Too many films coming out, too many bad productions, too many bad actors ... In his book (Very) expensive French cinema , the journalist and film critic in the Figaro Éric Neuhoff is shooting the seventh hexagonal art. In Media Culture on Europe 1, he returns to this vitriolic portrait.
"There is a great malaise"
"I'm going to see 200 French films a year out of the 250 that come out every year and I can not go anymore. (...) The French cinema is a flat screen and, with very rare exceptions, we leave the room completely disappointed, "says Eric Neuhoff.
A film critic and writer since the 1980s, the journalist has seen hundreds of films in recent decades. "There are 250 French films a year, that's almost one a day: who needs this? (...) There is a big malaise, everyone knows it and nobody says it", estimates -he.
"The producer is not risking anything"
Among the topics that arouse the wrath of Eric Neuhoff, we find in particular the financing system of French cinema. According to him, it is the source of the "tap of lukewarm water" which characterizes the films which leave in theaters. "The films are financed entirely before making the least entry, (...) the producer does not risk anything, he picks up his phone to go around the table, while it is a job that should be done by crazy people, enthusiasts, crooks, "says the journalist.