Montreal: Distributors are calling for a heavy marketing investment in a restricted number of ‘breakthrough movies’ as the best way to make inroads in the important French theatrical market.

That overview emerged following ‘a frank exchange’ between the industry and its French counterparts at the Cinema du Quebec a Paris, this month’s promotional showcase for Quebec films sponsored by sodec.

According to Richard Paradis, president of the Canadian Association of Film Distributors and Exporters, the Paris meeting provided ‘a reality check’ in terms of the diminishing prospects for Quebec movies in France.

‘We’ve diddled long enough with this French market thing,’ says Paradis. ‘Let’s just go out there and do what the Americans do and sell our product.

‘There is a feeling we have to be much more focused and have a more business-oriented marketing strategy,’ he says.

‘If we seriously believe that France is a [worthwhile] market, then we should give ourselves, for instance, a three-year plan with the appropriate films,’ says Paradis, adding that existing distribution subsidies aren’t doing the job. ‘The cnc [support] program is discretionary and there is no given [minimum] amount,’ he says.

Pierre Brousseau, senior vp, Behaviour Distribution, says: ‘I think the fundamentals are reversed in the sense that we’re talking national cinema here, but no one sells `national cinema’.’

‘The perception [in France] for the largely inward-looking Quebecois cinema is quite negative,’ he says.

Brousseau says the way to create interest in ‘national cinema’ is to produce and market a handful of breakthrough film. He cites movies like Trainspotting, and going back more than a decade, Deny Arcand’s The Decline of the American Empire.

He says the u.s. indie scene took off when ‘the studios realized that a little production, risking $3 million, maybe less, could actually do $25 million or $30 million [in business].’

Trendspotting

Brousseau says any national revival will be tied to product penetration, credibility and networking, and a timely follow-up of three or four additional quality movies. ‘Then you have some kind of a trend and you have the spotlight. You have to keep hacking at it and you have to be real good. This is not what happened with the Quebecois cinema. If there are [public] programs and money to be spent, it should spent in a market-driven manner.’

Adding to the uncertainty are new satellite services in France in direct competition with Canal Plus, a major funding source for French movies. And Paradis says Canadian films, other than coproductions, ‘have no chance in hell of getting a television sale. Television isn’t able to buy Canadian or Quebec films because we’re not in the European Commission.’

French films, produced at a rate of about 100 a year, have considerably better access and results in Quebec, adds Paradis.

sodec has no plans to invest in a new export program, says Bernard Boucher, the agency’s director of planning and research, international affairs.

sodec already supports film exports through SODEC-Export, including funding for festivals, and last year signed a marketing program with France’s cnc. That program pays a share of p&a release costs for up to four Quebec and French films a year.