The French film industry, renowned for making unwatchable, incoherent , and plodding nombriliste films puffed up with bar musings fobbed off as deep think or sensitive social commentary, disdains the Hollywood crowd-pleasers.

But at least Hollywood pays its own freight to make its films. And should Hollywood want to shoot in France the freight is considerable.

HOLLYWOOD PUTS PARIS IN THE PICTURE
AS FRENCH LOOK TO CUT RED TAPE AND COSTS

For years film-makers' desire to make use of Paris's monuments, buildings and open spaces has been tempered by fear of prohibitive costs and red tape.

Now a review of the fees and regulations that frequently drive directors abroad has been ordered by the cinema-friendly French culture minister, Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres [also here].

But American producers and directors still complain about the heavy burden of labour charges, and the lack of financial incentives for non-French projects, while France's film establishment is in no mood to surrender the advantages it has long held over competition from abroad.

Thus cheaper Zagreb and Sofia have provided settings for the courts of Louis XIV and Napoleon. And Mr de Vabres's anger on learning that a remake of The Accursed Kings [Les Rois maudits] would be shot in Hungary led to 20 days of filming being "repatriated" to Pierrefonds, a chateau north of Paris.

Mr de Vabres has now told officials to devise a simplified system for the hiring out of museums, palaces, castles and other monuments to film-makers.

According to an investigation by the magazine Le Point into the cost of historical locations, the Louvre charges up to £18,000 a day. Filming is generally limited to evenings and Tuesdays, when the museum is closed.

Rules governing the use by film crews of French monuments can seem bewilderingly complex. The Eiffel Tower can be filmed free, from a distance, in daylight. But at night, when Paris's most famous landmark lights up, it becomes a registered trademark. A sliding scale of fees rising to £7,000 applies to each 24-hour period any commercial entity wants to use the image.

[Emphasis added.]

For a French take on French film-making, we recommend Olivier Assayas's very funny Irma Vep.