Alain Sussfeld: "We think trees are reaching for the sky and then the market turns”
- In Dijon, the General Director of the UGC group shared his opinion about the state of the French cinematographic industry
At the 23rd Cinematographic Encounters organized by the ARP (civil society of Authors-Directors-Producers) in Dijon from October 24 to 26, the debate over the transparency and profitability of films gave Alain Sussfeld, the General Director of the UGC, the opportunity to give his opinion on the general sate of the French cinematographic industry and deliver a clear analysis which reflected the general interest as well as a naturally personal strategy.
Theatre admissions 2013
Alain Sussfeld: "This year, there was a clear offer deficit compared to the demand. This summer, even American blockbusters did not meet expectations. We are facing a desire issue, about the creativity and imagination capability. There is also another debate: bringing the young public back to French cinema (...) But 2013, which is considered a bad year, will nevertheless end with a total of 195 million admissions. Let’s stop complaining: the market holds with an average offer and the 2011 record was a miracle.”
Production costs
"Films with 3 million admissions can be huge failures while others with 300,000 spectators are big financial successes (...) We should not confuse the search for financial balance with the trivialization of production (...) It is essential to think about costs and maintain our diversity and its heart: films budgeted between 4 and 10M€, bringing in between 800,000 and 1 million spectators. We need champions and small films, but mostly we need this sector to be profitable, dynamic and creative with visible growth and a desire for French cinema.”
Funding?
"The past few years, several companies went bankrupt in the distribution sector which is structurally operating at a loss. To make up for their losses with French films, French distributors bought foreign films by taking all mandates. The distributors’ work is very dangerous because the editing costs are considerable. Globally, the sector functions like real estate. The producer puts a figure on his projects and puts it on the market: he pre-sells. The round table is made up of risk shares or not (which isn’t surprising). The risk is transferred upstream to operators. But coproducing free television channels don’t balance out the funding (...) It is also an absolute necessity for Canal + to be doing well and we are very worried about its evolution because of the rise in VAT, the disloyal competition of BeIN Sport and the transfer of CanalSat to ADSL (...) The contribution of Canal+ will mechanically decrease. The advertising revenues of free channels will also decrease and thus their obligations (ed. of investing in cinema) will too (...) Distributors, and televisions too, are mainly responsible for inflation. The mechanism? We think trees are reaching for the sky and then the market turns, with many disasters over the past 18 months.”
Film exposure
"Film exposure is a major issue. Operators have to have minimum exposure engagements from the first week, with for example for big cities, 15 days full for all screenings. The overexposure of blockbusters is also a problem. Operators have to limit themselves to create demand: there is nothing better than turning away clients because the theatre is full! They shouldn’t be allowed to use the digital key to multiply exposure points during the weekend. I advocate incentives for theatres that show more European cinema. The flip side of exposure is a congestion effect. Today it is dealt with thanks to zapping but it could be handled by the identification of editorial lines. We need better regulation for film exposure. As for the number of films produced, do they all need to be distributed theatrically in mediocre conditions? (...) There is no need to fall into Malthusianism either (...) But if our job is to integrate failures and experimental works, the latter cannot benefit from large exposure.”
Experimenting with "day-and-date" releases?
"In France, we have an exceptional network of theatres. We use our position to block these experiments. Any examples of experiments in the US? It’s worth remembering that American cinema is the most protective of all. I am against experimenting with films with big potential with "day-and-date" releases or directly to video.”
(Translated from French)
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