French producer, Gilles Renouard calls cinema as a mixture of art and industry and believed that festivals are being held to say that cinema is an art.
According to the Public Relations Office of the 34th FIFF, students and professors of faculty of Cinema and Theatre hosted the French producer, Gilles Renouard Saturday, April 23, 2016. Deputy Director of Unifrance Organization, Gilles Renouard in this meeting talked about economy in cinema and French cinema in the world. At the beginning of his speech he referred to his first presence in Iran and said, “Yesterday, we were informed that Farhadi’s latest film, “The Seller” was selected in Cannes and this shows that there is a proper relation between Iranian cinema and French cinema.
This producer pointed that French cinema is the second top cinema in the world after the US. and said, “cinema was born in France and in September 28, 1895 the first film screened in France. French government has always given special consideration to cinema.”
Renouard insisted that the key point for presenting cinema industry of a country in another one is true distribution and said, “if French companies were powerful in early 1920s and now Americans are powerful, is because their distributors in the world. This is what you don’t have in Iran and its films are not distributed in the world.
He claimed that French cinema is the only one that is presented through the world and expressed, “the number of French cinema audiences in France is the same as audiences abroad. We have eighty million audiences in France and one hundred million international audiences. This is good. The only country that has more international audiences than national audiences is the United States.”
Renouard also referred to the big international film markets and said, “The biggest market is for Indian films market that has about three million audiences annually. The second place is for the U.S and the third place is for China. But we should keep in mind that Chinese are progressing and they may take the second place in the next two years.”
He elaborated, “About fifteen years ago, there was almost no Chinese cinema, and we may claim that the biggest revolution in cinema was entrance of china into the market. Some American films have more income in china. Today, the only company that has the biggest number of screening halls is a Chinese one and Chinese films are screened in the United States. 30.000 screening halls are in china and about 15 screening halls are made in china daily. And that is an impressive event.”
Deputy Director of Unifrance mentioned that he has seen high potential in Iranian cinema despite of his short presence in Iran and said, “today, only national films are screened in Iran and it proves that you care too much about your cinema, but to present films in international market, you still have a long way to take.”
He continued, “French cinema is totally personal and may be this is why this cinema is seeing well both nationally and internationally. Besides, French cinema is so powerful in its territory and about 300 films are made in personal section annually. Today it is easier to express ourselves through films. But still there are screening halls problems. Although there is huge number of careening halls we still need more.”
Renouard described the main problem in French cinema and said, “Many directors make their first films in French annually. Last year out of 300 films that were made 75 of them were the first film of their directors and 50 of them were the second film of them. The problem in France is not making the first or second film; it is making the third film. It is important that filmmakers stay in their career. French cinema also welcomes female filmmakers which is one of the characteristics of this cinema.”
He insisted that French cinema extremely believes that cinema is not a mere entertainment and added, “in France we believe that films should have thoughts and present the director’s personal ideas.”
He continued, “cinema is an art and an industry. French cinema tries to make balance between these two. I don’t want to ignore commercial aspect of cinema because it is necessary but we should know that cinema is not a product like other products, so festivals are held to say that cinema is an art.”
The 34th edition of Fajr International Film Festival is being held from April 20th to April 25th, 2016 in Charsou Cineplex, under the supervision of the well-known Iranian filmmaker, Mr. Reza Mirkarimi, who is also the Managing Director of Khaneh Cinema.
For more information on Fajr International Film Festival, visit the festival website, www.fajriff.com.
