What is European Cinema Today?

What is European cinema? We no longer seem to know. The very idea of it has slipped between the declining relevance of “national cinemas,” and the emerging importance of “world cinema.” A few decades ago, European cinema connoted films mainly made in Western Europe and based on its dominant postwar – national and transnational – traditions of neo-realism, politically or popart inspired new waves. It named an auteur cinema that drew on national (literary or theatrical) traditions, whose style was that of an art cinema, with psychologically complex protagonists, often the alter egos of the director, and thus inviting expressive-autobiographical interpretation. Add the word “popular,” and European cinema refers to the sum total of the nationally specific, but widely seen commercial films of a given country. Popular European cinema featured recognizable national stars and concentrated on proven genres such as Austro-German costume dramas, French “polars” and Italian comedies, British CARRY-ON films or German detective films. “European” here helps distinguish these genre cinemas from Hollywood, without implying transnational, i.e., inter- European popularity. On the contrary, many genres, notably comedies, did not export well, and only very few stars became familiar across the national borders: Romy Schneider was popular in France (not least because of her marriage to Alain Delon), Louis de Funès comedies became hits in Germany and Greece, Fernandel did well in Italy (as an Italian priest), but a French superstar like Jean Gabin did not succeed in Germany, which had its own Gabins: Gert Fröbe, for instance, and later, Mario Adorf. The biggest German star for at least five decades, Heinz Rühmann, has remained totally unknown elsewhere; also despite their trying Hardy Krüger, Karlheinz Böhm and Horst Buchholz all have been unable to establish enduring careers in Britain and Hollywood.

On the other hand, “European” just as often identifies films made outside the commercial rewards and constraints of the box office. Instead, they are financed through the nationally specific funding schemes of government subsidy, like the French avances sur recettes, and public service broadcasting funds, like the German television framework agreement.