The symposium took place following surprise amendments brought before the National Assembly on 21 December, during the debate provoked by the need to transpose the European Copyright Directive into French law.

The second part of this symposium, led by Pascal Rogard, Director General of the SACD, the French organisation for authors’ rights, was intended to redefine the position of each operator in the film’s lifecycle. Concluding this debate, Véronique Cayla, General Director of the French Film Centre, CNC, reaffirmed with all of the participants the need to preserve the timescale of the different mediums. In France today this guarantees the pre-eminence of the cinema over all other mediums for exhibiting films. A feature film can only be released on DVD 6 months after its release at the cinema, followed by the other mediums.

However, recent debates in Italy and the United States show that the exclusivity of the cinema screen is now far from guaranteed. In this way, several representative organisations in Italy have risen up against the desire by operators to show films over mobile phones at the same time as their cinema release. In the United States, the simultaneous release of Steven Soderbergh’s new film, Bubble, on all mediums has set a cat among the pigeons. Of course, this release involves a somewhat experimental and low-budget film. But other, similar releases are already planned, particularly that of Michael Winterbottom’s new film, The Road to Guantanamo, in the United Kingdom.

Some French video publishers would like the timescale to be reduced, particularly to avoid having to orchestrate another weighty communication campaign when the film is released on DVD. But the results for some films, particularly European ones, provide a contrasting view. Marie Masmonteil, president of the Syndicate of Independent Producers and the fortunate producer of Live and Become (Europa Cinemas Label, Panorama 2005) for the company Elzévir Films, offers a reminder that the success of the film was to a large measure due to word of mouth which had time to take effect. In 2005, other films found their audiences in the meantime, such as The Beat that my Heart Skipped and Darwin’s Nightmare (Europa Cinemas Label, Giornate degli Autori 2005). The timescale of the mediums thus agrees perfectly with the course taken by Radu Mihaileanu’s film, which had high attendance for over five months. A more rapid release on DVD would have limited the cinema admissions to this film. But Marie Masmonteil is particularly concerned about the role of the distributor in the future. While Mihaileanu’s film was able to work in this way, it is certainly because its distributor, Les Films du Losange, provided a precision work. Now, if the film is exhibited on several mediums at the same time, who will be able to play the role of thought leader?

As far as the internet is concerned, at the end of 2005 Canal Plus launched a Video on Demand service (VoD), before the implementation of TF1’s download platform. Called Canal Play, this service has met with some success, demonstrating that there is, at the moment, a largely unsatisfied demand. Jean-David Cohen, the company’s representative, stressed the new life such services offer to classic films and also to films recently released at cinemas. On the subject of downloads, Michel Gomez recalls that the ARP, the French association for Authors, Directors and Producers, is pleading for a dialogue between ISPs (Internet Service Providers) and the film industry, intended to lead to the implementation of the supply of legal downloads. But, he insists, the pre-eminence of the cinema is a necessity for the existence of the film. A necessity which Véronique Cayla was anxious to remember.

The cinema, the place where films begin their existence, was therefore at the centre of the first round table talks.

Four exhibitors, members of Europa Cinemas, who started in the 1970s, attended to present their progression and their vision for the future to a remarkably young audience. These four exhibitors share the same desire to highlight films d’auteur but differ in the scale of their activity.

Very committed in their choice of programme schedules, the exhibitors of the Utopia cinemas, Anne-Marie Faucon and Michel Malacarnet, referred to the difficulties of a profession learnt on the job. Beginning with the simple wish to offer films which had no chance of being viewed in Avignon, they firstly tackled the poor reception to the opening of their cinema by creating, for example, the Gazette, a local newspaper soon reaching a distribution of tens of thousands of copies. It took 20 years for their activity, which now extends to five complexes in Avignon, Toulouse, Bordeaux and Saint-Ouen, a suburb of Paris, to show a profit.

In Spain, Enrique Gonzáles Macho is a producer, distributor and exhibitor with his company, Alta Films. Today, the company possesses around 160 screens including the Cine Renoir cinemas, which schedule exclusively original version films. Enrique Gonzáles Macho did not initially wish to become an exhibitor. Having started as a film technician, he became a distributor while at the same time becoming interested in films from the Soviet Union, during the 1970s. He was a buyer of films from the East and became an exhibitor in Spain so that he could screen them, opening a cinema in Moscow at the same time. Back from Moscow for good in the 1990s, he now devotes himself entirely to his activities in Spain and recently launched a DVD collection.

Jean-Marie Hermand (with the association Les Grignoux) is the exhibitor at Le Parc and Churchill cinemas in Liège, Belgium. These film theatres were created with the desire to offer a place for associations to screen films. He too had to create an informative newspaper to overcome the deficits of the regional press. Today, he emphasises the differences between his cinemas and the multiplexes and the importance of the young audience. Activities implemented for schoolchildren have, in his opinion, led to a 20 to 30% increase in cinema attendance.

Finally, Roger Diamantis came to present the Saint-André-des-Arts cinema, the Mecca of the Latin Quarter and of Parisian film lovers. Becoming an exhibitor was a childhood dream but he had to wait until he had worked for 20 years before he was able to open its cinema. The construction of the building was hardly restful but the first film scheduled, The Salamander by Alain Tanner, stayed on the programme for a year and attracted 200,000 viewers. Ken Loach’s Family Life came a close second with 150,000 admissions. Now in its 35th year of operation, Roger Diamantis states that these figures have become unachievable. The relative failures in his cinema of The Child by the Dardenne brothers or of Le Filmeur by Alain Cavalier are, in his view, most certainly a sign that the behaviour of Parisian film lovers has changed, particularly since the implementation of season tickets. The Saint-André-des-Arts cinema is showing resistance in an area which has seen a number of cinemas disappear but, with around 40 screens, remains one of the biggest cinema lovers in the world.

More generally, in a society in which the films available and the mediums are accelerating, how can these cinemas offering films d’auteur differentiate themselves?

Specialisation is the answer most often given by these exhibitors. Enrique González Macho is more concerned about the multiplexes than about his own activity – a vision shared by Michel Malacarnet, who indicates the drop in results of the chains of multiplexes which have chosen to address only the widest audiences, both in France and the United States.

Enrique Gonzáles Macho emphasised the need for cinemas to specialise: some of his cinemas show only original version films. Differentiating oneself also involves making important choices: he knew that Le Promeneur du Champ de Mars by Robert Guédiguian would not be a success. But he, and not a competitor, had to show this film, considered important by an element of his cinemas’ audiences. Cooperation with distributors is also of prime importance. Offering distributors preview screenings reserved for regular viewers at his cinemas allows, in his opinion, the promotion of word of mouth.

Michel Malacarnet states that the films scheduled in his cinemas do not exist on the internet and therefore does not see how the network would present a danger to his activity. Viewers come to Utopia cinemas precisely because the exhibitor plays the role of thought leader. The cinema is, according to him, a social place and will be even more so since the search for meaning is increasing. Above all, installing the film theatre in the heart of local life by, for example, encouraging viewers to do their shopping in the associated shops, seems to him a way of making them loyal.

Finally, Jean-Marie Hermand emphasises the need to make the cinema a meeting point. The imminent opening of an additional theatre indicates that he too does not fear disaffection on the part of the audience. He also believes in the possibilities offered by digital projection, but that is a different subject.