Philippe Muyl thinks that the cooperation between French and Chinese cinemas is very important. Pic by Qiu Yuecheng
By Chen Hong Wang Linshuo
Yesterday, Liao Fan and Wang Jingchun, two of Chinese best actors, positively advocated the survival and development of artist films. When commenting the models of artist films, Wang Jingchun especially mentioned France. During the interview from The Daily News, Philippe Muyl, the French director and jury member of the Golden Goblet Award of the 18th Shanghai International Film Festival, said proudly that “there’s no such problem in France” as for the conflict between artist films and commercial films.
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Philippe Muyl is not a stranger for many Chinese fans of artist films. In 2002, his film Le Papillon made a hit both in France and the whole world, which has been proven by a number of awards in international festivals and the high reputation among Chinese filmgoers. His connection with Chinese cinema has been long-standing, while what makes him most famous in China is his latest film Le Promeneur d\'Oiseau, the co-production between China and France which was selected by the Chinese authority to run for the Best Foreign Language Film of the 2014 Academy Awards as the candidate of Mainland China.
Daily News: As we all know, artist films enjoy a sound basis in Europe, especially in France, where the market share of artistic films is very high. So is there also the conflict between artist films and commercial films?
Philippe Muyl: There’s no such problem in France. The French people need diversity for films. Because there are different channels, they can see films of different countries, and different types of cinemas show different genres of films.
However, this is difficult in China because all cinemas will show those commercial blockbusters at the same time.
Daily News: What elements in Chinese cinema are you really interested in?
Philippe Muyl: Many actors, technical professionals and some subjects are really interesting. China, like France, has a long history and splendid culture, which can attract the eyes of the whole world, and we can make people who do not know China to learn the past and the present of China with films.
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Besides his personal influence, another factor that makes Muyl invited as a member of the jury of the Shanghai International Film Festival is the Film Coproduction Agreement between China and France signed several years ago. As two countries with great cultures, there is something in common, despite a lot of differences, between China and France in terms of cinema, which is the pride for native culture and the worry about the impact of Hollywood commercial blockbusters.
Daily News: As an important base of artist films, France, as we know, used to worry a lot about the invasion of Hollywood commercial blockbusters, but has finally resisted it. So how is the situation at present?
Philippe Muyl: This problem is not so serious in France because France has not yet corroded by Hollywood that much, and there are many French films for the niche and for the masses showing around the country.
Daily News: Hollywood blockbusters almost dominate the whole market once they are in theatres, Furious 7, for instance grossed over 2 billion Yuan at the box office, which greatly stimulated the Chinese cinema. In the future, there will be more and more such stimulations; so can you give us some advice as for this situation?
Philippe Muyl: Personally, I think such problem owes much to the policy. In order to maintain the cultural originality and independence, the government should launch polices to ensure more Chinese films to be shown in theatres, with each film shown at least for one week instead of pulled out of theatres soon. You must give Chinese films a change and help them to grow instead of waiting until they have grown to be highly competitive.
Daily News: However, many believe that the native film market of China is already good enough and they feel unwilling and not required to go global. Entering those small markets is difficult, and in addition, success is not necessarily guaranteed. So what’s your opinion on Chinese films’ going global?
Philippe Muyl: To be frank, Chinese films are not suitable for export at present mainly because of the style of storytelling by Chinese filmmakers and the quality of Chinese films. The quality of films, both technical and artistic, fails to reach international standard. For films of the same theme, the American production may be better than its Chinese counterpart perhaps because of more mature technology and performance.
As a foreign director, I hope to cooperate with Chinese filmmakers and help Chinese films to grow. The cooperation between French and Chinese cinemas, for instance, is very important.