On Wed, 7 Mar 2001, Dennis Robert Redmond wrote:
> The EU does a pretty good job of subsidizing its local film
> industries, and they continue to produce kickass stuff (e.g.
> Almodovar, Tykwer, Kieslowski).
The list does not inspire confidence. Almodovar is a certainly a world-beater, but Tykwer has only had one film that was mildly successful beyond Germany's borders and Kieslowski has been dead for 5 years. And Almodovar and Tykwer both produce their films on a completely commercial basis, as far as I know.
I think you'll get better examples from the last decade in France. Lots of great films, benefitting from lots of subsidies. And almost none of them getting much distribution in the US, even in art houses, for reasons that still baffle me.
BTW, there are two great French films in the theatres now if anybody's up for them: Terrorists in Retirement (a documentary on Jewish communists in the French Resistance that is a miniature Sorrow and Pity) and The Taste of Others, a completely satisfying French film experience that is also funny and cheering. (Taste, by the way, in meant in the sense of class preferences. We're not talking Hannibal.)
Michael
__________________________________________________________________________ Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak at panix.com