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Cultural exchanges serve a potpourri of purposes. They may be employed to bridge political divides, increase the understanding of another nation, or provide an export market for merchandise and services. When one culture’s domination of a queer medium exists, their may be mistrust and resentment when it is exported to other constituents of the world.

In the United States, the making of films is considered an industry. In this view, Los Angeles is a factory town that gives rise to films, television shows, and musical recordings in the same way that Gary, Indiana develops steel and refines oil. In other parts of the world, however, the making of films is considered an art form much like writing a novel or poetry. Nowhere is this cultural divide more evident than the considerateness of cinema in the United States and France.

The French view of American cinema is well indicated by film producer Marin Karmitz. Karmitz has stated that, “the U.S. movie industry is big business, but behind the industrial aspect, there is likewise an ideological one. Sound and pictures have always been used for propaganda, and the real battle at the moment is over who is going to be permitted to control the world’s images, and so trade a sure lifestyle, a sure culture, sure products, and sure ideas” (Francesco 441). Is French culture threatened by the importation of American films and entertainment? A closer examination of the two competing cultures, and the role of the cinema in each, is primary in finding the answer.

American and French Cinema

The Role of the Cinema in France

The Battle of France and the resulting German victory in 1940 led to an era of intense internal examination of French culture as a means of finding an answer, and fixing blame, for the defeat. Nowhere is this better illustrated than in the case of the 1937 film “Le Grande Illusion” (which was banned by the French Government in 1939). Jean Renior’s film was one of the most general French films of the interwar years and was the culmination of a series of anti-war films that started out with Gance’s “J’ Accuse” in 1919. The “Grand Illusion” is that war solves anything (Jackson 148). After the defeat, this movie, along with novels by Proust and Cocteau, were blamed for creating a pacifist culture in France that led to the defeat. Marin Karmitz’s remarks with regards to the power of film cited above, therefore, are well grounded in French history and culture.

The Motion Picture Industry in America

In contrast to alien filmmakers, the American film industry views it is merchandise as a commodity. The object is to make a film, market and disseminate it, and reap the profits (Francesco 442). While “Slaughterhouse Five” and “One Flew over the Cuckoos’ Nest” are examples of American filmmakers developing thoughtful, philosophical pictures, these are exclusions rather than the rule. Most American films are developed rigorously for amusement value and, at the same time, do well financially both in the U.S. and overseas.

Contrasting French and American Culture

As stated in the text, “organizational and national cultures influence organizational behavior” (Francesco 13). An understanding of the differing views of the amusement industry amongst the United States and France may only be arrived at by an examination of their cultures.

Hofstede’s Dimensions of Cultural Values

Hofstede’s Dimensions of Cultural Values provides a utile tool in examining the differing cultures in France and United States. Based on his analysis of over 100,000 IBM workers all over the world, Hofstede determined that there are dimensions to explain differing cultures: individualism/collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and masculine feminine.

Individualism/Collectivism

In individualist societies, humans are more concerned with themselves and their families than with others. Reflecting this, organizations undertake to honor the person and base publicity and compensation on person effort. This holds unfeigned even when humans are part of a team.

In collectivist countries, the overall good of the group is paramount. This holds specially true in the former Soviet Union and it is satellites in spite of their conversion to free market economies. The expectation in these societies is that persons will subordinate their goals for the good of the group.

Under Hofstede’s analysis, both the United States and France are individualist societies. In both countries, person initiative is necessary and rewarded. Applying this analysis to the film industry, it is easy to see that films in both countries are principally identified by their lead actors and producers.

Power Distance

Power distance is specified as the level to which less powerful members of an institution receive that power is unevenly distributed.

A little power distance society is uncomfortable with power distances. These distances may be based on economic wealth, education, or organizational ranking. It is considered positive conduct for somebody in a high-level position to treat an individual at a lower level as an equal. Organizations in little power distance societies tend to have more participation at all levels in the decision making process.

In a huge power distance society, an individual’s societal or organizational level influences their conduct and the conduct of others toward them. While persons in a higher organizational or societal position treat others with respect, the deviations in rank are clear and never totally forgotten. In big power societies, conclusions are made by leaders with little or no input from those under them on the hierarchical ladder. Delegation of decision-making is seldom done.

While the U.S. is a little power distance society in Hofstede’s analysis, France in contrast is a big power distance society. This fact was parodied in a 1941 political cartoon. In the cartoon “two bemused French peasants are being told by an intellectual: ‘How may you be astonished [about the defeat]? You gorged yourselves on the works of Proust, Gide, and Cocteau.’ All these writers shared in mutual the fact that they are homosexual” (Jackson 4). Not only does this cartoon portray the ideals of the elites, it also points out again the importance of the arts in swaying French public opinion.

American organizations in theory, if not always in practice, value the input of humans no matter of their societal or organizational rank. Several years ago, Sperry Rand Corporation ran an advertizing venture based on the idea of listening. In it is advertisements, it portrayed an executive at the end of the day talking about the company with an older fellow member of the maintenance department. The message Sperry Rand tried to convey was that it is executives were open to ideas disregarding of their source.

Uncertainty Avoidance

Uncertainty avoidance defines the preferent amount of structure in a society. This structure may implicate civil laws or rigorous conduct of conduct at the one extreme, and the acceptance of a wide range of behavings at the other.

In a strong uncertainty avoidance society, people prefer structure and explicit rules of behavior. As is true in some big power distance societies, there is a strong respect for experts. The risk avoidance conduct found in these cultures may lead to a dearth of new mercantile ventures and a desire among managers to stay employed by the same establishment for a long amount of time of time.

In contrast, weak uncertainty avoidance societies favor unstructured situations, strong sensations of personal confidence, and entrepreneurial behavior.

French society is marked by strong uncertainty avoidance. This may be explained in portion by the painful experiences of two world wars in the 20th century and may explain it is attitude toward the arts. In a society where experts and intellectuals are valued because of their social rank, high value is placed on the arts and the shelter of native culture.

American society in contrast is marked by weak uncertainty avoidance. The entrepreneurial nature of the American movie industry is underscored by two facts. The primary is that the early movie pioneers in California did not move to the West Coast for it is abundance of sunshine, but to be free of Thomas Edison’s lawyers who were demanding royalties for the use of Edison’s technology. Secondly, numerous of California’s early studios were founded by Jewish businessmen from the East Coast, who because of prejudice, were blocked from carrying out or participate in traditionalisti careers in banking and big business.

Masculine/Feminine

In masculine societies, success, assertiveness, and contest are rewarded. In effeminate cultures, personal relationships, care for others, and quality of life are highly valued. Hofstede defines American society as masculine and French society as feminine.There are assorted ways to view the motion picture and amusement industries in this light. On the one hand, American films tend to be action oriented with an selfasserting and successful hero or heroine. At the same time, American studios were founded by danger takers who were rewarded financially for their efforts.

French films in contrast tend to be contemplative and less action oriented. As “Le Grande Illusion” illustrates, French films are oftentimes overtly political in nature.

Conclusion

French and American films are different. Likewise, the attitude of French and American filmmakers toward their industry’s role in society is different. Hofstede’s Dimensions of Cultural Values provides a framework with which to explore these differences. French society may be characterized as individualistic, huge power distance, strong uncertainty avoidant, and feminine. In contrast, American society is characterized as individualistic, little power distance, weak uncertainty avoidant, and masculine.

When view through the lens of culture, it is not difficult to perceive how the French populace feels threatened by the American amusement industry. Since French culture is so almost tied to the arts and influenced by it, as the movie “Le Grande Illusion” illustrates, the intermediate French citizen may justifiedly feel threatened by the influx of the American media. In a society that values structure, uncertainty avoidance, and care for others, the ofttimes violent, high action American cinema merchandise may cause anxiety, fear, and loathing for those who construct such epics. At the same time, French citizens ought to question the affect this type of amusement will have on their society and be wary of the threat it possesses to their culture.

Works Cited

Francesco, Anne Marie and Barry Allen Gold. International Organizational Behavior. 1998. Prentice-Hall: Upper Saddle River, NJ.Jackson, Julian. The Fall of France, The Nazi Invasion of 1940. 2003. Oxford University Press: New York.

Sound Technology American Cinema Lastra

Representational technologies including photography, phonography, and the cinema have helped define modernity itself. Since the nineteenth century, these technologies have challenged our trust of sensory perception, given the ephemeral unexampled parity with the eternal, and invented unfathomed temporal and spatial displacements. But current approaches to representational and cultural history ofttimes neglect to thoroughly examine these technologies. James Lastra seeks to remedy this neglect.
Lastra argues that we are nowhere better competent to track the relations among capital, science, and cultural exercise than in photography, phonography, and the cinema. In particular, he maps the development of sound recording from it is emergence to it is confrontation with and integration into the Hollywood film.
Reaching back into the late eighteenth century, to natural philosophy, stenography, automata, and humane physiology, Lastra follows the shifting relationships amongst our senses, technology, and representation.

ReviewAn interesting scholarly account of the rise of early film sound technologies. . . arousing and attention holding in it is discussion of how sound practice, particularly in the accounts of film sound engineers, complicates and grounds sound theory. — Review

Rarely has high-flying theory been anchored in such careful exploration and staged in such clear prose. — Rick Altman, University of Iowa

Rigorous, detailed, and compelling. — Mary Anne Doane, Brown University

Review

“Rigorous, detailed, and compelling.” — Mary Anne Doane, Brown University

About the AuthorJames Lastra is associate professor of English at the University of Chicago.

Sound Technology American Cinema Lastra Pic

Sound Technology American Cinema Lastra Photo

Sound Technology American Cinema Lastra Photo

Sound Technology American Cinema Lastra Picture

Most helpful client reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
Sound and representation
By Sidereal
This is a very well researched, well written, lucid account of how sound came to be born into cinema and how it evolved the way it did to innovative sound practice. The timeline Lastra presents is crystal clear and it reveals why sound and picture had an acrimonious relationship, and the manner in which sound exercise evolved.

Lastra tackles a heap of very difficult notions of representation, including questions of ‘truth’, sound perspective, space and ambience and much more. Several scholars have dealt with this in one way or another, but Lastra does so with selfassurance and courage, cutting through to core issues of perceptual aesthetics.

For example, from his introduction (regarding photography):

“Nearly each contemporary newspaper effigy is digitized, and some are manipulated for purposes of clarity or rhetoric. We have not, however, accordingly given up on the idea of photographic reliability since, in spite of our doubts in regards to the medium, we still believe in the establishment of journalism and the exercise of journalists, which guarantee our faith far more than the simularcra invented by the computer. So, while it is all well and good to argue that each photograph is ideological to it is core … such arguments only go halfway. Indeed they lead to a kind of cynicism. No one today may be incognizant that photography may be faked, yet that fact alone does not rule out the possibleness that beneath some conditions a photograph might, indeed, tell the truth. And that is a possibleness worth defending.”

I found this statement refreshing, when too much writing on aesthetics gets bogged down by unanswerable questions of hegemony, ideology and the like. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar… or, a door slam is just a door slam.

It likewise helped defend my thesis, for which I’m grateful.

2 of 7 persons found the following review helpful.
Beauty is not inevitably truth….
By A
Lastra’s book unquestionably makes for an interesting read but in the end is rather problematic. Of course the degree to which you choose to see this work as flawed depends for the most part on whether or not you fall into the (post-)modern camp of Derrida, Blanchot, Barthes, etc…I often times take pleasure in the works of such writers but in this peculiar case the majority of Lastra’s arguments rest on similes and analogies that while making for pretty text fall short of making a definitive point. Lastra likewise has the tendency to float the terms and ideologies of former centuries down stream into a modern discourse and analysis where I don’t believe they inevitably fit or at least he doesn’t support such a move textually (Oops! There I go with one of my own similes that mean little or nothing). In percentage this faith may be due to Lastra’s exploration which while exhaustive seems decidedly one sided and leans too to a great extent on sure critics. Another downside to his insistence on the taking (post-)modern perspective and interpretation is that he treats “sound” as numerous sort of reflexive, self-perpetuating Ouroboros. He does this to such an extent (and with too little support) that one closely feels that the whole world sat in the stomach of this Ouroboros and that meaning was consequently elusive and in some manner besides the point. In which case one is right to ask: “What’s the point of writing this book?” Also the author has a rather annoying style of re-stating or re-phrasing sure notions within the same paragraph to appear to be the next step in a logical continuity, which makes for both tedious and mixing up reading at times. However, like I said in the beginning the work has it is finelooking moments and the primary and second chapters are perfectly fascinating.

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