Britain now flirting with French cinema

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: England and France might have an old political history, but on the cinema front the two seem to be doing well for each other. Years ago there was an Asian invasion in the UK with films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero, House Of Flying Daggers and Old boy dotting the charts. Britain’s latest flirtation is with French cinema.

According to Unifrance, France’s film export body, French films account for an estimated three million admissions in the UK, an impressive 2% of the market. This was led by 2007’s Edith Piaf biopic La Vie En Rose, which took $3.3 million in the territory, while Guillaume Canet’s thriller Tell No One generated $2.3 million. The fact that the UK has more than 4,00,000 French expats helps.

To be able to attract a mainstream audience in addition, the distributors, smartly, kept the fact that they were French language films hidden in the marketing campaign. There’s no denying that many are actually averse to watching foreign language features. The trailers positioned them as universal international cinema as opposed to native French cinema.

Icon pitched Priceless, a French film starring Audrey Tautou, as a hardcore romantic comedy. It has grossed $2,45,658 from 61 screens (of which 17 were in London) in its opening weekend.

This summer also sees the release of French hit Couscous, Sandrine Bonnaire’s documentary Elle S’Appelle Sabine, the romantic-comedy London Mon Amour, Optimum’s Paris and Francois Ozon’s English-language Angel.

And while French product appears to be faring well at the UK box-office, it might only be a coincidence. At the end of the day, I believe it boils down to the product, its marketing and the critics’ reaction.

Big bucks

Big Entertainment’s initial investment of half-a-billion dollars in DreamWorks coupled with help to raise another half-a-billion (in revolving credit) reaffirms the strengthening Bollywood-Hollywood nexus. An investment to this extent by an Indian major will effectively allow DreamWorks to gain its freedom from Paramount (with whom it has thrived financially). That Indians are becoming a potent force in Hollywood (at least from a financial perspective) cannot be ruled out.

A hope for Indies

Independent filmmakers cannot thank the Internet enough. YouTube is setting up a virtual screening room to bring the work of the Indies to a global audience.

Struggling filmmakers, currently using YouTube for viral marketing campaigns, now have an easy-to-find home and can become partners in sharing ad revenue generated from views of their work. It seems the screening room will highlight four new films a week, picked by a special editorial panel. Submissions are being welcomed as well.

Filmmakers can choose to have a “Buy Now” button attached to their work for sales of DVDs or digital copies. The scheme is already helping aspiring directors make thousands of dollars per month if their product works for netizens.

Wanted thoda magic

After Tashan, the producers and protagonist (Saif Ali Khan) could do with a bit of magic at the box-office. They’ll have their answer on Friday when their kids’ romp, Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic, goes out on a rather wide release.