French Films, Now Less French
“Can you cover for me? I trust you,” whispers Marie-France, a scheming receptionist played by Nathalie Baye, to a co-worker in a small, brightly lit office.
As she walks out of the frame, someone shouts “Coupez!” and the set of “La Volante,” a psychological thriller directed by Christophe Ali and Nicolas Bonilauri, becomes busy with crew members preparing for the next take.
娜坦麗．貝葉飾演別有居心的接待員瑪麗－法蘭絲，在盧森堡一間狹小、光線明亮的辦公室內對同事說：「你可以掩護我嗎？我相信你。」
當她走出畫面後，有人大喊「卡！」這部由克里斯多佛．阿里和尼可拉．波尼羅西執導的心理驚悚電影「方向盤」（La Volante，暫譯），劇組和工作人員為了準備下一個場景而變得忙碌。
「方向盤」（La Volante）電影拍攝照。翻攝自網路
“La Volante” has all the qualities of a French thriller: a twisted story line, intricate character studies and a cast led by Ms. Baye, a star of French cinema since the 1970s. But this scene, like most of the film, was not shot in France.
The office where Marie- France is plotting revenge is in a converted town hall in Mondorf- les-Bains in Luxembourg, a short walk from the French border.
「方向盤」具備法國驚悚片的所有特質：交錯的故事線，複雜的角色，以及貝葉領銜的卡司，她是自1970年代走紅的法國電影明星。但這個場景，如同這部電影的多數場景，並非在法國拍攝。
瑪麗－法蘭絲計畫復仇的辦公室，是盧森堡蒙爾多夫溫泉鎮的鎮公所改造而成，從法國邊境步行就能到。
Because large parts of the movie were shot here, and a Luxembourg-based producer is involved, “La Volante” managed to obtain a public grant of over a million euros, or about $1.2 million, from Film Fund Luxembourg, enough to cover more than a third of the movie’s costs.
The project is one of the many French movies relying on foreign financing, a trend that poses one of several threats to the industry in the birthplace of cinema. France’s National Center for Cinema, which distributes millions of euros in subsidies to movie productions , has been hurt by successive levies to help pay for the public debt.
Broadcasters, who are required by law to invest in domestic productions, are struggling with low revenue and are doling out less money. Less willing to take risks, they tend to invest in big-budget crowd pleasers that guarantee a large audience. This often leaves smaller productions like “La Volante” scraping for money.
因為這部電影大部分在這裡拍攝，而且有一名盧森堡製片人參與，「方向盤」設法自盧森堡電影基金會拿到100多萬歐元、約合120萬美元的公共補助金，足夠支付超過三分之一的電影開銷。
這項拍片計畫是依賴外國資金的眾多法國電影之一，這個趨勢，代表了電影業在這個電影發源地面臨的眾多威脅之一。分配數百萬歐元補助金給電影製作的法國國家電影中心，也因經費連續被徵用以償還公債而受害。
依法須投資本土電影製作的廣播電視，也因為營收低而掙扎，發出的補助金變少了。他們更不願承擔風險，傾向投資大成本、保證觀眾較多的大眾電影。這使得諸如「方向盤」這類的小成本電影通常要四處籌錢。
“La Volante” was acquired by a small French pay television station before filming began, and it received subsidies from the French region of Lorraine. But the film required 575,000 euros from a Belgian program that offers tax benefits to companies investing in local film production, and the contribution from Film Fund Luxembourg, to come to fruition.
Twenty-two percent of filming for French movies was completed beyond its borders in the first nine months of 2014. In 2012, a particularly devastating year in terms of production flight, the rate was 50 percent for projects with budgets between 10 million euros and 20 million euros, and 21 percent for films under 10 million euros, according to the French Federation of Cinema, Audiovisual and Multimedia Industries, or Ficam. This prompted the government to raise its tax credit for films under 4 million euros to 30 percent, from 20 percent in 2013.
「方向盤」在開拍前被一家法國小型付費電視台買下，且收到來自洛林區的補助金。但是這部片自一項比利時間專案拿到57萬5000歐元，投資當地電影製作的公司還能減稅，加上來自盧森堡電影基金會的補助金，資金全部到位。
根據法國電影、影音及多媒體產業協會，2014年前9個月，22%的法國電影是在境外拍攝完成。在特別慘澹的2012年，製片成本介於1000萬至2000萬歐元的電影中，境外拍攝比率達50%，成本不到1000萬歐元者則有21%。這讓法國政府迅速對成本不到400萬歐元的電影增稅，從2013年的20%提高至30%。
Sandrine Bonnaire’s “Maddened by His Absence” was supposed to be shot in France, but when money came in from abroad, the lineup of the crew changed because the funding system usually requires some use of local resources. This often means that French technicians are replaced by Belgian or Luxembourgian ones.
“I had to drop a few of the collaborators with whom I usually work,” said Sebastien Deux, the assistant director .
Many in France fear that the flight of movies means that the expertise in creating them will be lost to its neighbors, too.
桑德琳．波奈兒的作品「移情失控」原本應該在法國拍攝，但當來自國外的資金挹注時，因補助金系統經常要求一定程度的聘用本地人員，劇組名單因此更動。這通常意味著，法國技術人員被比利時或盧森堡人員取代。
助理導演薩巴斯欽．德厄說：「我必須放棄一些經常共事的合作對象。」
許多法國人害怕，電影業出走意味著拍攝電影的專業技術也將流失到鄰國。
Nicolas Steil of the Iris Group, a production company in Luxembourg , said productions with budgets between 4 million euros and 8 million euros, which are generally more experimental and risky for investors, depended on foreign financing.
Without offshoring, “those movies wouldn’t be made, or have a much smaller budget and lower quality compared to their competition,” he said.
When “Mr. Hublot,” an animated short co-produced by France and Luxembourg, was awarded an Oscar in 2014, reports in the French news media lauded it as the “French movie that beat Disney.” But that caused a stir in Luxembourg, where cinephiles were celebrating their country’s first Oscar.
盧森堡電影製作公司Iris集團的尼可拉．史代爾說，介於400萬至800 萬歐元間的電影製作通常具實驗性質，對投資人而言具風險性，得仰賴外國資金。
他說，若沒有境外資金，「那些電影無法拍成，或是預算大幅降低，和競爭者相比品質也更差」。
由法國和盧森堡共同製作的動畫短片「胡布洛先生」（Mr. Hublot，暫譯），2014年獲頒奧斯卡最佳動畫短片獎。法國媒體報導時稱之為「打敗迪士尼的法國電影」，但報導在盧森堡引發騷動，當地影迷正慶祝該國首座奧斯卡獎。
“Mr. Hublot” was written by Laurent Witz, a Frenchman, who co-directed it with Alexandre Espigares, a Luxembourger. Film Fund Luxembourg financed about 70 percent of the project, and Lorraine handled the rest.
Mr. Witz remained pragmatic. “I see it as a partnership, an addition of savoir-faire, talent and financing, of course,” he said .
Donato Rotunno of Tarantula Productions said, “We are sliding towards Europe — we are involved in the European construction of cinema.”
「胡布洛先生」劇本為法國人威茲所著，並和盧森堡人艾斯比加共同執導。盧森堡電影基金會供應約7成的資金，法國洛林區負擔其餘費用。
威茲維持務實態度。
他說：「我視此為合作關係，當然也有因地制宜、演員和資金的其他因素在內。」
塔航杜拉製作公司的多納托．侯杜諾說：「我們正漸漸移往歐洲，我們參與歐洲的電影工程。」
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