- The Guardian, Friday 11 May 2001
It is tempting to shrug and take the latter view. The British film council has called our absence a "blip"; recent figures suggest a surge in investment in the UK film industry; interesting new movies are promised from John Boorman, Mike Leigh, Ken Loach and Lynne Ramsay; British production facilities are universally praised; encouraged by the success of Billy Elliott, the BBC is increasing its investment in film-making. But despite those encouraging straws in an unpredictable wind - the view of whether it is boom or bust in British film seems to change every six months - M Frémaux's decision that the British are not coming cannot be put down to xenophobia.
British film is polarised between arthouse movies, funded largely by lottery money, and a brazenly commercial sector aiming at the US market. Bridget Jones's Diary and Captain Corelli's Mandolin are British in name only; their stars - and, more important, their sensibilities - are transatlantic. The glory of US cinema lies in the middle ground of movie-making, unfettered by either art or schlock. Hollywood studios have successfully co-opted idiosyncratic "indie" talents in a Faustian bargain that brings the best out of both. Difficult though definitions are, British films do matter: film is a great popular art form shaping much of the cultural conversation: it should not be left to the US - or to the resurgent French film industry. M Frémaux has more to tell us about the current state of British film-making than Ms Jones.
