Events | 2009.07.11
Why the British film revival is in danger
Despite Oscars for Kate Winslet and for Slumdog Millionaire, a host of key British movie industry insiders have warned of terminal decline - unless Brussels steps in. Vanessa Thorpe reports
The story of British film has a happy ending at last. Right? We heard the strings swirl as Slumdog Millionaire swept the board, as Mike Leigh was recognised in Europe and Hollywood as a unique auteur, as Daniel Craig\'s James Bond and Daniel Radcliffe\'s Harry Potter drew the crowds into the multiplexes. What\'s more, Kate Winslet has finally won her Oscar for The Reader and is walking off into the sunset, hand in hand with her equally feted (and British) director husband, Sam Mendes.
So when a House of Lords select committee was convened to look into the future of the British film industry, its members must have half-hoped they would hear a little feelgood news at a time when so much else in the economy was teetering. After all, almost one-sixth of all the films shown around the world last year were British and there were more than 164m visits to the cinema in this country, 22m more than in 2000. The UK Film Council says box-office takings in this country stand at a record £850m.
So how come much of the testimony the select committee has received so far has pointed to terminal decline or imminent collapse? Some directors and producers are arguing that the cinematic triumphs of recent months simply paper over the cracks working through the foundations of the business.
Those who have yet to speak to parliament, such as producer Andrew Eaton, are equally disturbed. "We know we are in thrall to the American industry, but there is not enough discussion about how you make the economy of the British film industry work," he said. The acclaimed director Mike Figgis believes "the entire industry needs to review itself along more realistic economic lines".
Blame has been levelled first at Hollywood, for bleeding Britain of talent, then at the illicit trade of film piracy, then at the government for not creating a more protectionist market.
Many, like Jonathan Gems, who wrote Tim Burton\'s Mars Attacks!, are happy to celebrate all the homegrown talent around, but feel annoyance that the industry is not allowed to blossom.
"We have got so much talent in this country, but our industry is just an adjunct of the American film industry," said Gems, who has submitted testimony to the committee. "Hollywood dominates. Of course, at the moment Hollywood has the best overall product, but we invented cinema in many respects and yet we don\'t have our own cinema."
Gems argues that other European countries, such as Spain, protect their cinema. "We can\'t because we don\'t have any functioning studios."
Working in Los Angeles for Warner Brothers, Gems heard English stars, such as Michael Caine, say they were unhappy about working out there so much. "And Jude Law, I know, is unhappy about having to spend long periods filming abroad when he has children here."
It is Gems\'s revolutionary hope that the European Commission will heed calls from the continent for legislation ensuring that 50% of the films shown here should be made in Europe. "Then we would get our own industry pretty quickly," he says.
When Tessa Ross, controller of film and drama at Film 4, spoke to the select committee last month she said the channel\'s film-making arm was vulnerable despite its recent hit, Slumdog Millionaire, backed by £1.5m of Film 4\'s £10m annual budget. "We would be foolish not to be worried," she told members, suggesting the channel\'s public service broadcasting remit should be rewritten to protect the film channel too.
Those who agree with Ross point out that the stakes are high. The industry earns more than £1bn in export income from film rights and film production services, consistently showing the kind of trade surplus that helps the country\'s balance of trade.
For Eaton, producer of many of Michael Winterbottom\'s acclaimed films, the problem lies in the historical structure of the industry. "Look at the way government intervened with the communications act that set up Channel 4. The companies set up then, such as TalkBack and Tiger Aspect, went on to make a lot of money," said Eaton, just back from shooting The Killer Inside Me with Winterbottom in Oklahoma. "Michael and I have been making films together for 15 years and I find I get more and more frustrated by the attitude here. We spend too much time worrying about whether the Harry Potter films are really American films and not enough celebrating all the creative skill involved in making them here."
Figgis, the director of Leaving Las Vegas and Internal Affairs, has a root and branch operation in mind. "My view is not a popular one, but there is a radical economic change going on and the film business has to rethink itself, too. People say the worst is over, but it is not. Directors may say they want a support system, like the one in Hollywood. I don\'t think they really need one. We would not tolerate these levels of over-employment and over-paying in any other industry that was in trouble."
Such retrenchment in an industry that directly provides jobs for almost 35,000 people would be widely felt.
Christine Langan, the producer of In The Loop, The Damned United and The Duchess, is more optimistic. "There is a lot of activity going on," she says, noting that cinema ticket sales are up as well. British films grossed £2.3bn at the international box office last year and box-office takings in this country are up 46% on the turn of the millennium.
"We have to make the most of that demand and grapple with the new digital era at the same time. We need to work out a new financial model because finding funds has become more difficult. So much equity money has dried up. There are fewer doors to knock on."
For Tim Bevan, the co-founder of Working Title Films who takes over as chairman of the film council at the end of the month, piracy is the great foe that must be fought. His company, behind Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones and Atonement, has made films grossing more than $4.5bn and yet it is feeling the pain. "The economic turmoil is affecting us," he said. "Not profoundly, but it makes a difference."
However, the piracy responsible for the loss of £404m to the British industry last year, is, he told the select committee, threatening to "overwhelm" his business. "The government\'s recent digital report has acknowledged the problem, but that is not enough because Rome is burning," he added.
"The drop in the level of television sales is having a proven effect. Things are coming under great scrutiny and indie distributors are not putting up guarantees for films. But it is something that will get sorted because consumers want to see movies."
Bevan suspects that now the economic meltdown is affecting film it will bring things to a head, because in his industry the product is so expensive that short cuts will not work.
"We will have blank film screens if it is not sorted out." He wants to see all the creative industries "singing from the same song sheet" and believes it is starting to happen.
Eaton and Gems, on the other hand, are not so persuaded that piracy is the problem. While Eaton sees it as "a bit of a smokescreen", Gems argues that, while it was a huge business, the end is in sight.
"Piracy is not going to be a problem once broadband is out there and films can be easily downloaded," he said. "A pirated film still costs about £3 in this country and $5 in the States, so why would people pay that?"
John Woodward, the chief executive of the film council, has already appeared before the committee and told its members that, although the industry is strong in terms of skills and its entrepreneurial spirit, the credit crunch has made it "harder to put independent films together than it has ever been".
Pippa Harris, who runs Neal Street Productions with Sam Mendes, emphasises the positive in the market, but says she hopes to see adjustments to the tax breaks available to keep things busy. "I look around and see a fairly robust industry here at the moment," she said. "And you can see that in the quality of the films. The problem with the tax system is with what is described as \'UK spend\'. A film like Slumdog Millionaire, with a British director that is fully funded by Film 4, doesn\'t qualify for a tax break. It seems unfair, and there are lots of anomalies like this."
A spokesman for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport said the ministry was working "with other film-making nations developing co-production treaties, which offer incentives for British and overseas film-makers to work together on projects".
The parliamentary select committee is due to start preparing a report for the House of Lords at the end of the year, and as the closing credits roll, telling us that British films now bring in about £4.3bn per year to the economy, there may be time to prevent this cinematic story turning into a weepie.
As Langan says: "The value of the industry is not in question. Our talent and skills base and our cultural offer have never been stronger. We just have to battle with these serious challenges."
Hitchcock to Notting Hill
1920s Gainsborough and Gaumont studios led the industry into the 1930s and 1940s from east London. Working with a young Alfred Hitchcock, they later produced his The 39 Steps and classic adventures such as The Wicked Lady, with James Mason and Margaret Lockwood.
1940s Ealing Studios made renowned comedies such as Kind Hearts and Coronets and Passport to Pimlico along with the patriotic Scott of the Antarctic
l960s Confident growth of a distinctive British style of cinema, with films such as Darling, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, This Sporting Life and Billy Liar
1980s "The British are coming!" was the cry from Colin Welland, when he won an Oscar for writing Chariots of Fire. He predicted a renaissance for British films.
2000 After Working Title\'s international 1990s hits such as Notting Hill, British talent heads the pack. Kate Winslet, Judi Dench, Ralph Fiennes, Daniel Craig and Clive Owen are in demand in Hollywood, while directors Sam Mendes and Stephen Frears can call the shots.
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/jul/12/british-film-industry-in-danger
