Exception Taken

Jonathan Buchsbaum is professor of media studies at Queens College, City University of New York. He is the author of Cinema and the Sandinistas: Filmmaking in Revolutionary Nicaragua (2003) and Cinema Engage: Film in the Popular Front (1988).

Exception Taken explains and explores a striking state of affairs that most film lovers take for granted: the continued survival, in a globalized, "free" media market, of minority film cultures. This is one of the best- and most thoroughly researched books on cinema that I have ever read, on one of the most important subjects in contemporary world cinema... Buchsbaum tells the story of a political-legal process that has done more to shape the form and content of the modern audiovisual experience than anything else in recent history, and importantly, he shows us why it is so crucial to cinema's future. -- Alan L. Williams, Professor of French and Cinema Studies at Rutgers University and author of Republic of Images: A History of French Filmmaking Jonathan Buchsbaum is one of the leading scholars of the history of French cinema policy and institutions. With this book, he presents an outstanding analysis of a system that has furnished models for other national cinemas. Often, these policies are reduced to a state-imposed system of protection based on taxation and financial assistance. The author counters this by demonstrating it to be an effective and beneficial system of regulation. French policies have ensured that long-term collective interests prevail by introducing qualitative factors that constrain the dominance of short-term economic interests. An essential contribution to understanding what is, and can be, a cinema policy. -- Laurent Creton, Professor in Economy of Cinema, University Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3 Jonathan Buchsbaum has given us a powerfully researched analysis of the political economy of French film and state-aided funding systems since the 1970s. Exception Taken shows how French cinema has intersected with other national cinemas, and how the famous "French exception" - which excluded cultural products from international general trade agreements such as the GATT accords - was part of a vigorous state policy to save French cinema from domination by Hollywood, while becoming increasingly international in funding outreach. Explanatory appendices (schematics) provide a clear map for understanding and tracking this complex comparative history of national and international cinemas. This is an essential, foundational study of the political economy of French film since the 1970s. -- Janet Bergstrom, University of California, Los Angeles

• List of Figures Preface List of Abbreviations Introduction 1. International Domination by the U.S. Film Industry 2. The Lang Years 3. European Film Policy and Television Without Frontiers 4. GATT 5. From Canal+ to Canal- 6. Bilan(s) 7. From Cultural Exception to Cultural Diversity 8. Was the Experience Beneficial? Conclusion Appendix A. A Note on Sources Appendix B. Calculation of Automatic Aid in France Appendix C. The Compte de soutien: A Schematic Appendix D. Financing French Film: A Schematic Appendix E. Grants to Art et essai Theaters Appendix F. Films Chosen for High School Students in Lyceens et apprentis au cinema Appendix G. List of Films Aided by Fonds Sud Appendix H. First Films in French Film Production Notes Bibliography Index