Engaging stories and compelling drama are mostly the fruit of conflict. On the screen it can range from the psychological battle of disputing lovers right through to military confrontation with high-powered weapons between countries at war. And then there is the conflict that expresses itself through diplomacy: negotiations that use flattery, persuasion and vetoes.
Engaging stories and compelling drama are mostly the fruit of conflict. On the screen it can range from the psychological battle of disputing lovers right through to military confrontation with high-powered weapons between countries at war. And then there is the conflict that expresses itself through diplomacy: negotiations that use flattery, persuasion and vetoes.
One such encounter took place in the aptly named Salon des Ambassadeurs on Monday 20 May at an international conference titled ‘Strengthening cultural exception in the Europe of tomorrow’. In fact it was a re-run of the same battle fought in 1993 during the concluding Uruguay round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (Gatt). Then as now, the French – at first alone – fought and rallied the other Europeans to ensure that cultural services would be excluded from the free trade agreement.
Essentially this was to allow governments to subsidise and protect cultural products in the interest of cultural identity, and in particular to counter the might of the Hollywood movie machine. It was last-minute midnight brinkmanship, but they pulled it off – otherwise the entire agreement would have been abandoned. The World Trade Organisation (WTO) got their Gatt and the Europeans got their ‘Cultural Exception’. State support for cinema could continue.
But the world has changed since then. Digital technology has transformed the playing field for the audio-visual trade as well as for all other media. Modifications are needed in the new transatlantic trade deals to ensure cultural independence and diversity.
The scene was set, and the Americans were invited for a chat that everyone knew would amount to a diplomatic ambush deploying flattery persuasion and veto threats. Again, in 2013 the French are the ones to lead the fight in the person of Aurelie Fillippetti, the French Minister of Culture and Communication. Her American counterpart was former US senator Chris Dodd, now head of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), essentially a lobby group for Hollywood.
An annual visitor to Cannes and Europe, he knew what to expect, and presumably knows that the cultural exception needs to remain if the global US-European agreement is to be upgraded.
“The reason we want to preserve the cultural exception and to modernise it, is to preserve the possibilities of a culture and of cultural expression in all its diversity in Europe,” underlined Fillippetti.And she made the veto option clear and all of the other speakers rallied, including Androulla Vassiliou, the European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth.
The only surprise was that the Europeans had also invited Harvey Weinstein, celebrated Hollywood producer and probably the most successful in terms of both Cannes prizes and Oscars. To the delight of all – maybe even including Dodd – he came out strongly for the argument of cultural diversity and its role in encouraging originality. Indeed, he has profited greatly from this.
So Cannes, this temporary capital of World cinema, became the venue for this episode of a negotiation at the highest level of importance in terms of how the global competition for the world’s screens, from multiplexes to smartphones, will be played for the coming generations.
No deal is yet signed, but the Ambassador’s Room discussions provide a clear statement of resolve from a Europe less fragmented than the US might have hoped. While the US industry has a unique organisation to defend its film industry (whose head office is a convenient 10-minute stroll from the White House), Europe’s political diversity often hampers a coherent strategy. Perhaps we need our own ‘Motion Picture Association of Europe’ to optimise our own approach to cinema and culture.
Séamas McSwiney is an Irish journalist living and working in Paris.
