15/09/2003

There’s a legal furore about the new film by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Un long dimanche de fiançailles. Shooting on the work starring Audrey Tautou among others, started last August. The row is about the control of the production on behalf of Warner France, and also involves the CNC – National Film School concerning Questions over the precise nature of the production – namely whether it is really a French film or not. At the heart of the argument is the wider issue of foreign productions access to French funding.

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On the face of things, there are no apparent objections to the authorisation of funding for the new film by the author of Amélie. In fact all the elements of Un long dimanche de fiançailles, from the director, the actors, the film set and post production facilities, the production company for the French rights (2003 produztions), are French. As far as the CNC is concerned, the film scores 99 points out of 100. But the issue that has raised a number of questions is the effective control of 2003 Productions, which is the executive producer of the film. Warner owns 32% of this company, and in spite of this, some of the employees of this French subsidiary of the American company, including the MD, Francis Boespglug, are also part of the other shareholders. The French Cinematographic industry code forbids access to funding provided by the CNC to any type of production company controlled by companies based outside of Europe.
The director general of the CNC, David Kessler has asked for a detailed statement about the real control of the company, given that the commission has recognised the French nature of the project, even though there were reservations about the matter. Lawyers and legal advisers are already working on the preparation of a dossier, to reply to the attacks against the agreement made by API (Gaumont, UGC, Pathé, MK2) and the Trade Union for Independent Producers. The row has now reached a such critical stage as Jean-Pierre Jeunet, in an interview with Film Français, has threatened to abandon the film, adding that he specifically chose to shoot the film in France instead of the Czech Republic, and that he also chose a national post-production facility (Eclair and Duran Duboi), even though the costs were higher in comparison to its foreign competitors.
All the French film institutions for the authorisation of the negotiations for non-European productions to have access to national funding or who will could benefit from future tax credits, have now entered the debate.

(Translated from French)