concerned to sit down and explain how precious this system is," she said in a televised interview - before adding that "some improvements could possibly be made".