There’s no doubt that the French film Intouchables, an incredible box office success in France with nearly 10 million spectators in three weeks, will rapidly find interest on the remakes market that the Americans are so hungry for.
The Dinner, The Tourist, The Next Three Days…. there are now many remakes of French films being produced in the United States. To the point that a Remakes Market where producers shop for feature films ‘made in France’ has just emerged in Los Angeles.
“In France, authors have a freedom that allows them to write very creative screenplays without having the studios on their backs,” explains Rebecca Leffler, journalist at the Hollywood Reporter. For John Looper, director of the film Sundance, “original screenplays are more rare in the United States. The inspiration always has to come from a book, a television series or another film. This symbolises the fears that currently govern the business.”
French heroes are more complex, multifaceted, and attract attention on the other side of the Atlantic. In cinemas in France, the rush to see French films over the past months has been no accident. It announces a revival in French cinema. Filmmakers such as Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist competed for the Palme d’Or at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival), Valerie Donzelli (Declaration of War), Maïwenn (Poliss), Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano (Intouchables) and Christophe Barratier (War of the Buttons II) are aged between 30 and 40 ans. They have several feature films under their belts.
Whether it be a disability, cancer, the choice of shooting a silent movie in black and white, they all took major risks with their latest films and have been well rewarded for this. Those in the category “auteur cinema”, like Maïwenn, have a much better feel for the general public than their forerunners. This generation has also understood that spectators are more attached to the story and to the way it is shot than they are to the casting.
Spectators also appreciate that this generation are more generous and dare to entrust leading roles to new faces. Labels awarded by the spectators themselves also help to identify rare gems that are not to be missed; new spectators are being added to the mix and a new form of cinephilia is emerging.
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