Most people in France think Benny Hill is the epitome of British TV
Art historian Sandrine Voillet, who spent time working for the BBC, describes some of the cultural differences she has noticed between France and the UK. ‘You don’t look French enough,’ I was told by BBC producers during the casting for the ‘Paris’ TV series. Straight away I was taken to a clothes shop and dressed with … a trench coat. I guess that’s that what they felt French people should look like on British television, but personally I had the feeling of being dressed like Inspector Clouseau. I thought my strong accent would be enough to prove my Gallic credentials but apparently not. Fair enough, I thought, as most French people think of Benny Hill and ‘Mr Bean’ as the epitome of British TV…
In any case, hoping to influence the British perception of France towards more than simply a collection of clichés, I had proudly enrolled to work for the British Broadcast Corporation.
After a few months preparation work, researching and refining the scripts, we began shooting.
A BBC crew in action was a formidable sight to behold, 12-hour working days with hardly a break for three consecutive weeks and everyone seemed to think it was normal. Nobody ever complained.
Of course, when getting authorisations to shoot on location, invoking the hallowed name ‘BBC’ to French authorities is like saying ‘Open Sesame’; synonymous with quality, it opens doors everywhere. Unfortunately this renowned institution is now experiencing budget cuts, such as on lavish period drama productions.
But then, the situation in France is no better. Can we compare the BBC to France Televisions, the state owned group which runs five channels, France 2, 3, 4, 5, Ô? The recent French reform of state TV funding plans to stop advertising between programmes. Knowing that France is one of the countries with the least adverts on TV, some people wonder how its TV channels will cope with the loss of funds.
Cinema and TV are two very different worlds, for many reasons the former has always looked down on the later. While French cinema is widely appreciated abroad, French television is less so. The opposite is the case with Britain, where its television output is better known than its cinema.
While working in London for Artificial Eye, an independent film distribution company, I noticed a few more differences, too. Overall, there are fewer moviegoers in Britain, and art house films and venues are also rarer. The cinema screens are dominated by major distribution companies pumping blockbusters and it’s quite hard for an independent film to get released. For example, it takes a really brave venue to screen a European movie in the UK when Spider-Man comes out. Not so in France. It is the European country with the highest number of cinema visits a year (around 177 millions sold in 2007) and also of films produced (185 in 2008 including co-productions).
Although local productions like Mr Bean’s Holiday enjoyed success in the UK and across Europe, some UK films are better known abroad than at home. For example everybody in France knows who Ken Loach is and in 2006 his film The Wind that shakes the Barley received the highest award at the Cannes Film Festival, the Palme d’Or. But back home it was largely ignored.
I guess the main difference is philosophical. In Britain people talk about the ‘film industry’, but on this side of the Channel it is known as ‘The 7th Art’. Cinema is taken very seriously in France, like all culture. The French government created a system to subsidise scriptwriting and filmmaking – the CNC (Centre National de La Cinématographie). In 2007 its budget was €548 million.
A good example of this difference can be seen in the status of production and other staff. For instance, French technicians and actors are employees (salariés) and not freelances, as is often the case in Britain. Due to the frequent alternation of periods of employment with periods of unemployment – ‘resting’ as it is often ironically known in Britain – a special status to support actors and technicians was created in France called ‘intermittents du spectacle’. They are entitled to benefits for longer periods than people in other trades because opportunities for work in the arts are few and far between, and people frequently alternate between busy and quiet periods.
In Britain we find situations at the other end of the spectrum. For example, sometimes freelances are asked to sign what is called a ‘buy-out’. This Faustian contract entitles the production company to make people work extra hours (read: very long hours) for the same money as a normal eight-hour shift. They are also asked to double or triple their job title: producer/ runner/ tea maker…
So as you can see the way of doing things can be quite different. Would both countries benefit from more mutual influence? In terms of arts or cultural programmes, I believe that co-production really is the future. Such co-operation would provide the perfect environment for learning from each other’s different practices and points of view. If we start eroding stereotypes, the quality of programmes can only increase.
Think about it, how many people do you know in France who wear trench coats?
Sandrine Voillet is an art historian who presented the BBC TV series ‘Paris’ on the history of the French capital; first screened in June 2007. Her website: www.sandrinesparis.com.
This article first appeared in the November ediiton of France’s quality English-language newspaper theFrenchPaper. For more information visit : www.thefrenchpaper.com