5 ms·

Wow, that's short sighted. Force streaming services to release in French theaters, force customers to pay someone else to watch the movie, and subject the stre

Wow, that's short sighted. Force streaming services to release in French theaters, force customers to pay someone else to watch the movie, and subject the streaming services to draconian french regulations on when they can stream that movie. So as Netflix, Amazon, and other streaming services take off, cannes will become less and less relevant as more and more movies are funded and produced by streaming services until cannes is that old french indy festival that was replaced with a more modern and movie viewer friendly festival.

ekianjo 9y ago
Cannes losing relevancy is nothIng new. it was already old fashioned 20 years ago.
quadrige 9y ago
French cinema's current position in the world is mainly due to these kinds of stricts regulations, that allow small films to compete with big budget movies for the viewers' attention, and small theaters with big networks. Netflix, iTunes etc. are not just "normal" players in the film production business, they are also marketplaces fighting for distribution exclusivity, and they need to be regulated as such.
- sametmax 9y ago
  As a french, I can tell you that what's french regulations are protecting is mostly garbage nobody wants to watch. For one "Amelie", you have a 1000 "les petits mouchoirs". Well I don't want my taxes to pay to protect those. Let the market decide. I already pay 13 euros for a freaking movie while I paid 5 times less 20 years ago. Netflix provides way better content than the french industry. French youtubers produce way better content that the traditional french medias. The independant scene, only getting scraps from this so called "cinema protection" does more creative content. Let the dinausores die please.
  - quadrige 9y ago
    "Amélie" is by no means a small film, just take a look at Jean-Pierre Jeunet's other films' budget to get a sense of it. By small films I mean for example : - Sayônara by Kôji Fukada - Un avant-poste du progrès by Hugo Vieira da Silva - Psiconautas by Pedro Rivero and Alberto Vázquez Those are just 3 titles coming up from Allocine that launched this week in theaters. None of them will be on Netflix. Regarding the ticket price, it's indeed around 11-13 in big circuits, but around 7 in small independant theaters, so that's a reason more to encourage them.
    - sametmax 9y ago
      I never meant it was a small film.
      - quadrige 9y ago
        Fair enough; my point about the visibility of small foreign films in theaters vs on Netflix still stands though.
  - raverbashing 9y ago
    Ticket prices in Europe are not too far from that, especially if you're talking about Paris
  - 4ad 9y ago
    > Well I don't want my taxes to pay to protect those. Let the market decide. Taxes?? This is what the Cannes festival decided, not your government. > Netflix provides way better content than the french industry. Then watch Netflix? Your government is not stopping you.
    - Lev1a 9y ago
      I suspect France has a similar system whereby the gov has essentially a tax for financing/subsidizing the film industry and that's what they're talking about. Btw: in GER it's ~17.50€ per month per household and the "agency" collecting this money is already talking about raising this to ~20€ in a few years... Ref: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beitragsservice_von_ARD,_ZDF_und_Deutschlandradio https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beitragsservice_von_ARD,_ZDF...
Melk 9y ago
Cannes isn't forcing anyone to do anything. Relax. There is still an audience for theatre releases so Cannes will be fine and so will Netflix.
Melk 9y ago
Cannes isn't forcing anyone to do anything. Relax. There is still an audience for theatre releases so Cannes will be fine and so will Netflix.
infinita740 9y ago
As a french I strongly disagree that Netflix or Amazon provide a viewer friendly movie viewing experience. You are forced into a subscription that provides little to no value because their library is really small in France (for movies). As for the regulations I agree that they are too strict for the digital age but not releasing in the theaters is a pretty bad solution IMO.
- rnabel 9y ago
  I agree, it is a similar situation in most European countries atm. However, the fact that the service is not great now should not be taken as an indication that the service cannot be great in the future. If you look at the US market, both providers have significant amounts of content, which, it can be argued, provides a better viewing experience. The trend seems to be going away from traditional cinemas to streaming services. If this is the case Cannes may have just made itself irrelevant to this growing part of the market.
olavk 9y ago
AFAIK the Academy Awards have a similar rule - a movie must have a cinema release before it can be considered for nomination. (More specifically, a run for at least seven days in a Los Angeles County theater!) Made-for-TV movies have their own competition and awards, like the Emmy awards. I don't see how this will make Cannes less relevant. It doesn't make Cannes less relevant that it doesn't award daytime soaps or commercials or whatever. Focus on a specific niche - cinematic movies - arguably will help it stay relevant, as long as cinemas exists. (Whether cinemas will continue to exist is a different question. I suspect Netflix is a much larger threat to traditional flow TV than to cinemas.) In any case, Cannes is not "forcing" anybody to do anything. They are just clarifying what kind of movies can be considered for the festival.
- oliwarner 9y ago
  But your assertion there is that made-for-TV (or made-for-Netflix, or whatever follows) movies intrinsically have less value. You're saying a movie can only really be "cinematic" if it comes out in a cinema. That's exactly the nonsense we're talking about here. Distribution channel doesn't mean anything. There are strong correlations between being able to put on a show and production values, but it's not causative. Define a movie by its actual qualities. Runtime, dialogue(?), even picture format... But forget about distribution. Lots of people have cinemas in their houses now. Where they don't have to pay £30 to be surrounded by sweaty strangers and sit on uncomfortable and dirty seats. Plus snacks and transport.
  - olavk 9y ago
    Where do you get "less value"? They are just delimiting what kinds of movies the will considered for their festival. The Academy Awards also have certain restrictions on the picture format in place to prevent straight-to-video movies from consideration. If you don't like going to the cinema, why do you care about Cannes at all? It is a film festival which celebrate cinema and the associated mystique and glamour. Nobody is preventing you from watching whatever you want in your home cinema.
    - 9y ago
dominotw 9y ago
what the difference between a movie on netflix and movie shot with my buddies and put on youtube.
- pluma 9y ago
  I don't know. What's the difference between a movie produced by a Hollywood studio and a movie produced by you and your buddies on a shoestring budget?
  - madshiva 9y ago
    One million $ was wasted in croissant and baguette. Quality of product are not determined by the amount of money wasted. Sure the base quality is almost here, but it's why we have sooooo many bad movies but 1% of them are good. When you get a movie (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_Dynamite https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_Dynamite) for $ 6,000 that make 40 million, done in 27 days. Hollywood studio should stop scratching their balls.

ekianjo 9y ago

Cannes losing relevancy is nothIng new. it was already old fashioned 20 years ago.

quadrige 9y ago

French cinema's current position in the world is mainly due to these kinds of stricts regulations, that allow small films to compete with big budget movies for the viewers' attention, and small theaters with big networks. Netflix, iTunes etc. are not just "normal" players in the film production business, they are also marketplaces fighting for distribution exclusivity, and they need to be regulated as such.

sametmax 9y ago
As a french, I can tell you that what's french regulations are protecting is mostly garbage nobody wants to watch. For one "Amelie", you have a 1000 "les petits mouchoirs". Well I don't want my taxes to pay to protect those. Let the market decide. I already pay 13 euros for a freaking movie while I paid 5 times less 20 years ago. Netflix provides way better content than the french industry. French youtubers produce way better content that the traditional french medias. The independant scene, only getting scraps from this so called "cinema protection" does more creative content. Let the dinausores die please.
- quadrige 9y ago
  "Amélie" is by no means a small film, just take a look at Jean-Pierre Jeunet's other films' budget to get a sense of it. By small films I mean for example : - Sayônara by Kôji Fukada - Un avant-poste du progrès by Hugo Vieira da Silva - Psiconautas by Pedro Rivero and Alberto Vázquez Those are just 3 titles coming up from Allocine that launched this week in theaters. None of them will be on Netflix. Regarding the ticket price, it's indeed around 11-13 in big circuits, but around 7 in small independant theaters, so that's a reason more to encourage them.
  - sametmax 9y ago
    I never meant it was a small film.
    - quadrige 9y ago
      Fair enough; my point about the visibility of small foreign films in theaters vs on Netflix still stands though.
- raverbashing 9y ago
  Ticket prices in Europe are not too far from that, especially if you're talking about Paris
- 4ad 9y ago
  > Well I don't want my taxes to pay to protect those. Let the market decide. Taxes?? This is what the Cannes festival decided, not your government. > Netflix provides way better content than the french industry. Then watch Netflix? Your government is not stopping you.
  - Lev1a 9y ago
    I suspect France has a similar system whereby the gov has essentially a tax for financing/subsidizing the film industry and that's what they're talking about. Btw: in GER it's ~17.50€ per month per household and the "agency" collecting this money is already talking about raising this to ~20€ in a few years... Ref: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beitragsservice_von_ARD,_ZDF_und_Deutschlandradio https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beitragsservice_von_ARD,_ZDF...

Melk 9y ago

Cannes isn't forcing anyone to do anything. Relax. There is still an audience for theatre releases so Cannes will be fine and so will Netflix.

Melk 9y ago

Cannes isn't forcing anyone to do anything. Relax. There is still an audience for theatre releases so Cannes will be fine and so will Netflix.

infinita740 9y ago

As a french I strongly disagree that Netflix or Amazon provide a viewer friendly movie viewing experience. You are forced into a subscription that provides little to no value because their library is really small in France (for movies). As for the regulations I agree that they are too strict for the digital age but not releasing in the theaters is a pretty bad solution IMO.

rnabel 9y ago
I agree, it is a similar situation in most European countries atm. However, the fact that the service is not great now should not be taken as an indication that the service cannot be great in the future. If you look at the US market, both providers have significant amounts of content, which, it can be argued, provides a better viewing experience. The trend seems to be going away from traditional cinemas to streaming services. If this is the case Cannes may have just made itself irrelevant to this growing part of the market.

olavk 9y ago

AFAIK the Academy Awards have a similar rule - a movie must have a cinema release before it can be considered for nomination. (More specifically, a run for at least seven days in a Los Angeles County theater!) Made-for-TV movies have their own competition and awards, like the Emmy awards. I don't see how this will make Cannes less relevant. It doesn't make Cannes less relevant that it doesn't award daytime soaps or commercials or whatever. Focus on a specific niche - cinematic movies - arguably will help it stay relevant, as long as cinemas exists. (Whether cinemas will continue to exist is a different question. I suspect Netflix is a much larger threat to traditional flow TV than to cinemas.) In any case, Cannes is not "forcing" anybody to do anything. They are just clarifying what kind of movies can be considered for the festival.

oliwarner 9y ago
But your assertion there is that made-for-TV (or made-for-Netflix, or whatever follows) movies intrinsically have less value. You're saying a movie can only really be "cinematic" if it comes out in a cinema. That's exactly the nonsense we're talking about here. Distribution channel doesn't mean anything. There are strong correlations between being able to put on a show and production values, but it's not causative. Define a movie by its actual qualities. Runtime, dialogue(?), even picture format... But forget about distribution. Lots of people have cinemas in their houses now. Where they don't have to pay £30 to be surrounded by sweaty strangers and sit on uncomfortable and dirty seats. Plus snacks and transport.
- olavk 9y ago
  Where do you get "less value"? They are just delimiting what kinds of movies the will considered for their festival. The Academy Awards also have certain restrictions on the picture format in place to prevent straight-to-video movies from consideration. If you don't like going to the cinema, why do you care about Cannes at all? It is a film festival which celebrate cinema and the associated mystique and glamour. Nobody is preventing you from watching whatever you want in your home cinema.
  - 9y ago

dominotw 9y ago

what the difference between a movie on netflix and movie shot with my buddies and put on youtube.

pluma 9y ago
I don't know. What's the difference between a movie produced by a Hollywood studio and a movie produced by you and your buddies on a shoestring budget?
- madshiva 9y ago
  One million $ was wasted in croissant and baguette. Quality of product are not determined by the amount of money wasted. Sure the base quality is almost here, but it's why we have sooooo many bad movies but 1% of them are good. When you get a movie (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_Dynamite https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_Dynamite) for $ 6,000 that make 40 million, done in 27 days. Hollywood studio should stop scratching their balls.