Jeunet closer to an agreement
There’s been a new development in the saga involving French cinema institutions and professionals about the new film by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Un long dimanche de fiançailles. But this time, things seem to be getting sorted out, since David Kessler has confirmed in an interview with the economic daily Les Echos, that the film should soon be given authorisation as a French feature film.
The crux of the argument about this mega project costing €45 million, currently being worked on in France, is based around the issue of the control of the company which is producing the film, namely 2003 Production. The American company Warner owns a 32% share in 2003 Production and some of the employees of this French subsidiary of the American company also make up part of the other individual shareholders. This issue has raised a number of questions, especially from the API (MK2, Gaumont, Pathé, UGC) and the Union of Independent Producers. This organisation has stated: “Once Pandora’s box has been opened, it’s ever more likely that one by one, the majors will end up benefiting from funding”. In fact the authorisation could mean an opening up of the resources in the CNC support fund (to which European companies don’t have access).
According to Kessler “the only point that needed to be discussed was to find out if 2003 Productions, the film’s executive producer, was controlled by a non-EU company or not…. The CNC asked for clarification of this status… and this has led to a few modifications in the ways the committee makes decisions”, in such a way as to ensure that Warner doesn’t have any influence anymore. The last minute changes appear to be linked to a desire to safeguard the French production and post-production sectors, which are currently hard at work on Un long dimanche de fiançailles. This means the from the legal point of view the way is clear to give the authorisation for Jeunet’s film, even if Kessler was keen to point out that “I’m expecting that my decision on such an important issue may provoke reactions”.
(Translated from French)
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