The Political Economy of French Cinema. Attendance and Movie Theaters
Résumé
Beyond the number of entries in cinematic theaters, the exponential growth of the diffusion of films through many platforms, throughout the entire world, might appear to mark the triumph of an original innovation that has since become thoroughly perfected – one that Antoine Lumière would have identified at the end of the nineteenth century as something likely to have no future. However, in the context of a new multichannel economic model, the multiplication of platforms for distribution and exploitation had created problems for the perpetuation of what constitutes the identity of the “seventh art.” In spite of the discourse surrounding the cultural exception and the policies that are associated with it, cinema seems to be engaged, whether it want to be or not, in a process of financial, commercial, and functional integration into the communication industries.
In this context, France furnishes an exception in the world on account of its pool of theaters, the number of screens per person, a network that reflects an ambition to stimulate the cultural life of the country, an active commitment to promote a diversity of seats in order to make possible the existence of different kinds of films. Resulting, to a large extent, from a committed cinema policy that has been pursued for decades, this situation continues to be marked by a number of uncertainties.
One relatively self-congratulatory attitude reflects the risk of supposing that this situation has been securely acquired, whereas any deterioration could quickly
call it into question, especially in the context of a European economic crisis that could potentially lead not only to a loss of purchasing power, but also to a withdrawal
of national cultural policies and support from local collectivities.