The One-Way Culture Door

Emily and I just recently watched the French TV series "Engrenages", a terrific and complex mystery/cop show. It took it a bit of time to get going, but it quickly turned into a noir thriller that rivalled the best (IMO) US crime series ever made, "Murder One" (First season only...). I wish now that I had recorded it, but maybe they'll air the eps again. Seeing it aired on BBC was both fun and startling - They don't show much French TV or film (Though they are multicultural paragons compared to the US, which would likely never, ever get the show as US viewers whine like mules when presented with subtitles).

Which leads me to the question of why so much US/UK TV and film gets into France, and why so little French TV and film get out. If I flip on TF1 (France's ABC/BBC), I see an unending stream of dubbed US TV shows - Lost, Survivor, even Walker, Texas Ranger - all of these are played here and no one seems bothered by the dubbing, or occasional subtitling. But if I turn to BBC... well, we've had the satellite for a year now and this is the first French TV series I've seen aired. It's frustrating for me, because I want to see more French TV yet I need it subtitled, which means I have to watch what British TV is willing to show. Grr. It leaves me to wonder if it's an attitude problem (Are British viewers as resistant to subtitling and dubbing as US viewers?), an interest problem (Does France just not make that many shows and movies that would interest a wider audience?), or a quantity problem (If BBC has 500 American shows available to run and 3 French shows, the imbalance could simply be in available numbers).

I can attest that there is a lively undercurrent of fun movies here that the outside world seems oblivious of. For better or worse, France has developed an international image as a producer of "art" movies a la française, which can usually be boiled down to "Miserable French cast have affairs behind each others' backs, protest the futility of existence, and then all go out to a restaurant together". (Lest I be accused of being low-brow, "My Dinner with Andre" remains one of my favorite films) But there is a lot of fun stuff here too, that just doesn't seem to make it to English-language screens except in rare instances (Amelie). Taxi, Bloody Mallory, Les Visiteurs, Crimson Rivers, Haute Tension, Wasabi.... France really does do genre movies, and they're both fun and fascinating in their cultural "differentness". I wish there were more French horror films! I can't help but think that something like Wasabi has a better chance of grabbing attention outside France than "yet another restaurant movie".... but then, I suppose if you've established a certain image, perhaps it's best to focus on exporting just that image, instead of superheroines fighting goblins and vampires.

The frustration for me, though, is that my only view into the world of French film and TV is through an English keyhole - There may be a lot more films and shows like Engrenages that would interest me, but I'll never know they exist if they don't turn up on English-language TV channels. And again I say, grrr.