French in surprise salute to British films

PARIS, France (CNN) -- The French film director Francois Truffaut once declared that "the words British and cinema should never be used in the same sentence."

But the Paris daily Liberation on Tuesday carried a double page spread with the unexpected headline: "Le cinéma anglais, pas si manche" ("English cinema -- not too bad").

Surprisingly, the biggest retrospective of British films ever held outside the UK is being held in the country whose serious-minded producers had once looked haughtily across the channel at works they considered shallow and commercial.

The five-month festival, "Typiquement British", is a joint promotion by the Georges Pompidou Centre, the British Council and the British Film Institute.

It opened Tuesday evening with a special showing of Basil Dearden's 1946 drama "The Captive Heart" starring Michael Redgrave and his wife Rachel Kempson.

The first month-long segment of the five-month festival is a tribute to 62 years of films involving the Redgrave family and will show works starring the entire clan -- the first ever Redgrave retrospective to do so.

In Paris for the opening gala were virtually the entire film dynasty -- led by Lady Redgrave, 90, widow of Sir Michael and as Rachel Kempson star of three of the festival's films.

With her were two of her children, Vanessa and Corin, Vanessa's daughters Joely and Natasha Richardson, and Jemma Redgrave, Corin's daughter. The only notable absentee was Lynn Redgrave who is filming in the United States.

In all, more than 200 British works -- all with subtitles -- will be screened in Paris, from the pioneering works of the last century though Ealing comedies, Hammer horror, Alfred Hitchcock, the Swinging Sixties and James Bond to Wallace and Gromit.

"English films are quite different from those in France -- there is much more social realism," Lauren Golia, an assistant on the project in Paris, told CNN.com.

"It is a quite different sense of humour, but English comedies are very popular here."

John Tod, director of the British Council in Paris said that British directors like Ken Loach and Peter Greenaway were cult figures in France.

"But other good British works are not well enough known. We're trying to remind people of the strengths of British cinema from the early years to the present day."

Sylvie Pras, head of cinema at the Pompidou Centre, said British films currently popular in France ranged from Hitchcock and Dracula through Monty Python to The Full Monty.

"But a large proportion of British cinema yas yet to be discovered in France.

"It is very important to show all these films so people here are exposed to the whole genre."

Titles in the series include "British humour -- from 'Kind Hearts and Coronets' to 'Monty Python'" and "Swinging Britain -- from the Beatles to 'Trainspotting'."

The BFI says that the popularity of Mike Leigh, Ken Loach, and Peter Greenaway in France and the popularity of films like "The Full Monty" have been encouraged by the national policy towards the cinema.

"In France, the idea of a thriving national cinema underpins all entertainment industry policy," says the BFI, pointing to cinema admissions are some 10 percent higher than in the Britain (155 million admissions in France in 1999 compared with 140 million in the UK).

Another sub-headline in Liberation on Tuesday was a gentle jibe -- in English. "God Save the Film," it read.

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Georges Pompidou Centre
British Film Institute
Liberation

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