Making Films in France

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22400, 13 May 1938, Page 4

Making Films in France

The old saw about it being an ill 'find which blows nobody good finds Pertinent application in the French film industry to-day. according to M. Jean Lenauer, manager of the New York Filmarte Theatre. Not so long ago, said M. Lenauer. on his return from a recent visit to Paris, when Hollywood began its raids hPon the French studios and blithely lur*d away most of their leading ■cton and actresses, there was considerable lamentation and dire fore£®filng that the French film makers fiad been dealt a deadly blow. But toe result has been that many of the Younger people who would never have *ad a chance otherwise have been •Invited to important roles in French '[ Wetures, have had an opportunity to •Wndop their talents and their per--1 Venalities and are adequately filling i.tta 'shoes of their temporarily exiled ;P»fdecegaor s. x; -Current production in Paris, which heart of the French industry, ijWgttßts to about 15C pictures a year, M. Lenauer. There are six BpWtl'to serve fh* 75 or bo producers

who work at the business more or less regularly, two of these studios being in Epinay, one in Billancourt, one in Neuilly, one in Montmartre, and one in the centre of Paris. The average cost of a French production is about 2,000,000 frants (about £16,000 and the finest French him of recent years "La Kermesse Heroique, cost its producer (Tobis) only about 8 000 000 francs. That, incidentally, was the most costly picture ever produced in France. .. , And yet. on such a comparatively modest scale of production, the French studios were turning out a surprisingly high grade of films, according to the evidence of the recent examples which are seen in America—such pictures as “Mayerhng, The Lower Depths,” "Club de Femmes, and The Life and Loves of Beethoven.” This was due. said M. Lenauer. to the fact that none of the producers was compelled to grind out a stipulated number of releases each year to fill exhibitors’ contracts. Once a French oroducer had obtained his financial backing (some of which, by the way. came from English insurance companies) he was able to devote his entire effort to the production of an artistic job without any restraint from a •‘trout office” or a meddling censor.