It’s not a secret: French cinema only rarely attracts crowds to theaters anymore. And for director Christophe Gans, the fault lies indirectly with one of the most popular comedies of all time.
“Why is there no John Carpenter or Dario Argento in France?” he wonders in Telerama . Before attacking the hexagonal production system: “The less original it is, the more it looks like something that might work, the better! What struck me, during all these years, is their immense laziness.”
And to point the finger at the Chief Marshal Cruchot and Warrant Officer Gerber. “The curse of French cinema, despite all the love I have for Louis de Funès, is The Gendarme of Saint-Tropez. In 1964, it’s the jackpot! A band of comedians on a beach, filming in color Scope and, on arrival, fifteen million spectators. The horizon, from there, was to do, redo and do once more the stunt of Jean Girault’s film. This is the main reason why we no longer have quality cinema, which plays on cultural heritage.”
As a reminder, Christophe Gans has only one triumph to his credit, The Pact of the Wolves (5.1 million admissions in 2001) and has not toured since the remake of The beauty and the Beast in 2014.
