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Films in Catalan?
The debate is on. The Cinema Act promoted by the Generalitat de Catalunya is the latest excuse. The Hollywood majors and their representatives in Europe do not agree with the screen linguistic quotas. Their rights in the free market lead a recurring argument. Deep down it seems more like a lack of confidence in the market itself and an incredible fear that the law will cause a domino effect in a multilingual Europe.
The double standard of the gentlemen of cinema is very evident. And the eagerness to collect borders on profiteering. After all, Hollywood normally recovers costs and has benefits in the English-speaking market; that is, in the global village, to the same effect, Hollywood. The rest of the world -with Europe at the head- is a secondary, but very generous, market for these products because of its high consumption level and its demographic power. Over the last 15 years, according to EU data, the market share of European cinema, for example, has plummeted compared to North America's, which has gone from 35% to 80%. During this period, while North American production maintained the number of viewers close to 420 million, Europeans went from 600 to only 120.
According to the European Audiovisual Observatory, during 2007, El Orfanato (The Orphanage), for example, was the only Spanish film in the classification of the twenty European films most viewed in the EU territory. North American cinema on its part took 18 of the 20 most viewed during 2007 in Europe, a list led by Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which attracted close to 38.4 million European viewers. Only Mr. Bean's Holiday and La Môme (La Vie en Rose) were able to place among these 20.
In spite of everything I have never been a great supporter of quotas or impositions to correct irregularities in the market. The future of languages and their industries does not depend on political protectionisms or cultural exceptions. On the contrary, its value in exchange lies in attaining some type of "added value" in the same cultural market. The creators, producers, distributors and consumers have the last word. Certainly the existence of the free market demands some minimum conditions of equality in the access.
Without this pre-condition the very essence of economic liberalism which its interested apostles invoke is disqualified. The entertainment cartels (with the majors at the head: FOX, MGM, Paramount, Sony, Universal and Warner Bros) not only impose their products on the global village, thanks to a dominant position, but because they pursue a linguistic monopoly which ensures a captive and unarmed market. I do not know if the Catalan Government will get their way or if the measure will influence the public uses of Catalan. In any case, we the audience should exercise our right before alienating ourselves -and if we like, to the point of foolishness- from the American products in the language we wish. Didn't we agree that he who pays rules?
Toni Mollá
Journalist and author of the book Manual de sociolingüística.
