Have you seen The Fifth Element (with Bruce Willis)? Maybe you have seen Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (with Jim Carey)? Did you know these movies were made by French directors? It is pretty rare to see a lot of foreigners succeeding in Hollywood. Sometimes it is a failure that gets noticed; Catwoman was also made by a French film director...

In order to compete with the huge distribution of American fims made in Hollywood, France has a unique policy. The French state is giving about 500 millions Euros every year to help the French movie industry. It allows directors to think about something other than money; Art for example. I am not saying that they are good, I'm just saying that thanks to the public funding, they can preserve the artistic aspect of an Artform whose name is now only linked with the dollar sign.

France is the first producer in Europe with 130 feature films every year plus 37 co-productions out of the 1000 or so movies produced every year in Europe. France is such an amazing country, what am I doing here? No, I am just kidding. Talk to any French person interested in the movies and he will tell you how much he would like to marry you in order to get a visa and come to work here… Although some American companies are totally aware of the business opportunity in France, Warner Bros produced the biggest French commercial success movie ever, Les Bronzés 3. But that movie was so bad that it only added to the argument that France needs to protect its artistic creation by financing smart movies (they are not necessarily good, but they are smart). Otherwise Warner Bros would finance dumb movies every week.

And oh, I almost forgot, there is no Wal-Mart in France.