Coty v. Sapene

Women of the U. S. who like to put a drop of Coty perfume behind their ears were all approval, last week, when gallant Perfumer-Publisher Francois Coty founded a new newspaper, The Evening Friend-of-the-People (L'Ami du Peuple du Soir), and took up editorial cudgels in defense of the U. S. cinema industry, which sorely needs a champion in France.

Like Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Spain and many another European state, France has long had a system of restricting U. S. film imports. The reason is similar to that which caused Congress to put a tariff on French gowns and hats. Supreme and unrivaled in their own fields are Parisian modistes and Hollywood producers. As yet, however, Congress has not decreed that for every three gowns that a Parisienne sells in the U. S., she must buy one U. S. gown and try to sell it in France. The uproar, the heaven-piercing cries for justice which would rise from Paris if the U. S. took such a stand may be imagined. None the less the French Government was last week on the point of imposing precisely similar conditions with respect to U. S. films shown in France.

Almost every Paris newspaper except those owned by Perfumer-Publisher Coty has been urging for months that a one-for-three quota be imposed, instead of the present one-for-seven arrangement which U. S. Cinema Tsar Will H. Hays secured on his famed visit to Paris (TIME, May 14), but which expires next September.

The virtual unanimity of the Paris press is supposed to be due to M. Jean Sapene, soft-spoken head of the French Cinema Trust (Chambre Syndicate). "Far from desiring a controversy with the Americans we seek a friendly agreement with them," said suave M. Sapene recently. "The so-called one-for-three arrangement is an absolute necessity if the French industry is to live." A feature of negotiations which have been going on literally for years, is the refusal of M. Sapene to approve a suggestion from U. S. cinemakers that they would be quite willing to face a tariff on their films instead of having to buy French pictures. The candid objection of M. Sapene to any sort of tariff is that the cash collected would go to the French Treasury instead of to his Cinema Trust. Wrote Publisher-Perfumer Coty, last week, in his new newspaper: "In the opinion of everyone--and our own sense of fairness compels us to admit it--the French motion pictures were never so poor or inferior as they are at present. The French public likes the American films and we cannot do without them because, on the whole, the quality equals the quantity in American films shown to us. "If the American public does not like most of the French films, it is not because of a spirit of chauvinism or because of the Monroe Doctrine, but because of their inferiority. As a matter of fact, Americans do appreciate good French films and there never has been an example of a good French film failing in the United States. "No! American films must not disappear from the French screen. Let us also have great French films! "Very few people in France know the inside of this situation. Tricks have been played! One man and one man alone, a man whom all the world knows, intends to reserve the French market for his own mediocre productions." Decision as to whether the one-for-three plan will go into effect rests with the French Ministry of Fine Arts, which M. Sapene is believed to dominate. Last week Under-Secretary of Fine Arts Andre Franc,ois-Poncet called what purported to be a show-down conference between U. S. and French cinemen. The State Department instructed U. S. Commercial Attache Henry Coit MacLean to attend, to champion U. S. interests. Tsar Hays was represented by his permanent Paris agent, Harold L. Smith, who has lately threatened complete withdrawal of U. S. films from France if the one-for-three plan is imposed. As the negotiants sat down to play a game of haggle, most observers thought the deck had been stacked in favor of M. Sapene. None the less there was a surprising, significant eleventh hour development. Meeting in haste, members of the French Provincial Cinema Exhibitors Association passed unanimously a resolution against the one-for-three plan. Apostrophizing the French Cinema Trust, this resolution declared: "Begin by making your own production worth while! Create a national industry having the support of the French banks and French capital. Find directors worthy of the name. Give your film stars the proper kind of intelligent publicity. In a word, organize and demonstrate that you are capable! "If American films are forced out, France will soon be overwhelmed by morbid and pornographic productions made in Germany. In any event, it is not our interest to force foreign capital from our doors at a moment when it is about to be invested in the construction of new theatres in France."