The 'film wars' between France and the United States: Film-trade diplomacy, and the emergence of the film quota system in France, 1920-1939

Hollywood has been able to maintain its international dominance over European cinema since World War I. This dominance has led to commercial "wars", especially with France, which imposed quota restrictions to reduce the number of American films imported. The purpose of my dissertation is to establish when Hollywood's dominance of the French market came into existence, how it emerged, and what factors uphold it. By comparing with Scandinavian statistics, I establish that the American dominance began immediately after World War I, which caused European production to come to a standstill. Hollywood's dominance had continued until now due to several factors. The American film industry had become vertically integrated and monopolized the domestic market, whereas the European industry continued to be separated into producers, distributors, and exhibitors. The Federal government supported American export businesses by passing the Webb-Pomerene Act (1918), which allowed the formation of export cartels under the trade association the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, Inc. (MPPDA), created in 1921 with Will H. Hays as president. Hollywood was able to hold its market share in France due to diplomatic support from the US government as films were part of an international trade "war", which can be documented from the correspondence between the State Department, the US Embassy in Paris, the Department of Commerce, and the MPPDA. Jean Sapene, director of the Pathe-Cineromans company, dominated French film policy and he advocated the introduction of a reciprocal quota to be able to break into the monopolized US market. In the 1928 Edouard Herriot-Hays negotiations the Americans succeeded in watering down the quota policy. The French-US trade agreement (1936) enabled Cordell Hull at breaking the French dubbing quota policy in 1939.