Boxoffice-September.1997

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INTERNATIONAL AMUSEMENTS
PAISLEY, ENGLAND—US-based
National Amusements opened its latest
Showcase Cinema on June 12 in Paisley.
England. Known as The Phoenix, the stateof-the-art
14-screen, 3,800 seat movie palace
joins 14 other United Kingdom theatres
operated by National Amusements. Less
than a month earlier, National Amusements
unveiled London's first Showcase Cinema,
located in Newham. The 14-screen, 4,000
seat movie palace boasts a decidedly American
atmosphere, with an art gallery of famous
Golden Age Hollywood stars and movie
stills; a neon sculpture tribute to Hollywood;
and a cinema store selling film-related merchandise.
The Phoenix shares these features,
as well as a coming attractions video wall, a
video game room and an expanded concession
counter that offers ice cream sundaes.
National Amusements has 156 screens in
the U.K. and more than 1,100 worldwide.
SUMMER SELLING SUCCESSES
After the success of last sear's summer
movie campaigns such as Germany's Der
Sommerhit: Kmo (a collaboration among
distributors, exhibitors and media to promote
summer movies), a slew of other European
countries have decided to try similar
tactics to goose the traditionally slack season.
Denmark spent $350,000 on a bug-the-
— med campaign "coming soon to a garden
near you"— presumably designed to encourage
Danes to take refuge from nature's
pests inside cinemas. Norway gave away tickets
to matinee screenings in its bars and restaurants.
The U.K. launched its National
Cinema Day (June 15) with reduced ticket
prices. France enlarged its Fete du Cinema
from one to three days, running June 29 to July
1 . A $6 pass allowed French cinemagoers to
see any film for the discount price of $1.70.
And in Iceland, the indusuy added a twist to
its summer campaign by appealing to tourists,
distributing booklets advertising the country's
English-language films to passengers on the
cruise ships that dock in local harbors.
Germany's Der Sommerhit: Kino,
launched last year at a cost of $20 milUon,
increased ticket sales by 19 percent.
NORWAY'S SHORT SUBJECT
OSLO—A Norwegian distributor and
major exhibitor are reviving the short-film
genre in the country, with the help of the
Norwegian film institute. Europafilm and
Oslo Cinemas have started a subscription service
in which exhibitors paying an annual fee
have access to any of Europafilm' s short
films. Currendy, Europafilm carries threequarters
of the 200 short films produced in
Norway, as well as many foreign ones, including
Aardman Animafion's Wallace and
Gromit advenoire "A Close Shave." Such
films generally are seen only on the festival
circuit, but the Norwegian team is taking advantage
of a local law that allows exhibitors
to show short films tax-free. The annual subscription
fee ranges from $400 to $2,500,
depending on the size of the cinema. Since
1 994, the Norwegian Film Institute has provided
funding for producing films for Europafilm'
short-film library. Europafilm approaches
screenwriters and directors to make the films
and takes care of post-production, prints and
other costs. Approximately 60 percent ofNorwegian
cinemas screen short films.
Q&A:
FRENCH PRODUCER
HUMBERT BALSAN
ON GOLF AND FILM
French producer Humbert Balsan has always lived on the creative end
of the arts— as an actor (most notably in Robert Bresson's "Lancelot du
Lac") and as a documentary director. In 1979, Balsan joined Ismail
Merchant and fames Ivory, and over the years has produced several of their
films, including "Quartet," "Jefferson in Paris," "Surviving Picasso" and "The
Proprietor." Balsan's 1996 film "Will it Snow for Christmas?" received both
boxoffice and critical success, and won a Cesar— France's version ofan Oscar —
for its director, Sandrine Veysset. With 35 features produced through his
company, Ognon Pictures, Balsan spoke to Boxoffice about his determination
to protect the vision of his directors, many of them first-timers, and his plans for
distributing his fdms stateside.
Boxoffice: Is it fair to call you one of the more successful producers in France today?
HUMBERT BALSAN: I play golf. In film production, like in golf, you have to be modest.
You can say I had a series of successes this year. One was with a film called "Will it Snow
for Christmas?" [on which Sandrine Veysset made her directorial debut], a very big success
in France, Switzerland and Belgium, then we had two films do very well in Cannes
"Destiny," directed by Youssef Chahine, and "Post-Coitum, Animal Triste" [the first
directorial effort of French actress Brigitte Rouan]. Both of these films were very well
received and are being sold in many territories.
Boxoffice: What is your experience with United States distribution?
BALSAN: I've never had a big hit [in the U.S.j like I had in France with "Will It
Snow For Christmas?" It was my biggest financial success. I the film for a low
Theatres have to he
booked properly
and not show a
comedy one day,
and the next day a
film of Godard.
Theatres have to
have a certain
consistency.
cost and I 1 00 percent of the negative
because I didn't need to have co-producers.
It was not the biggest hit in terms of seats in
France [800,000 admissions in 6 months]
but if you look at the ratio of cost to results,
it's very, very big.
Boxoffice: Do you plan to open a distribution
arm of Ognon Pictures stateside?
BALSAN: My idea is to have a structure
in the States that carefully follows my films
and releases some of them. I've often been
close to having a deal in the States but it has
never happened, though always for different
reasons. I think it is now the right time to
concentrate on this. We have some good
contacts with people, particularly Donald
Rosenfeld, who worked with Merchant/Ivory
for 10 years, and who is now on his own.
Boxoffice: How do you plan to reach a
stateside market?
BALSAN: This has always been the big problem with the States. The United States is a
great country for films, but it's also very protectionist. That's why I think if I take care of my
own films, there's more motivation and then more work [accomplished]. Getting to screens
is a problem. I think we'll come to the point of buying some theatres and releasing our
films here in our own theaters. But it's the same in France. I had difficulty
getting access to the good theatres in France. I think there is a huge audience for
interesting films in the States. It's just a matter of being there at the right time and
working out a certain line of films to build a relationship with an audience so they will be
faithful to the theatre. Theatres have to be booked properly and not show a comedy one
day, and the next day a film of Godard. Theatres have to have a certain consistency.
Exhibitors in the States have been doing this for many years but maybe it's not enough.
There are so many films from around the world that exhibitors can't show everything.
So the competition is very hard in this market for access to the good theatres.
Boxoffice: Would your exhibition strategy include building multiplexes here?
BALSAN: No, not at all. I would build art-houses. I'm an "artisan," as we say in
French. For a producer, that means there's a certain spirit and a way of being very
independent and doing things at a very human scale. I believe that cinema is closer
to art than to industry. So I don't think you can be totally artistically oriented if you are
doing production at a scale that's too Dig.
Boxoffice: You once said that what you require of your directors is authenticity.
BALSAN: I'm the kind of producer who doesn't try to push a director to do films
to please investors. I push directors to make the film that's inside them. It's not
always so easy, but I realized over the years that it's often in having a low bu dget
that we can do this the most.
Karen Achenbach