Radu Mihaileanu wants us to be "firm with platforms"

Radu Mihaileanu at the ARP debate -

• This Thursday, French cinema professionals gathered to discuss the future of the 7th art.

• The director of the "Concert" who participated in the debates summarized them for "20 Minutes".

• He said he was worried but ready to fight for French films to continue to exist.

Radu Mihaileanu is not only the director of the

and

.

He is also the vice-president of the ARP (Civil Society of Directors and Producers) which organized a debate on the theme "what future for French cinema" this Thursday morning in Paris.

A meeting which brought together film producers, distributors or exporters Sidonie Dumas (Gaumont), Emilie George (Mémento), Isabelle Madelaine (Dharamsala) and Carole Scotta (Haut & Court) and at the end of which Radu Mihaileanu answered questions of

.

Ready for the first debate: What future for French cinema?

# rc2020 pic.twitter.com/IgwDXsjC91

- ARP Filmmakers (@L_ARP) November 5, 2020

What is the state of health of French cinema at the end of 2020?

The situation is not brilliant even if the profession is grateful to the public authorities for the assistance provided to it.

These aids are precious but we must now think in the long term.

The country that saw the birth of the cinema should not be the one that gives the signal of its death.

The agreements that will be made by the government to force platforms (such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney +) to contribute to the financing system of French cinema in the days to come will be decisive.

If we are not firm with the platforms, French cinema is doomed.

What to do to save French cinema?

We have to rethink everything.

We have seen that French films performed well in theaters after the first confinement.

Works like

or

conquered the spectators, even if the latter saw his career interrupted by the reconfinement after having gathered more than 700,000 in a single week.

The absence of American films has shown that French cinema can also attract people.

This leaves avenues to explore such as limiting the number of screens for outings.

It is abnormal that certain films can occupy more than half of the number of cinemas without leaving room for the others.

It would seem that there are also fewer rotations or that they are slower to give word of mouth time to settle.

Can this crisis be beneficial in the long term?

Benéfique perhaps not, but it is certain that it leads to a reflection on the future and that in all the fields, as well political as ecological.

I have the impression that this brings out a certain lucidity which means that everything is not negative.

On the cinema side, we will have learned things from the first confinement.

In particular, if people want to watch movies at home when they are locked up at home, they go back to the theater when they can go out.

The two are complementary and can therefore coexist.

It is very reassuring!

So platforms are not the enemy?

Not at all !

We are delighted that Netflix has 8 million subscribers in France and that its results increased by 28% during the first lockdown!

It is always good that the movies are seen.

We just don't want the platforms to keep the rights to films indefinitely.

Few people can afford subscriptions to all platforms.

The works should be able to become accessible to everyone after a year or two.

This would make it possible to fight better against piracy, which means that films do not bring in money for creators who therefore cannot finance new ones.

What if the platforms say no to this contribution?

They can go to other countries which are not protected by the French cultural exception!

We have developed a virtuous give-and-take system.

Sometimes they do not pay taxes, they have astronomical sums at their disposal, they cannot take everything without giving anything in return.

It is out of the question to give in to them on all points if we want cinema to continue to exist.

Do you think that French cinema professionals are listened to by the government?

I may be naive, but I think the politicians want the happiness of the people.

The debate this Thursday morning was a way of alerting our leaders.

Culture in general and cinema in particular are a lot of jobs and they are threatened today.

We whisper that filming could be interrupted from November 11, which would be a significant signal for our businesses.

It is not because we exercise professions of passion that we are not essential.

Public authorities must understand this.

If not, we will remember him fondly as we take to the streets.

We are on our knees: we must not finish ourselves off.

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