The Cannes Film Festival opened last week. I attended the festival for years –I love cinema and worked with clients in the motion picture business– but tired of what seemed, to me, a monotonous and vaguely incestuous selection: lots of serious films, and a musical chairs situation among directors and jury members (where one year's palm winner became next year's jury member).

In France, people seem to take for granted public (meaning: taxpayer-funded) support for filmmaking. There are a bewildering array of tax-and-spend policies in place, and a novel scheme always seems to be in the pipeline.

Much of the public assistance seems to be based on the premise that a serious film can't succeed in the marketplace, in other words that seriousness will result in financial loss. A corollary holds that financially successful pictures aren't serious.

The French seem to have trouble taking comedies seriously. But historically, comedies have ranked among French box office champions:

  • Bienvenu chez les ch'tis (2008, my preferred English title: Welcome to the Sticks), a fish-out-of-water story about a French "southerner" who finds himself among French "northerners", the all-time French box office champ;
  • Les Visiteurs (1993), where sorcery transports a medieval knight and his servant to the present day;
  • La Grande vadrouille (1966), a war comedy (if such a thing is possible) starring Louis de Funès, a French national icon; it was until last year the French box office champ.

Another French comedy has been doing well at the box office, supported by favorable reviews and strong word-of-mouth: OSS 117: Rio ne répond plus (in English: OSS117: Lost in Rio). It's a funny picture, but devilishly hard to explain. I'll try to do this in my next post.