The ‘Cinéma du milieu’ is falling down: new challenges for auteur and independent French cinema in the 2000s

Vanderschelden, Isabelle (2009) The ‘Cinéma du milieu’ is falling down: new challenges for auteur and independent French cinema in the 2000s. Studies in French Cinema, 9 (3). pp. 243-257. ISSN 1758-9517

File not available for download.

Abstract

Pascale Ferran's Lady Chatterley received five Césars in 2007. This gave her the opportunity of denouncing the ‘recent fracture within the history of French cinema’, making it difficult for some ‘auteurs-directors’ to find the funding for films which are not lavish commercial productions or shoe-string budgets – the ‘films du milieu’ (mid-budget, artistically ambitious, independent films). This paper discusses the impact of Ferran's intervention and of the resulting report of the Club des 13, Le Milieu n'est plus un pont mais une faille, published in 2008. Using Lady Chatterley (Ferran, 2006), Un secret/A Secret (Miller, 2007) and La Graine et le Mulet/Couscous (Kechiche, 2007), it maps out some issues raised by the Club des 13, and addresses some of their proposals.