Tyler Cowen writes:
I am blogging from Paris, where the reaction to Saddam’s capture has been noticeably subdued. The Parisians, however, have never been nicer to me. I find not a trace of snobbery or hostility. Everyone is quite willing to speak English once they hear my miserable French.
He also goes on to discuss an interesting point regarding free trade in an information society: attempts to restrict “American Culture” to prevent contamination a la France serve only to filter out the diversities and limit French exposure almost exclusively to the Hollywood blockbuster version of culture. In limiting the inflow, edgier or independent films which would resonate and complement the French view of the world are denied people, in addition to dampening the general interest in film which hurts the native French film production companies.
Shortly I will be attending a UNESCO conference on promoting cultural diversity. Both co-blogger Jacob Levy and I have a strong interest in this topic. I will be making the argument that movie and broadcast quotas are counterproductive for French culture, and for most other cultures around the world. Hollywood movies, for instance, have financed the multiplex boom that has been so helpful for the domestic production of European movies. Furthermore quotas tend to keep out the more interesting American films. Jurassic Park will get through in any case. So quotas will not only make Hollywood look worse in European eyes, but in the long run they will lower the quality of Hollywood movies. European audiences, on net, improve quality, if only because they are older. They tend to demand more thoughtful and more sophisticated products. They also like “auteurs” more than American audiences do. Kill Bill , by the way, appears to be more popular here than it ever was in the States (not all of you will consider that to be a quality improvement). The Meg Ryan movie (“In the Cut”?) is about to have a large opening here, although it vanished quickly from theaters in the states.
French Reaction to Saddam Capture
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Tyler Cowen writes:
He also goes on to discuss an interesting point regarding free trade in an information society: attempts to restrict “American Culture” to prevent contamination a la France serve only to filter out the diversities and limit French exposure almost exclusively to the Hollywood blockbuster version of culture. In limiting the inflow, edgier or independent films which would resonate and complement the French view of the world are denied people, in addition to dampening the general interest in film which hurts the native French film production companies.
Shortly I will be attending a UNESCO conference on promoting cultural diversity. Both co-blogger Jacob Levy and I have a strong interest in this topic. I will be making the argument that movie and broadcast quotas are counterproductive for French culture, and for most other cultures around the world. Hollywood movies, for instance, have financed the multiplex boom that has been so helpful for the domestic production of European movies. Furthermore quotas tend to keep out the more interesting American films. Jurassic Park will get through in any case. So quotas will not only make Hollywood look worse in European eyes, but in the long run they will lower the quality of Hollywood movies. European audiences, on net, improve quality, if only because they are older. They tend to demand more thoughtful and more sophisticated products. They also like “auteurs” more than American audiences do. Kill Bill , by the way, appears to be more popular here than it ever was in the States (not all of you will consider that to be a quality improvement). The Meg Ryan movie (“In the Cut”?) is about to have a large opening here, although it vanished quickly from theaters in the states.