The French Streaming Service War
An alliance between France’s three biggest TV networks to protect the country’s art against an onslaught of American entertainment.
France has long defended its ‘exception culturelle' with subsidies, quotas and tax breaks to protect French films, music and television from the ravages of a market economy. Now it is preparing to go to battle against the America-based streaming giant, Netflix.
France’s three biggest broadcasters have set aside their rivalry to form an unprecedented alliance to take on the American colossus with encouragement from the government.
France Télévisions, the state-owned public service network, is joining forces with the main private network, TF1, and M6 to launch a subscription service called Salto next year offering a catalogue of French TV shows and original content.
Despite the negative reception from state-subsidized local media when Netflix launched in France, the service has gained 3.5 million subscribers in the country. Salto’s initial £45 million budget is dwarfed by the £6 billion Netflix is spending on content this year with hopes that Salto can work as long as it doesn’t position itself as a competitor but as an alternative to Netflix. Salto will also need the green light from Brussels, to ensure that it does not breach EU competition rules. Despite their efforts to appease the French film industry by producing content exclusively for France, it didn’t save Netflix from being banned from the Cannes Festival, which ruled that its films could only compete if they had first been shown in French cinemas. In 2017, Netflix had 2 films nominated for the Palme d’Or award: Okja and The Meyerowitz Stories. Under pressure from the The Federation of French Cinemas (FNCF), festival organizers announced that in future only films with a cinematic release in France will be eligible for the prize and in 2018, Cannes officials banned Netflix from the competition. This all stems from The French cultural exception.
In France, cinema tickets are taxed and the funds raised subsidizes the country’s domestic film industry. Netflix’s distribution model would drain the French cinema of their funds. In addition, Under the organization’s regulations, a film must take no less than 36 months from cinematic release to its debut on an online streaming service which would be completely incompatible with Netflix’s business model. In spite of these setbacks, Netflix is continuing to produce more French-language series which will premier in late 2018.
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Getting Past the Musical Gatekeepers
A technological innovation in an industry filled with red tape.
There is a new contender in the world of online platforms aimed to aid independent musical artists in bypassing the gatekeepers of the music industry.
For independent musicians, a variety of challenges often stand in the way of promoting their work. Fortunately, a new startup called Tunetrax offers a simple solution: one platform to act as an artist’s hub for all web based outlets including website, social media management hub, and a direct line to connections in the music industry.
Tunetrax aims for musicians to build successful careers through the use of one dashboard that helps musicians publish, distribute, and promote audio, among other things, automatically update their social media, and interact with and sell directly with fans.
French entrepreneur, Rémi Jourdan witnessed the struggles of both the talent buying and musician perspective which prompted him developed this one-stop music platform. Everything is instantly shareable onto all the major social networks and helps the musicians connect with fans, agents, venues, and other industry figures.
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6 Floors of French Cuisine
Old school French cooking meets new school Silicon Valley tech.
San Francisco is putting French food on the map in one of the most innovative ways imaginable. James Beard and chef Claude Le Tohi’s new 6 floor restaurant ONE65, is set to open this coming fall.
ONE65 Patisserie has filled the first and second floors with classic French pastries as well as breakfast and lunch offerings. The third floor will house a casual California/French comfort food, and finally the ONE65 Lounge on floors five and six is the destination for cocktails, fine wine, and spirits, accompanied by fine dining.
Le Tohic left his role as executive chef of Joël Robuchon at the MGM Grand in 2016 after working to earn the restaurant 3 Michelin stars. He then joined the Alexander’s Steakhouse team in 2016 before landing a role in the all star team of ONE65. Le Tohic has designed the bistro’s kitchen entirely around induction cooking. “It’s very comfortable when you work,” meaning it doesn’t get too hot, “and it’s very precise.” This will be supplemented with a charcoal oven and grill which is known for perfectly circulating heat at scorching temperatures. From a front of house perspective, it is estimated that it will take nearly 150 people to effectively run the restaurant. However, a group of very hard working, state-of-the-art dumbwaiters will keep drinks and dishes flowing between all the floors. On the fourth floor lounge, the dumbwaiter will even open into the wine cellar so the team can use it to ferry bottles and glasses up and down.
As a guest, one can expect an evening of decadence starting immediately after embarking on the elevator to the second floor, which will be flooded by the scent and sight of nothing but chocolate. A glass-walled room will showcase the restaurant’s chocolatiers as they make over 24 types of bon bons. “Chocolate is something people like to see,” as Le Tohic says.
Be sure to check the official ONE65 Website as new developments are released.
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The Cost of Meat
Veganism has finally caught on in a country with a meat-heavy diet, but the fight will be a long one.
The food culture in France has always been one of extremes. From having their food recognized by the international community to fighting outside influence, the French are very proud of what they have to bring to the world of gastronomy. However, vegan activists in France are going for blood, literally, by splashing themselves with fake blood and stoning butchers shops to the point where the French butchers' lobby has sought police protection.
"French consumers are finally waking up, decades after everybody else," Geoffroy Le Guilcher, author of a book on abattoirs and publisher of another on animal rights activism, said. "A new generation of activists is making people realise that even in the land of meat, there is very little that makes the case for having it."
Animal welfare, promoted by prominent figures such as Brigitte Bardot and the magazine 60 Millions d'Amis (60 Million Friends) have lacked broad support in France as animal cruelty is still presented as an unavoidable path to fine gastronomy.
Also, it must be noted that the animal-products industry generates nearly $41.5 billion in revenue annually and has created thousands of jobs. Organisations such as L214 seek to change that, including video-taping and releasing evidence of animal mistreatment.
Greenpeace, which pushes for vegetarian meals in school cafeterias, reported that most of them in France offer meat at each and every meal. France's CFBCT penned a letter to the interior ministry, which represents butchers, said it was worried about media attention to vegan habits and about increasing violent acts against meat vendors. While the French remain among the world's largest consumers of meat, demand has declined gradually for the last 2 decades due to rising health concerns about cancer, cholesterol, and diabetes. Vegetable protein is becoming a substitute, with supermarket sales surging by 80% in 2016. This is all taking place while the government is putting continued restrictions on how “fake” meat can be labeled, however it hasn’t stopped companies such as Fleury Michon from adding vegan products to their roster.
This dietary trend hasn’t caught on with everyone, especially the butchers' lobby who state that: "a whole part of French culture owes so much to artisan butchers, farmers, fishmongers and cheese shops". And that threat is now right at their doorsteps.
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French Fashion & Waste Elimination
A future ban on throwing away unsold clothing in the name of environmental protection.
Just 2 years ago, France became the first country to pass a law preventing supermarkets from throwing away or destroying unsold food (which can be read about in our article "Closing the French Food Loop"), and now French lawmakers are working to implement the same strategy for clothing. The effort states that by 2019 brands would be banned from throwing away unsold clothing into landfills or through incineration, bust must instead implement them in sustainable ways including recycling or donating to charity shops.
The initiative is encompassed as part of the proposed Circular Economy Roadmap, which includes 50 measures for France to become a more sustainable economy and specifically moves away from a linear “take, make, dispose” model towards a model of restoration and regeneration.
According to the European Clothing Action Plan, last year Europeans consumed nearly 6.5 million tons of clothing and France alone discards 600,000 tons every year with only 25% actually ending up in recycling bins or charity shops.
While the proposal has not yet completely been outlined, it may include potential tax breaks for companies that re-use or recycle clothing, but it is not likely to ever become a law, but rather an incentivized proposal. Francois Souchethas, lead of the Circular Fibres Initiative at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, stated that “Now is the time for the fashion industry to ensure their products are used more [and that], whether it’s through pressure from legislators or consumers, a lot of signals say the time is right for the industry to rethink their business model.”
While this incentive may prove to be positive for a large number of French fashion companies, some may find it tougher to implement the new measures. Last year, H&M was accused of burning 12 tons of unsold clothing per year and Louis Vuitton has long been rumored to burn all unsold bags instead of discounted items in outlet stores. While the new circular economy incentive only addresses textiles, lawmakers hope that luxury brands will consider alternative recycling methods, rather than donating unsold clothing, to avoid brand dilution.
Care to check out a few brands that are already ahead of the game? Check out our article, "FROM HEAD TO TOE: A LOOK AT 2 SUSTAINABLE FRENCH FASHION COMPANIES!"
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The Paris Café Preservation
A city-wide movement to preserve the famed cultural melting pots.
A new campaign has been launched to encourage UNESCO to award cultural heritage status to Paris’s bistros and café terraces referencing to the role they played in bringing people together in the aftermath of the 2015 terror attacks.
The dossier will be forwarded to the Ministry of Culture, which is responsible for submitting such applications to UNESCO, this coming September to raise awareness both in France and abroad of "the role that bistros and café terraces play in bringing people and cultures together, and their role as intellectual and artistic melting pots". The new association has stated that following the attacks on November 13, 2015,
"Parisians crowded onto the terraces... to show that they regarded them as places of cultural cross-fertilisation, of freedom and of the art of living."
The association has also said that the culture of Paris' world-famous cafés and bistros was increasingly "under threat", not only from soaring rents in the French capital, but also from multinational companies in the food & beverage industries.
The association's head, Alain Fontaine stated that “In a society that is becoming increasingly standardised, there are still places for families that make a real contribution to popular culture.” Similar campaigns have recently started to put both the French baguette (which can be read about in our previous article, Battle of the Baguette) and the iconic green "bouquinisites" book stalls in Paris on UNESCO's intangible cultural heritage list.
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The Autonomous Pizzaiolo
You can program the pie-spinning, but not the amore.
Robots have become an integral part of almost every industry in the modern world, so it should come as no surprise that pizza robots are now a thing (not robots made of pizza, but ones that make them).
French start-up, Ekim, is leading the way with the new concept of a pizzaiolo robot. This specific robot, usually sighted in car manufacturing plants, is capable of executing all the steps of preparing, cooking, and boxing the perfect pie. In fact, the robot’s gestures have been synchronized on those of a real-life pizzaiolo (a person who makes pizzas in a pizzeria).
The pizza-making robot can deliver a pizza every 30 seconds and up to 120 pizzas per hour, while a human can, on average, deliver only 40 per hour.
CEO of Ekim, Phillippe Goldman has stated: “Oddly, we are not faster than a pizzaiolo as we make a pizza in 4 minutes and 30 seconds, because the pizzas are made on demand in front of the customer, we take time to cook them well, to put the ingredients. But the robots have three arms, can co-ordinate their tasks and make several pizzas at once.”
Photo: REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer
But it’s not all about being fast. All the ingredients offered to the customers are organic and carefully selected in France and Italy.
The idea sprouted in the heads of two French engineers as they were still in university. Fed up with eating low-quality fast food – the only meals they could afford at the time – they started thinking about a solution which could reconcile rapidity and quality at any hour of the day. Taking inspiration from the vending options available for coffee and snacks, this new system will allow anyone to order a freshly cooked pizza on demand.
The robot pizza hasn’t left its showroom just outside Paris but Ekim is currently looking for a permanent home for the autonomous pizza maker with plans to franchise their concept in 2019.
As troubling as this may seem to pizzaiolos around the world, Vittorio Monti, head chef of O’Scia pizzeria in central Paris, assures pizza lovers that the art form of the traditional Italian delicacy can not be reproduced by a robot. Although he admits a human will always be more of a financial investment than their robotic counterpart, there is simply no way a robot can truly adapt to the living ingredients necessary to make the perfect pie.
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Fashion's Homage to Revolution
Gucci has created an homage to the famed May 1968 Riots in its Fall 2018 Campaign.
Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele will pay homage to France by showing his next spring/summer collection in Paris, instead of its usual home in Milan.
The Italian fashion house announced that the September show will be the final in a three-part tribute to France, starting with an advertising campaign re-creating the 1968 student protests in Paris which are being mirrored somewhat by workers in France today.
The Paris student protests of May 1968 are an iconic symbol of the power of the youth counterculture in Paris in the 60s. Artists’ posters and radical graffiti were plastered over the city’s walls, and slogans such as ‘the future will only contain what we put into it now’, ‘boredom is counterevolutionary’ & ‘beneath the paving stones, the beach’ were used as rallying cries by the protesters.
The origin of the civil unrest began in crowded and poorly funded universities with a resentment of Western capitalist ideas and a dissatisfaction with the education system. To add fuel to the fire, workers across France joined the students on the streets adding low wages and oppressive employment methods to the list of woes which resulted in a strike comprising 10 million workers that brought France to a standstill.
Violent clashes ensued between police and protesters. Images of injured protesters and destruction of property quickly spread across the Western world. Although order was eventually restored, French President De Gaulle never recovered from the impact of the events that occurred and was voted out of office in the following year.
Gucci has published the first two spoilers for this campaign on their Instagram and you can see the complete short film in its entirety below.
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Élysée EDM
France gets ready to party chez le Président !
Of all of the events one may envision at the French presidential palace, a rave may rank relatively low, but in this case, one would be wrong. The French presidency hosted an electronic music show in the courtyard of the Élysée palace on the country’s Music Day as part of the 37th annual Fête de la Musique, also known as Music Day.
The festival was founded in 1981 when Maurice Fleuret became Director of Music and Dance with the mantra "the music everywhere and the concert nowhere.” Upon discovering that five million French citizens played a musical instrument, he debuted the very first Fête de la Musique in 1982 in Paris. Since then, the festival has become an international phenomenon, celebrated on the same day in more than 700 cities in 120 countries.
This marks the first-ever electronic music event to take place at the presidential palace. Officially dubbed Élysée Fête La Musique, the 4 hour concert is a celebration of “French Touch,” a style of French electronic music popularized in the ‘90s by famous artists including Daft Punk, Cassius, Modjo, Justice and Etienne de Crecy.
Nearly 1,500 people were in attendance during the free concert. However, for those that were unable to acquire tickets in time, there are still many raves that will take place in unique settings throughout Europe this summer including an abandoned military base in the Netherlands and a sun-soaked vineyard in southern France.
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Origins of The Patrimony Days
Disneyland Paris is partaking in the cultural celebration this year, but how exactly did they start?
This coming fall, Disneyland Paris will participate in an event titled Patrimony Days: a national celebration of French culture and heritage. On September 15th and 16th, guests will be able to participate in an exclusive experience that focuses on history, architecture, gastronomy, and local artisans in addition to guided tours throughout the park. A mobile app has been developed to aid guests in learning about the inspiration behind Disneyland Park in an interactive way and will be available only for the two days of the event on both iOS and Android.
Patrimony Days (also titled European Heritage Days or EHD) is a joint action of the Council of Europe and the European Commission that involves all 50 signatory states of the European Cultural Convention under the motto: Europe, a common heritage. The annual event includes opportunities to visit buildings and monuments that are not normally accessible to the public and aims to widen access to and foster architectural and environmental heritage.
The event began in France in 1984, with La Journée Portes Ouvertes and in 1985, in Granada, at the 2nd European Conference of Ministers. It was at this time that the French Minister of Culture proposed that the project be internationalized under the Council of Europe. The Netherlands held their first Open Monumentendag in 1987 followed by Sweden and Ireland in 1989, then Belgium and Scotland in 1990. It wasn’t until 1991 these events were united as European Heritage Days at the initiative of the Council of Europe, supported by the EU, and finally in 2010, all 50 signatory states of the European Cultural Convention agreed to participate.
References to European and French culture are abundant at Disneyland Paris from the fairy tales that inspired classic Disney films to the architectural style that honors French sites, along with the art of food that is represented in its numerous restaurants.
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Cutting Louis Vuitton Lead Times
The French brand steps up its manufacturing after decades of deindustrialization.
One of the largest luxury French fashion brands, Louis Vuitton, is planning to expand its leather goods and handbag production with new workshops being built over the next 2 years.
Originally known for its travel bags, the luxury brand will hire 500 people for 2 sites in western France, bringing its staff of leather goods specialists to nearly 4,000 as it looks to meet growing demand with possibly a 3rd over the next few years according to industrial director Emmanuel Mathieu. Currently, Vuitton has several plants internationally including 2 in California and 1 in development in Texas. They have 4 workshops in the Spanish region of Catalonia and production facilities in Portugal and Romania that produce smaller components for the bags including luggage handles.
Vuitton makes the majority of these items in its home market to keep pace with rival brand, Hermes, also due to open several new workshops by 2020. The goal for Vuitton is to have 16 French leather workshops by early 2019 to follow up with its last opening in 2017 to keep up with the burst of renewed job creation recently in the manufacturing sector , after almost nearly 20 years of rapid de-industrialisation.
Louis Vuitton, which owns all of its own stores, is also looking to cut lead times to help it react to sales trends with the aim to deliver handbags within a week of internal orders as opposed to the current lead time of 2 weeks. Designs including Vuitton's Twist bags or the mini Palm Springs backpacks are assembled by hand at the site by some 250 workers trained on specialist stitching machines.
While LVMH (the parent company of Louis Vuitton) will not disclose earnings for its brands, analysts estimate Vuitton's sales reached at minimum 8 billion euros over the last year.
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3 Ways Loi Alimentaton Is Changing The French Food Industry
Policies meant to protect French food producers may increase the average grocery bill.
The French government has recently announced a new bill looking to change the habits of French consumers and hopefully improve the lives of French farmers.
The provisions included in the "loi alimentaton" or food industry bill, may be received in a positive light by those who consider themselves health conscious shoppers, but those who are more concerned with their food purchases being budget-friendly may be in for a rude awakening. The new bill, which was yet to pass in the parliament, intends to "strike a balance between commercial relations in the agricultural and food sector and a healthy and sustainable food industry" according to France's Agriculture Minister Stéphane Travert.
Below are 3 of the most prominent provisions that French consumers can expect if the loi alimentaton passes:
No More Non-Meat “Meat“
Manufacturers of soybean steaks or tofu steaks will be forced to rename and repackage their products (as you may have seen in our previous article, “What’s In A Label?”) because their names are deemed misleading by the government.
Food producers will no longer have the right to use "steak", "fillet", "bacon", "sausage" or any other meaty term to describe products that have a meat composition of 0%.
French Honey Must Be Labeled as Such
Only approximately 25% of the honey consumed in France is produced in France, so the government wants for the country of origin of each honey to be marked prominently on the bottles’ labels in the hope that it encourages French honey consumers to buy 'Made in France' honey, thus benefitting local producers.
Putting a Stop the Price Wars
In an effort to stop a “price war” that is “destroying value and impoverishing producers,” the government has announced that it will be reshaping the way discounts on food products are organized. In other words there will no more mass-discount promotions. For instance, buy BOGO (one get one free), half price, or even 70% off promotions will be illegal.
The Minister of Agriculture Stéphane Travert stated, “Today, it is the distributors who pull in most of the value of products and who gain from the margins.” The government will also introduce a higher resale threshold for wholesale distribution at a loss of 10 percent, meaning supermarkets will be obliged to sell a food product for the minimum of the price they bought it, plus 10 percent.
While opponents of the bill fear this will mean a price increase for consumers, Travert has assured that the consumer is "ready to pay a few cents extra if he/she knows that the product bought will pay farmers better."
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New French Words to Use in 2019
New, and controversial, words to go along with the country’s ever-changing socio-political landscape.
If you’ve been following our French culture blog you’ll already know that France is carrying out many campaigns to preserve the French language. To the detriment of those wishing to keep the language in it’s purest form however, it has been announced that the 2019 editions of France's dictionaries will include entries that represent the “englishification” of the language.
A few of these include:
Fashionista - perhaps no surprise given France's world-renowned fashion industry.
Queer - a person whose sexual or gender identity does not correspond to established ideas of sexuality and gender.
Darknet -- a relatively new word in English meaning the hidden online network often used for illicit ends.
E-sport -- meaning a multiplayer video game played competitively for spectators
As the political news continues to swirl, the French have a number of new terms concerning those in power including:
Dégagisme - a rejection of the political class currently in place (used by Jean-Luc Mélenchon)
Antisystème, - an alternative meaning of against the system in place
Revenu universel ("universal income" or "basic income") to mean a new kind of welfare program used by candidate Benoit Hamon
Cabinet Noir - hidden intelligence service
Women's rights have become a massive issue over the 2018, and the French have not been absent from the debate, thus ushering the terms:
Frotteur - the French word for those who get gratification from being unnecessarily close to women in public places.
Écriture inclusive -inclusive writing
Grossophobia - the stigmatisation of those who are overweight or obese
Boboisation - from the commonly used word bobo (a contraction of the words bourgeois and bohemian meaning hipsters) can be used to mean areas being being taken over by hipsters or gentrified.
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Faux Ami Diplomacy
Even world leaders have slip ups when speaking in a non-native language.
Late last month, French President, Emmanuel Macron seemed to encounter a situation of having good intentions “lost in translation.” While Macron is known for being well versed in English, he uttered the phrase that flipped the news cycle on it’s head for the rest of the week to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
“I want to thank you for your welcome, thank you and your delicious wife for your warm welcome,” Macron said.
As one may expect, the journalists in attendance took this story and ran with it with the AP posting a report beginning with the phrase “Was it a Freudian slip by French President Emmanuel Macron? A joke linked to French gastronomy?” as a reference to the statement U.S. President, Donald Trump made to Macron’s wife, Brigitte.
In July of this past year, when Trump visited Paris for Bastille Day, he complimented Macron’s 64-year-old wife, Brigitte, saying she was in “such great shape.”
While it is easy to label Macron acting inappropriately for the linguistic choice, it is necessary to understand the meaning of the term in the French language. In navigating this “faux ami,” ( a word that looks and sounds similar in multiple languages but differs significantly in meaning), we must understand that the term “délicieuse” can and often does mean “delicious,” but it can also mean “lovely” or “charming” when used to describe a person.
Regardless of all things considered, this headline inducing event is a prime example of the difficulties of conducting diplomacy in a foreign language, even for a staunch globalist such as Macron.
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What's In A Label?
In France, it may mean the difference between soy “milk” and soy “beverage."
The Académie française is, without a doubt, the authority in the protection of the French language. If you’ve read our article Au Rivoir Smartphones, you can see the depths to which the committee is willing to go to make sure that the language is preserved.
According to a report by The Independent, French MPs have voted to prohibit the use of language used to describe meat, including the English words "sausage" and "burger," for anything that isn't actually meat. This mirrors an incident in the U.S. where Hellman's & Best Foods wanted to crack down on companies like Hampton Creek and Unilever by asserting that, by law, if a product calls itself mayo, it must have eggs. As one may expect, they were unsuccessful in instituting this linguistic regulation, and have developed their own lines of egg-less mayo.
While good intentioned, this entire cause may be a total French faux pas. While it’s obvious that the origins of the baguette and champagne are obviously and unapologetically French, the origin of the burger may not be so cut and dry. According to Wikipedia, “The exact origin of the hamburger may never be known with any certainty. Most historians believe that it was invented by a cook who placed a Hamburg steak between two slices of bread in a small town in Texas, and others credit the founder of White Castle for developing the "Hamburger Sandwich."
This proposal, however, would not only extend to meat, but also to soy & tofu products marketed as “milk” or “butter”. Wendy Higgins, of Humane Society International, said: "It’s a shame that instead of embracing vegan and vegetarian food, France has adopted a position of defensive paranoia. But ultimately it won’t stop the rise of compassionate eating because the delicious, nutritious, Earth-friendly and ethical benefits will prevail regardless of what you call the products.”
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From Head to Toe: A Look At 2 Sustainable French Fashion Companies
France has led the world in fashion before, and it will do so again. This time, sustainably.
As the sustainable fashion industry continues to grow across the world (remember our article FORWARD THINKING SPANISH JEWELRY: CHUS X CHUS?) there are 2 booming French clothing labels taking the industry by storm.
First up is Soeur, established by 2 sisters (how appropriate right?). With several shops in Paris and a following that is growing by the day, Soeur's goal is to create androgenous, affordable clothing that is sourced sustainably.
The sisters, Domitille and Angelique Brion (one a stylist with Bonpoint, the French childrenswear brand and the other has a diploma in children and adolescent psychology), source their materials from India, Mauritius, Madagascar and eastern Europe and offer alluring white shirts, great Indian printed dresses and even a turf-coloured linen jacket called Dublin.
Click below to shop the entire line!
Next up is the booming French vegan shoe line, Veja.
Initially established in 2004 by Sébastien Kopp and François-Ghislain Morillion, the brand has taken the slow and steady approach to make sure their brand was able to grow while keeping their ethics at the forefront of development. The cotton comes from an organic farm in Brazil, where workers don’t have to worry about harmful pesticides poisoning their villages and the rubber is tapped by residents in the Amazon. According to FastCompany "Even the way the shoes are boxed, warehoused, and shipped is unconventional: Veja partners with Atelier Sans Frontières, an organization that helps people who have been incarcerated or are otherwise struggling to find work, to employ workers to prepare orders."
Click below to shop the entire line!
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Saving The French Cinema
Down with Putlocker: Le Cinéma vs. Les Pirates, starring Françoise Nyssen.
France’s Minister for Culture, Françoise Nyssen, is working to ensure that measures are taken to blacklist websites that engage in piracy affecting French cinema. As you may remember from our previous article, GOING UP IN SMOKE, the cinema is possibly France’s most cherished export (behind the baguette of course) which may explain why Nyssen is so dead-set on taking care of this “scourge” once and for all.
She has stated that “We must impose the same financial obligations on these players as those traditionally established in France, and we must impose a quota of European works on video on demand platforms” and has vowed to create regulation to aid in the fight against piracy and, effectively, put France at the head of the spear. She has described piracy as “an absolute scourge,” and that it destroys the “worth, power and duty of dissent” of France.
“I hope that ‘blacklists’ will be established by HADOPI [Haute Autorité pour la Diffusion des Œuvres et la Protection des droits d’auteur sur Internet (Supreme Authority for the Distribution and Protection of Intellectual Property on the Internet)], to allow advertisers, payment services or search engines to recognise illegal sites and to stop their dealings with them,” she said.
According to Nyssen, most of the government’s power in combatting piracy is being used ineffectively by focusing on peer-to-peer downloads, while nearly 80% is perpetrated by streaming or direct download.“The fight against piracy is one of the great challenges of the century for cinema. France will be on the front line in supporting it,” she declared.
A major financier of French and European cinema (with €500 million in direct investment), The Canal + Group has received the Minister’s proposals with open arms as it also holds a place at the forefront of the piracy war. In a statement by the company, they hope to “By tackling illegal streaming and downloading, placing the priority directly on the fight against pirate sites and their mirror sites in a dynamic way, creating the conditions for a rapid and lasting suppression of the sites concerned in connection with the judiciary, this plan shows an encouraging ambition and a pragmatic adaptation of certain good practices that have proven effective abroad.”
We hope you've enjoyed learning about how the French government, especially, Françoise Nyssen is working to Saving the French Cinema. Do you think the efforts will be successful, or is piracy an inevitable byproduct of the digital age? Let us know what you think below!
Taking on Tobacco
France moves forward with raising tobacco prices in hopes of curbing its use.
There is a war happening in France between the government and the tobacco industry. As you may remember from our previous article, Going Up In Smoke, the French government proposed a law to outlaw on screen smoking in an effort to curb it’s appeal amongst young citizens. On the 1st of March a singular euro increase in the price of cigarettes will bring the average price of a pack to 8 euros, or $9.80 USD with the plan being to increase the price to 10 euros ( or $12.25 USD) before the end of 2020.
The plan, proposed by Health Minister Agnès Buzyn states that there will be 6 price increases in total and that 80% of that price goes to taxes worth more than 14 billion euros annually to the treasury. Buzyn stated that "These increases spread over time will allow people to prepare, to find ways to stop smoking.” According to the president of the anti-smoking group Droits des Non Fumeurs, Gerard Audereau, more than 47 billion cigarettes are smoked in France every year, and smoking is a key factor in 78,000 deaths each year in France which makes it the country's leading cause of premature death.
Comparatively, approximately 28% of French adults smoke versus 17% of U.S. adults, according to the Center for Disease Control and manufacturers are estimating that the drop in French sales in 2018 will be 10-15%
Late last year, French Socialist senator Nadine Grelet-Certenais accused France’s film-makers of continuing to advertise for the tobacco industry when she stated in the parliament that “Seventy per cent of new French films have at least one scene of someone smoking. This more or less helps to make its use banal, even promote it, to children and adolescents.” The government has planned to raise the price of cigarettes and tobacco in an effort do de-popularize it for the younger generations of French citizens.
There is, however, a silver lining to the smoking crisis as public opinion surveys that show increased numbers of French citizens intend to quit and that the sales of nicotine patches and nicotine chewing gum have increased by nearly 30% as a result of the new measures.
We hope you've enjoyed learning about the French government's efforts of Taking on Tobacco! What do you think about the proposed price hike? Comment below with your thoughts!
Sampling Goût de France
Celebrating the taste of French cuisine with 3000 chefs worldwide.
Now on it’s 4th year as a tradition, restaurants around the world will be joining forces to celebrate French cuisine by offering French-inspired meals as part of "Goût de France / Good France.”
With 3000 chefs in attendance, Goût de France / Good France aims to unite all types of restaurants from around around the world. The first edition of the international event took place in 2015 soon after UNESCO placed the country’s "Repas gatsronomique des Français" on the World Intangible Heritage list.
Under the program, participating chefs give diners a unique "art de vivre" experience. Each menu will have the opportunity to add diversity to French gastronomy, as chefs are allowed to integrate quality produce from their own country to their menu proposals.
As stated by the official Gout de France website, the goal of the event is to:
"PROMOTE FRENCH TOURISM — in an effort to promote France, this one of a kind diner will take advantage of international visibility, and aim to send a strong message to the world, through dynamic and creative chefs. CARRY THE COLORS OF FRENCH CUISINE WITH PRIDE — it will send messages of strong added values: The message that French cuisine is CONTEMPORARY — Traditional French cuisine is not a dominion of the 21st century culinary scene. Participating chefs are encouraged to blend their own culinary culture to that of France, rather than discounting it. The message that French cuisine is EXCELLENCE — Healthy, Innovative, and Responsible: In addition to representing the heartiness associated with the pleasures of eating, food also becomes the symbol of France’s positive values. Healthy dishes prepared from fresh, seasonal, and local produce, with low fat, salt, and sugar content; Meals for everyone, from bistro to gourmet dining."
Participants can expect quite the dining experience as each guest will have access to:
One traditional French aperitif : champagne and gougeres (stuffed or not) or - iced cognac with foie gras
One cold appetizer
One hot appetizer
One fish or shell-fish based course
One meat or poultry based course
One or a selection of French cheeses
One chocolate dessert
A selection of French wines
One French liqueur
For a full list of restaurants participating in the event, click below!
We hope you have enjoyed about how the world is Sampling Goût de France! Which is your favorite of the menu listings being offered at this delicious yearly event? Leave a comment below!
Closing the French Food Loop
In a move to curb food waste, French supermarkets will soon either have to donate their leftovers or face hefty fines.
In many parts of the world, specifically the most developed nations, there is an ongoing problem regarding how to effectively deal with food waste. However, France’s parliament is leading the way in making this a problem of the past.
In 2016, France’s parliament unanimously passed a bill stating that supermarkets must donate their leftover edible food to one of France’s 5,000 charities that depend on donations or face large monetary penalties. Since its adoption nearly 2 years ago, France has seen progress in the resolution of issues with food waste, but has not quite solved the problem. According to a 2017 study, approximately one year after the bill had been implemented, in Isère, less than 24% of excess food went to charities.
While there are many possible reasons behind this lack of effectiveness, it is important to remember this is a new bill and is the first of its kind and officials are looking into ways to improve the outcomes of the ruling in future years. However, despite the less than thrilling results, there was still a significant portion of food donated to charities compared to the 66 pounds of food per person that is wasted each year in France. Jacques Bailet, head of Banques Alimentaires recently stated in an NPR interview that “There was one food manufacturer that was not authorized to donate the sandwiches it made for a particular supermarket brand. But now, we get 30,000 sandwiches a month from them — sandwiches that used to be thrown away.”
"Before the 2016 law, French supermarkets typically donated 35,000 metric tons of food annually" stated Jacques Bailet, president of the food bank network Banques Alimentaires. This law improves not only the quantity of donated food, say experts, but also the quality. Food banks typically are supplied with canned goods, rather than nutritionally valuable foods like meat, vegetables, and fruit.
As the law continues to be revamped, officials are hopeful that, in the future, the percentage of donated food will rise and a new perspective on food waste will come along with it. Ideally, this would be throughout the country of France and across the entire developed world.
We hope you've enjoyed learning about how the French parliament is working on Closing the French Food Loop! What other steps do you think governments can take to reduce food waste? Comment below!