It's not easy seeing Green

Kieron Corless asks why Eugène Green's films are so hard to find in the UK.

Feb 13 2006

This week's Eugène Green retrospective at the Ciné Lumière, attended by the director, gives London filmgoers a rare opportunity to engage with one of the most exciting and important auteurs working today. There's been quite a buzz building around Green over the past 12 months, emanating not just from the festival circuit but from high-profile champions of his work such as Jean-Luc Godard and the Dardenne brothers and sealed by American cinephile bible Film Comment placing Green's most recent masterpiece 'Le Pont des Arts' in its Top 20 unreleased films of 2005.

But note the word 'unreleased'. Like several other exceptional French directors, Green has so far been unable to find a distributor for his films, either in the States or here. Should we care? Nick James, editor of Sight and Sound, put it this way: 'French films have long been the gold standard for art cinema in the UK. Without a regular flow of distinctive work from France, there would be little sense of an alternative cinema to Hollywood.' Even now, in the midst of an apparent crisis in its domestic industry, France's film output seems, as ever, light years ahead of Britain's in its aesthetic risk-taking, imaginative reach and refusal to compromise.

While it's true that distributors such as Artificial Eye and Tartan have generally served us well for new French work – last year we could be grateful for the likes of Claire Denis' 'L'Intrus' and Lucile Hadzihalilovic's scintillating debut 'Innocence', for example – it can sometimes feel as if British distributors have settled into a pattern reliant on established names; the new Ozon or Chabrol or Rohmer. There are plenty of striking French talents who are slipping through the net, both theatrically and for DVD releases. In recent years, we've missed out on Siegrid Alnoy's magnificent 'Elle Est Des Nôtres', Thomas Vincent's 'Karnaval', Abdel Kechiche's 'L'Esquive', Jean-Paul Civeyrac's hypnotic 'A Travers La Forêt'. Plus pretty much everything by Philippe Garrel, Emilie Deleuze and the brilliant documentarian Raymond Depardon.

And, of course, Eugène Green himself. Green is sui generis, a mesmerising oneoff – which makes the work more of a challenge to market. But given the chance, audiences in London respond well to his films. Green's last two, 'Le Monde Vivant' and 'Le Pont des Arts', screened to large audiences at the London Film Festival in 2003 and 2004 respectively, the former picking up the FIPRESCI prize (and sending numerous critics into raptures).

Distributors are understandably wary nowadays. Cinemas will take a film off immediately if it doesn't perform on its opening weekend. Following the demise of the Other Cinema, there are few London venues where an audience for a film can build slowly by word of mouth, though the likes of the Ciné Lumière and Renoir swim heroically against the tide. The situation is a bit better in Paris, where more independent cinemas still remain. Green's first film 'Toutes Les Nuits' developed a committed following in Paris over an extended run, despite minimal advertising. So until some enterprising British distributor takes a chance on Green and some of his even lesser-known but equally enthralling compatriots, it looks like it'll have to be the Eurostar.

Eugène Green's films screen at the Ciné Lumière on Tue 14 and Wed 15 Feb (details here).

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