Post Card Critical Mass

A frustrated director launches a war of words with France's irreverent movie reviewers

The relationship between artist and critic has always been characterized by a certain tension. But what started with a letter from a French director bemoaning the excesses of certain journalists is heading for open warfare between filmmakers and Parisian reviewers.

Patrice Leconte reignited the ancient conflict when he wrote recently to the Society of Auteurs, Directors and Producers, warning that reckless critics are driving the final nail into the coffin of local cinema through ill-informed, malicious attacks on films.

"Certain reviews seem like premeditated hatchet jobs, and send a shiver down my spine. It's as if their authors had set out to kill off French commercial cinema," wrote Leconte, who has enjoyed international success with movies such as "Ridicule."

Given the falling market share of French cinema and a string of autumn boxoffice flops for local movies, Leconte says he regards the critics' clique as "a grave diggers' club."

The director, who confesses to having frequently barred some critics from press screenings of his own films, claims he spoke out on behalf of the profession as a whole, and initiated a debate among ARP members on the issue.

The result was a document being circulated among the society's 170 members for approval, the content of which has been leaked to the press.

The text deplores "an almost palpable jubilation in the pleasure of destroying" a film. "Execution precedes exhibition," it says.

Naively, the document calls for negative reviews not to be published until after the first weekend of a film's release.

Without citing any names, Leconte's outburst is aimed at a trio of publications -- daily newspapers Liberation and Le Monde, and TV and film weekly Telerama -- that have been dubbed the "Bermuda Triangle" of French criticism for the potentially terminal influence they are credited with wielding over a film's performance.

Olivier Seguret, film editor at Liberation, defended his paper's tradition of satirical, often irreverent writing. "I understand that people might feel hurt by what's written about them, but critics should be free to say whatever they think," he said.

"Leconte has had the kind of commercial success that gives him the freedom to make the films he wants. Now he's looking for symbolic recognition from two or three newspapers. He's like a spoiled child," said Seguret.

Michel Rebichon, editor-in-chief of film magazine Studio, said he had some sympathy for the victims of harsh onslaughts, but observed that directors bellyaching about what critics say reveals a malaise in French filmmaking.

"It's the same old faces; there's need for a renewal," Rebichon says.

Perhaps if French cinema were more accessible, local critics would give it a better hearing. Time was when critics such as Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard, not impressed with what they saw on the screen, turned to filmmaking. Perhaps today's current crop of directors ought to look out.

-- Charles Masters