This article discusses critical parameters and historical perceptions that have dominated the academic study of European cinema since the 1990s. The main argument is that what has been frequently ignored is the supranational dimension of the term ‘European’. Thus, while the field of European film studies has witnessed a number of significant shifts in emphasis (most pertinently the refocusing from art cinema towards popular film genres), the core debate still primarily centres on national cinemas. The article then suggests engaging in areas that exemplify interconnectedness between national cinemas. These include patterns of inter-European migration and issues of multiculturalism; industrial practices such as co-productions; as well as localized strategies of receiving foreign films through mechanisms of translation and adaptation.

National, transnational or supranational cinema? Rethinking European film studies:

Often described as an alternative to the dominant Hollywood model, French cinema owes its specificity and its prosperity to its strong regulatory framework, its comprehensive support system and its protectionist attitude towards its domestic industry. However, the French model is not a closed national system. France was the first country to sign inter-governmental co-production agreements, it has a well-established tradition of welcoming foreign artists and it has been at the forefront of European initiatives to promote European cinema and help other, less privileged cinematographies. This article demonstrates that, while French film policy may be informed by contradictory internal and external pressures, it continues to foster a rich, diverse cinema both at home and abroad, a cinema which is both national and transnational.

The Inter/Nationalism of French Film Policy

................................................................................................................ iii Acknowledgements ................................................................................................ v Table of

New Zealand meets South Korea: Strategies for film co-productions between two countries

International film production: interests and motivations

This chapter provides an overview of the field of European film and television co-production and outlines the themes and methodological approaches employed within the volume European Film and Television Co-production: Policy and Practice. It describes the policy-driven European co-production model, focusing both on its historical evolution (emergence of official co-productions and proliferation of co-production treaties), and explores current developments triggered by recent tax incentives, non-official and TV co-productions, as well as digital media platforms. Furthermore, the chapter points to major methodological and theoretical gaps in the existing scholarship. To address those gaps, the chapter proposes a research methodology that would allow scholars to move closer to policy makers and practitioners, ensuring more cross-sectoral dialogue in researching co-productions.

Introduction: European Film and Television Co-production

A Frenchman, M. Fourré-Cormeray, is credited for the idea of a treaty giving film dual nationality. On 29 October 1946, MM. Fourré-Cormeray and Proia (Director of the French Film Centre and Chairman of the Italian Film Organisation respectively) signed the first ‘experimental’ co-production agreement between France and Italy [1]. Even though this first formal agreement allowed for the co-productions of 10 films in Italy and five films in France, within a year, only nine films were made according to its terms, all of them shot in Italy. Among them were the films of French directors Jacques de Baroncelli (Rocambole) and Christian-Jaque (La Chartreuse de Parme). By 1947, Italian director Alessandro Blasetti had started work on Fabiola, a spectacular melodrama about the persecution of the Christians in Rome. Under the helm of Salvo d’Angelo, the Italian company Universalia had embarked on the production of this colossal production. Starring French actors Henri Vidal, Michèle Morgan and Michel Simon, and, Italian actors Gino Cervi, Elisa Cegani and Massimo Girotti, Fabiola was one of the most expensive films shot in Europe in the immediate post-war period. At the time, Salvo d’Angelo hoped ambitious films such as Fabiola would contribute to the establishment of a common market for French and Italian films [2]. Other early post-war attempts at creating a ‘European cinema’ include an idea launched in 1947 by French writer and film director Marcel Pagnol for an International Congress of Latin Cinema ‘to set up a common material and moral defence against the quantitative and qualitative assault of American cinema’. At the time, Pagnol spoke against ‘a cinema that speaks Italian (or French, or Spanish) but thinks American’. As for Universalia, the Italian company claimed to incarnate the very ‘expression of Latinness and spirituality of the cinematographic world’ with its biblical epic Fabiola but also with other grandiose projects such as Cristoforo Colombo (with the participation of several Latin-language countries) and a biography of Saint Ignazio of Loyola [3]. However, even though France, Italy and Spain shared linguistic and cultural affinities, the economic and political context of the time made it unlikely for a common Latin European space to emerge. Besides, as film historian Barbara Corsi rightly points out: ‘for this [Latin] European cinema, the standard of quality reflected more the great works of literature or music and of certain historical heroes than originality or intrinsic merit. As such, this classic formula for European cinema was bound to lose to the more dynamic contemporary American cinema’ [4]. Nevertheless, the hopes of Fabiola’s producer for a single market for French and Italian films moved a step closer two years later when France and Italy signed the co-production agreement on 21 February 1949. On both sides of the Alps, film producers had called for measures to protect their film

Anne Ja¨Ckel

Papers

Dual Nationality Film Productions in Europe after 1945