In Night Moves (1975), the lead character played by Gene Hackman says: “I saw a Rohmer movie once. It was kind of like watching paint dry.”
That has long been a criticism aimed by Hollywood bigwigs against French cinema. Reduced to the classic elevator pitch for meetings with Hollywood executives, some of the most acclaimed recent French films don’t sound particularly cinematic. That’s exactly the conceit used by an advert from Alliance Française de Singapore to promote their cultural activities.
An amateur French filmmaker travels to Hollywood and sets up meetings to pitch Entre Les Murs (2008), Amour (2012) and Blue is the Warmest Colour (2013), all winners of the Palme d’Or. The executives don’t have a clue that the films they are pitched have already been made or received accolades, and rubbish the ideas. “I don’t know how you photograph internal struggle,” says William Fay, the executive producer of tentpole films such as Independence Day (1996), 300 (2006) and The Hangover (2009), while hearing the plot of Abdellatife Kechiche’s Blue is the Warmest Colour , about two women exploring their explosive sexuality. “It’s show business, and you got no business,” an exasperated Fay eventually pronounces.
The greatest difficulty for the young filmmaker is in attempting to describe Austrian master Michael Haneke’s Amour. No producer is willing to sign up for the grim exploration of ageing. Let’s face it: in a world populated by big-budget summer extravaganzas, who wants to watch a 90-minute film about dying?
