Theaters of Shadow
p. 11-16
Texte intégral
1Since the end of the 19th century, France’s foreign cultural initiatives (cultural and influential diplomacy) have been part of the State’s overall influential diplomacy, and concern various sectors including cultural industries. Starting in 1922, the AFAA (the Association française d’action artistique) was in charge of this sector. Then with the law of 27 July 2010 concerning the State’s foreign initiatives, CulturesFrance, created in 2006, was replaced by the Institut français, a public operator (EPIC) under the supervision of the ministère de l’Europe et des Affaires étrangères (MEAE).1
2The promotion of cinema, both commercial and non-commercial, is one of the main objectives of the cultural network2 and relies on a plurality of actors: in France, on the ministère de l’Europe et des Affaires étrangères (MEAE), the Centre national de la cinématographie et de l’image animée (CNC), Unifrance, the Institut français, and industry professionals (exporters). While abroad, promotion relies on the cultural network (Instituts français, Alliances françaises, and French embassies [Service de cooperation et d’action culturelle – SCAC]). Since 2010, the implementation of the cultural network’s activity has been revolutionized by the development of digital technology (i.e., the “IF Cinema” platform of the Institut français and the digitization plan for cinemas of the IF and AF). A greater diversity and regularity of programming has breathed new life into these cinemas.
3Though the number of works on cultural diplomacy is in general quite substantial, very few concern the production and distribution of films.3 The cinemas established by French cultural institutions are likewise virtually absent from many studies on the history of cinema, and notably from those on its theaters. The case is the same for the important role of the Alliances françaises (AF) in cinema promotion: this mission remains overlooked.
4Why this non-interest? Is it due to the fact that cinema remains on the margins of “high” culture?4 Is it linked to films being considered a tool for French language learning? Or is it that these theaters are under State supervision and thereby in strict accordance with government policies, leaving little room for independent initiatives? Is it a consequence of the role cinema played in the colonial era when culture promoted its legitimization? All of this is plausible and could explain why when we attempt to analyze French cultural initiatives abroad managing cinema promotion, there is a memory lapse whose quasi-absence of archival records is particularly telling.
5Additionally, even when documentation is accessible, field studies reveal a more complex reality. If directives from the “center” are spread through cultural networks present in many countries, their implementation in a foreign territory entails an adaptation to local customs and audiences. To this, one should add an element which evades rules and pre-established calculations: the human factor. Collaborations between people developed despite formal structures constrained by the colonial relationships of France with territories formerly under its rule. These in turn created the foundations for a local cinema, as is the case in West Africa. It is clear that the men and (fewer) women appointed to head these networks have left and still leave their personal marks, as some of them show in this book.
6Nevertheless, there are a few certainties: these theaters programmed – and still program – as many French films as local films with fragile livelihoods. They helped give youth an appreciation for the image by projecting some of the most significant works in the history of world cinema. They welcomed generations of audiences. They permitted future cineastes to forge their own cinephilia and future technicians to train themselves. Lastly, they were a refuge for intellectuals and activists.
“Even after the war, all the great films were projected each week at the Institut français – it was a party. There was this indescribable thing we loved, you know: this air of France. The patrons, the theater and the films all took it with them. I really breathed it in. That is what kept me alive, all of those years.”
7This is Emma speaking from a faraway country, left unnamed and having endured a dictatorship.5 Closer to France, the Cultural Center of Istanbul during the 1980s – in the aftermath of a military coup d’état which created a climate of generalized repression throughout the country – was “an oasis,” “a place to escape to,” “a lifeline.” This was also the conclusion drawn at a round table6 dedicated to the emergence of cinephilia in South Korea, in October 2016. The testimonies of the Korean cineastes and film critics present emphasized the primordial role of the Seoul French Cultural Center’s Jean Renoir Theater (1977–1994) in the 1980s, during the dictatorship.7 They spoke of their discovery of New Wave films, as well as those of Antonioni and Pasolini, but above all of this dark space as a refuge which offered them freedom of expression. In saying the word refuge, some of them could not contain their emotions, which also brought the audience to tears. This round table is the origin of the collective project “Exporter et soutenir le cinéma dans le contexte des Instituts français et des Alliances françaises”8 whose research is presented in this work.
Originally: an academic project
8These activities, however, remain in the shadows of academic research in cinema and audiovisual studies. Born from a desire to compensate for the absence of research on cinema’s place in the activities of the Instituts français and the Alliances françaises, the project Exporter et soutenir le cinéma dans le contexte des Instituts français et des Alliances françaises questioned French cultural diplomacy’s methods and forms of action in this domain.
9Research focused on analyzing activities and initiatives which promote the circulation and exportation of films, as organized and supported by the cinemas of the Instituts français (IF) and the Alliances françaises (AF). A place of distribution, a place of exchanges, a place of education, a place of liberty: the theaters of these institutions served multiple functions. Hence the point of an examination, throughout the world, that would inventory theaters in relation to their programming and audience. The objectives of the research program were as follows:
- An inventory of French foreign policy supporting the promotion of cinema and backed by directives coming from Paris then carried out by the Ministère de l’Europe et des Affaires étrangères (MEAE) and the institutions under its supervision or co-supervision. This was used to measure constants, singularities and mutations.
- Assess adaptations and see deviations on the local level. To this end, the involvement of the IF and AF in the distribution and promotion of French cinema in theaters has been compared to local production and consumption. This was done as to understand, on the one hand, the place of French cinema, and on the other hand, the support mechanisms for local film production or even political resistance.
- Estimate the reception of French initiatives through case studies specific to any particular country and to that particular audience, corroborated with testimonies from local personalities and archival records from the cultural network.
10The studies that this work puts forward analyze the effectiveness of these actions (i.e., the market share of French cinema in total global consumption, the influence of French cinema on local film production) while questioning their limits and difficulties. They are preceded by a general reflection on history, current issues of cultural diplomacy, the influence of France, and in particular the ways cinema is promoted abroad by French cultural establishments (IF and AF).
11In order to collect data which analyze the support and promotion of cinema, it was necessary to call upon 98 Instituts français and 834 Alliances françaises in the world, as well as researchers with expertise on the subject. In turn, this collecting enabled studies on the following countries: Algeria, Albania, Benin, Burkina Faso, Indonesia, Lebanon, Niger, Morocco, Romania, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, Senegal, South Korea, and the United States.
12Using pluridisciplinary approaches (historical, sociological, economic, cultural studies, political), the analysis of audiences in relation to specific programming for each of these countries is central to the third and fourth part of this book. The investigations were bolstered by testimonies from local personalities, film journalism, socio-economic data as well as input from institutional investors and professionals who run the theaters studied.
13One country was the subject of a more interdisciplinary research: Turkey, to which the five part is dedicated. With regards to this specific case, it was possible to identify interactions between the initiatives of French organizations and the changing landscape of Turkish cinema from economic, historical and social points of view. There is no doubt that if Turkey took a central position, it is also due to the country’s current policies which persecute academics and artists. This focus recalls the key position in political life, culture and art of these parties.
14By analyzing the distribution systems of French and world cinema which promote local production, and their audiences, all the analyses presented in the book establish an initial assessment on the life of cinemas belonging to the Instituts français and the Alliances françaises. First spaces of French culture’s unilateral influence, then windows onto “cultural diversity,” the history of these theaters is certainly complex. We preferred to approach it and render it with all of its contradictions.
Notes de bas de page
1 Note that if the name “Institut français” was replaced by “Centre culturel français,” the previous title will carry on in the memory of local audiences. De facto, the former name is still used abroad.
2 The “cultural network” is the name given to the system composed of French embassies’ Service de coopération d’action culturelle (SCAC), the Instituts français and the Alliances françaises for the promotion abroad of French culture and language within the framework of the public policy known as “cultural diplomacy and influence.” This term was chosen because it is also the title of program 185 of the State budget that finances this State action. However, there are several terms for the same thing, the most common being “cultural diplomacy.” Additionally, the French “model” of cultural diplomacy, a notion that can be defined as “a public policy that aims, within the framework of foreign policy, to export data representative of national culture, and to interact with other countries in this same cultural field” (Kessler, 2018: 263) is based on a unique articulation between the Instituts français and the Alliances françaises. This dual network – public (the Instituts) and private (the Alliances) – forms, together with French embassies’ Service de cooperation et d’action culturelle (SCAC), what is commonly referred to as “the cultural network” and constitutes the crux of French foreign cultural initatives in the context of international cultural relations (Martin, Chaubet, 2011).
3 There is indeed a book on the promotion of French cinema abroad, but it is almost exclusively from the perspective of Unifrance (and therefore centers on the commercial promotion of cinema), with an emphasis on Les Semaines du cinéma français organized since its creation in 1949 (Cravenne Robert, La promotion du cinéma français à l’étranger, Lille : ANRT, 1993). Another reference book on French audiovisual policy (Balle Francis, Rouilly Jean, Virieux Jean-Marc, La politique audiovisuelle extérieure de la France : rapport au ministre des affaires étrangères, La Documentation française, 1996) does not mention France’s foreign film policies. Also noteworthy is Thaisy Laurence’s 2006 book, La politique cinématographique de la France en Allemagne occupée, 1945-1949, Villeneuve d’Ascq, Presses universitaires du Septentrion. Finally, the largest number of pages devoted to the policy of the Alliances françaises and cinema can be found in Elise Lanoe’s thesis defended in 2012, focusing specifically on the network in Brazil (Lanoe Elise, La culture au service de la diplomatie ? The foreign cultural policies of the FRG and France in Brazil [1961–1973]. History thesis, Charles de Gaulle University, Lille III, 2012).
4 Note that the role of the Instituts français in the distribution of literature was the subject of a collective study: Dominique Viart (dir.), Xavier Darcos (préface), La Littérature française du XXe siècle lue de l’étranger, Villeneuve-d’Ascq, Presses universitaires du Septentrion, 2011.
5 François Maspero, La plage noire, Paris, Seuil, 1995, pp. 79.
6 At the double symposium The Crossing Views on Korean and French cinemas/Regards croisés sur les cinémas coréens et français directed by Joël Augros, Heui-Tae Park and Giusy Pisano, held in Paris and Seoul in 2015 and 2016, as part of the France/Korea cross-cultural year.
7 During this period the military dictatorship made it impossible to see films. There were some American films and very few European films. But one could go and see them at the Centre culturel français and at the Goethe Institute. See: Sora Hong, La génération des centres culturels (Munhwawon sedae) et la nouvelle vague du cinéma sud-coréen des années 1980-1990. Thèse de doctorat soutenue, Paris, EHESS, 2019.
8 This project, proposed by the IRCAV and directed by Giusy Pisano, fits within Labex ICCA’s framework, and more specifically within the “French model” structural program. The project concerns several principal partners: the IF, the MEAE, the CNC, the ERCAE and the MEDIAR.
Auteur
-
Giusy Pisano
ENS Louis-Lumière, Université Sorbonne-Nouvelle Paris 3/IRCAV
Le texte seul est utilisable sous licence Creative Commons - Attribution - Pas d'Utilisation Commerciale - Pas de Modification 4.0 International - CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Les autres éléments (illustrations, fichiers annexes importés) sont « Tous droits réservés », sauf mention contraire.
Régie théâtrale et mise en scène
L'Association des régisseurs de théâtre (1911-1939)
Françoise Pélisson-Karro
2014
L'avenir de la mémoire
Patrimoine, restauration et réemploi cinématographiques
André Habib et Michel Marie (dir.)
2013
Les archives de la mise en scène. Hypermédialités du théâtre
Jean-Marc Larrue et Giusy Pisano (dir.)
2014
Pour un cinéma léger et synchrone !
Invention d'un dispositif à l'Office national du film à Montréal
Vincent Bouchard
2012
