Cultural
Space as Political Metaphor: the Case of the European ‘Quality’ Film
Abstract
The paper uses case studies
drawn from the European Cinema Yearbook to suggest a definition
of a sector of the European film industry which can be defined as the ‘quality’
film. The genre has developed out of art cinema practice and represents
an attempt by European filmmakers to compete with big-budget US films,
at the same time as they examine serious issues arising from the European
experience of life at the end of the twentieth century. The paper concludes
that the ‘quality’ sector of the film industry provides a metaphor for
the effects of globalization on cultural expression.
(99 words)
Presenter
Dr Mary P Wood,
Senior Lecturer in Media
Studies,
Faculty of Continuing Education,
Birkbeck College, University
of London
26 Russell Square,
London WC1B 5DQ
e.mail: m.wood@bbk.ac.uk
home e.mail: mpwood@talk21.com
Curriculum vitae
Mary Wood is Senior Lecturer
in Media Studies at Birkbeck College University of London, where she is
responsible for a large programme of media studies courses offered to the
London community. Birkbeck College is the College of the University of
London which specializes in the teaching of adult students. She teaches
Film Studies at undergraduate and postgraduate level. Her research field
is the Italian film industry, and in particular the films of Francesco
Rosi. She is completing a study of the Italian film and video industries,
and is writing a book on contemporary European cinema to be published by
Arnold in 2001. Her most recent publications include "Francesco Rosi: heightened
realism" in John Boorman and Walter Donohue (eds): Projections 8
(Faber and Faber, 1998), and a chapter on Anna Magnani in Ulrike Sieglohr
(ed): Heroines Without Heroes: Reconstructing Female and National Identities
in European Cinema 1945-1951, to be published by Cassell in December
1999.
Cultural Space as Political
Metaphor: the Case of the European ‘Quality’ Film
The approach of the new
millennium suggests an opportunity to assess changes in European film production,
looking back at how the European film industries carved out niches in their
own market, and forward to the opportunities and dangers represented by
new technological developments. This paper will consider a particular cinematic
form which has evolved out of art cinema practice, which we will call the
‘quality’ film. The statistics published in the 1998 European Cinema
Yearbook suggest interesting reasons for the evolution of this particular
form, but also leave tantalising areas unexplored.
The experience in the immediate
postwar period of the release onto the European market of the backlog of
US films was a metaphor for cultural imperialism which could not but strike
the attention of politicians, critics and filmmakers. It led to the formation
of industry lobbies for the state to take some responsibility for protecting
national cultural expression. In particular, subventions for films which
would enhance national cultural prestige, and which might otherwise not
be made, were regarded as important. As a result, the emphasis on prestige
and 'quality', was effective in encouraging producers to identify certain
directors and creative workers who would be likely to deliver the product
necessary to qualify for these attractive financial incentives.
Art cinema can be seen,
therefore, as an attempt by Europeans to counter US domination of the film
industry in the immediate postwar period; 'art cinema' evolved its own
industrial and institutional forms, such as art house circuits of distribution
and exhibition, and critics who were essential to the process of defining
quality. 'Quality' and 'art' came to be associated with a stress on visual
style, the suppression of action in the Hollywood sense, the emphasis on
character rather than plot, and the interiorisation of dramatic conflict1.
The art film developed different codes and conventions from the mainstream,
consistently providing marks of enunciation which revealed the guiding
hand of the director/auteur. The task of the critic was to identify
and explain these stylistic flourishes which also enabled a film to be
marketed as a 'Rosi film', 'the latest 'Almodóvar’. The evolution
of art cinema and the stress on the creativity of the individual auteur,
did not, however, mean that financial pressures could be ignored.
What I would like to suggest
is that many art film directors used their cultural background, and the
structures of their national (and then international) film industries,
in order to indicate their position as the controlling force behind the
films. That is, they exploited the potential of the 'art cinema' sector
and moved from art to 'quality cinema' over time. In doing this they were
supported by, and took advantage of, wider developments in the media industries,
such as the expansion of television, cable, satellite and video. From the
1980s onwards, we see the development of big budget films, made largely
with co-production deals, directed by well-known directors (often associated
with art cinema practice), but firmly directed at a mainstream, mass audience.
Critics have neglected to explore this category, or to discuss the changes
in narrative style and techniques that aiming at a mass audience have entailed
in the work of individual directors. We can define 'quality' cinema as
similar to 'art' cinema in its validation of the director as guarantor
of originality in conceiving the project and of technical mastery of cinematic
techniques. 'Quality' cinema differs in that it is an industrial category
rather than a critical one, with all the implications of high production
values, large budgets and wide distribution.
European cinema has moved
from a relatively simple capitalist model of production to an increasingly
fragmented and complex model as the media industries developed. The majority
of returns on a film's production will not nowadays be received from film
distribution, but from broadcasting co-production pre-sales, videocassette
deals of various sorts, video games, dvd disks, and sponsorship. These
areas are only hinted at in the European Cinema Yearbook. On the
one hand we can see the development of characteristic postmodern industrial
forms which Harvey calls those of "flexible accumulation"2.
This is characterized by the emergence of entirely new sectors of production,
new ways of providing financial services, new markets and greatly intensified
rates of commercial, technological and organizational innovation. On the
other hand it only becomes possible to make a very individualistic, unconventional
film within the low-budget sector of the media industries. High budget
films have to be exploited in as many territories as possible, that is
internationally, and in as many forms as possible.
In this financial climate,
the choice of film project is extremely important. If you are a director
who has a reputation for competence in the sphere of big budget, art or
quality cinema, you need projects which are internationally exportable,
because your film will not amortize its costs on the home market. You need
to find a project which will find some recognition with international audiences,
hence the consistent use by all European (and increasingly the American)
film industries of the books of well-known or cult authors. Moreover, the
author you choose must be of a status commensurate with your own.
It can also be argued that
industrial constraints - the need to maximize selling opportunities of
a variety of products besides the film itself, and the mass-appeal imperatives
of commercial broadcasting - have resulted in the increased homogenization
of prestige productions from both sides of the Atlantic. As Rossi suggested,
commercial concerns have an effect on form:
"Berlusconi recently enunciated
the iron principles of production as: "filmed in English, with the needs
of the international market in mind and with no sequence lasting more than
7 minutes, in order to facilitate the harmonious placing of adverts when
the film is broadcast"3.
On the other hand, we can observe
increased attempts, by individual European states, and by the European
Union, to combat these accumulative tendencies by creating a space for
expressions of the local, and of national identity. Germany’s subsidies
for film programming and the release of prints, the tax relief scheme formerly
known as Section 35 in Ireland are examples. Film directors cannot but
help, therefore, having to engage with not one but many cultural industries
in order to continue making films.
Examining those films which
appear in national, European or overall top ten categories in the context
of how film exhibition and distribution is ordered, and appears to be developing,
can provide some insights into how the ‘quality’film functions, what the
necessary conditions might be for its continued health.
The most consistent presence
in the top ten lists is Luc Besson’s Le cinquième element
(France, 1997). Besson’s film is both a science fiction blockbuster made
with US stars and stunning special effects, and an example of the ‘quality’
film by virtue of its director, production company (Gaumont), and the eight
César nominations which it received. Besson manages to add something
to the genre with his brilliantly staged set pieces, his visual flair in
the retro-tech mise en scène, humour and mastery of cinematic irony.
Moreover, the original 503 prints struck for France, were augmented by
a batch of new prints when the film was re-released there in February 1998
to coincide with the video launch, through which Columbia TriStar and Gaumont
confidently expected to ship more than three million units4.
The Gaumont company has consistently been associated with big-budget, ‘quality’
cinema by established directors associated with art film practice. Gaumont
also has a music recording arm, and the necessary infrastructure to exploit
its productions to the full. The film is also a wide-screen, digital Dolby
stereo production which destines it for large, technologically advanced
exhibition conditions.
Pedro Almodóvar’s
Carne trémula was similarly a widescreen, Dolby SR digital
production and, although produced by the Almodóvars’ El Deseo production
company, used Spain/France co-production finance to consolidate the director’s
move into bigger budget productions. Again, the guiding creative drive
of the director was emphasized in the film’s round of the festivals, as
were the number of metaphysical issues addressed under the guise of a melodramatic
plot and Almodóvar’s use of symbol and colour.
Jane Campion’s The Portrait
of a Lady (UK/USA, 1996) was another widescreen production with Dolby
digital stereo, classic songs on the soundtrack and the involvement of
Polygram in production and distribution. Polygram has been particularly
significant in its application of the market research and niche targeting
of the music industry to that of film and the company’s presence in several
media fields has maximized film profits. Made by an acclaimed New Zealand
director who had made the transition from experimental feminist film to
the internationally successful, The Piano, the film was both praised
and criticized for its interpretation of James’ book, and for the sumptuous
costumes and stylistic flourishes which set it apart from other costume
dramas.
Where films do not succeed
in having an enormous international distribution, they may still manage
to make their mark through production deals with television and satellite.
Francesco Rosi’s La tregua (Italy/France/Switzerland/Germany, 1996)
is a case in point. Made with the collaboration of Italian state television,
RAI, and Canal plus, La tregua (The Truce) is the story of
a journey home of survivors of the holocaust (based on a successful book
by Primo Levi). It is listed at number ten of Italian national films but,
although it opened the Jewish Film Festival in London in 1997, it has not
had a cinema release in Britain. It has had wide satellite exposure, and
has appeared both as a sell-through video and as an Italian newsstand video
title. The marketing of the film stressed the prestige of the filmmaker,
Rosi, as much as the author, Levi. Moreover, Rosi’s previous use of the
investigative mode has schooled him in the simple, direct, unambiguous
presentation of ideas, something which is absolutely essential to such
a complex and difficult subject.
The marketing of directors
and the vidéothèque phenomenon, however, tend to reinforce
a director's existing profile and to militate against creative changes.
Directors, therefore, rapidly become associated with a particular genre
or type of film. Rosi's recent work is typified by a very postmodern nostalgia,
by less critical success, and by difficulties in maintaining a convincing
political agenda. All three are bound up in the crisis of metanarratives
identified by Lyotard5.
Many film directors illustrate
these difficulties, and the Italian cinema is no exception in its exploration
of national and personal identity at the end of the millennium, or in its
difficulties in exhibiting a progressive gender ideology. All of these
difficulties are encapsulated in Bille August’s Fräulein Smillas
Gespür für Schnee (Germany/Denmark/Sweden, 1996). The film
was produced by Constantin Film which, as the European Cinema Yearbook
shows, is also vertically integrated and active in film distribution. It
is a widescreen, Dolby digital production with an international cast but
also profited from subventions from the Eurimages programme, the Nordic
Film and TV Fund, the Danish Film Institute and Bavarian FilmFernsehFonds.
An adaptation of a book by a widely translated cult author, it features
as number one in Denmark’s overall top ten films for 1997 and was distributed
in depth in Germany and Scandinavia. The film was criticized for its difficulty
in dealing with an intelligent heroine, lapsing into stereotype and, most
tellingly:
"Such films look spectacular,
feature high-profile stars, and sometimes rake in returns at the box office…
but they’re always likely to lack the conviction that filmmakers can bring
to more modest projects, made in their own language and rooted in their
own culture."6
Those filmmakers wishing to
develop beyond the confines of national, low-budget film have the choice
between the commercial, family film, or the ‘quality’ film genre. Once
in the ‘quality’ sector, it appears to be difficult to return to modestly-financed
production. Filmmakers become trapped by the structures of the industry
in which they have had some success, with the result that they are offered
big budget, international, complex projects where polemical debate and
incisive critiques of society are inappropriate. These projects, characterized
by technical expertise, set pieces of showy mise en scène, complex
narratives, serious ideas, and the personal signature and commitment of
one person, the director/author, provide definitions of the 'quality' genre.
The European Cinema Yearbook’s
material on vertical integration between distribution and exhition and
the analysis of the trend towards multi-screen cinemas would indicate a
continued polarization in the European film industry. The ideal of the
modestly financed film which brings in many times its production costs
(such as The Full Monty) becomes more difficult with the development
of the multiplex cinema, which is usually owned and programmed by a US
company. The international, ‘quality’ cinema is one solution to the problem
of maintaining European cultural presence. Its form, however, provides
a metaphor for the increasing loss of national specificity in a period
of rapid globalization.
Dr Mary P Wood,
Senior Lecturer in Media Studies,
Birkbeck College University
of London
References
1. See NEALE, STEVE: 'art
cinema as institution' in Screen 22/1, 1981 and BORDWELL, DAVID:
'The Art Cinema as a Mode of Film Practice' in Film Criticism v
4 no 1, Fall 1979, for an examination of the development of art cinema
in the postwar period. In the 1990s the situation is much more complex,
with most European films relegated by the domination of US distribution
and exhibition networks to a minority position in their own cinema, video
or dvd markets. The role of EU subventions, and of television or satellite
co-production is crucial in maintaining a cultural space for communities
to communicate with their own voices.
2. HARVEY, DAVID: The
Condition of Postmodernity (Blackwell, Oxford, 1997) page 147.
3. ROSSI, UMBERTO: 'Cinema:
da fenomeno di massa a fattore d'élite', Cinemasessanta
6/184, Nov/Dec 1988, page 4.
4. MEAUX SAINT MARC, FRANCOIS:
‘The New Element’, Screen International, 6.2.98.
5. LYOTARD, JEAN-FRANÇOIS:
The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge (Manchester University
Press, Manchester, 1987) page xxiv.
6. MACNAB, GEOFFREY: ‘Smilla’s
Feeling for Snow’, Sight and Sound, November 1997, pp 52-53