The End Of Cinema As We Know It: American Film in the Nineties

5. "American" Cinema in the 1990s and Beyond: Whose Country's Filmmaking Is It Anyway?

5 “American” Cinema in the 1990s and Beyond Whose Country’s Filmmaking Is It Anyway? Charlie Keil AS AMERIC AN CINEMA has redefined itself in the era of new technologies , bloated budgets, mergers and acquisitions, and relaxed cultural trade policies, one might easily overlook its role in the disappearance of the concept of national cinema. The preeminence of American cinema in virtually every other national marketplace has translated into the unassailable economic superiority of U.S.-based production and distribution and the near decimation of once mighty national cinemas, in both Europe and Asia. But if one examines the often overlooked case of another aspect of “American” film—cinema just north of the U.S. border—one can see clearly the other side of the equation. My argument here does not involve the suspect claim that the Canadian activity I will describe threatens the U.S. film industry nor that American cinema risks imploding. Instead, I am suggesting that the push for reduced trade barriers that the United States has always championed inevitably contributes to the elimination of any sense of national cinema at all. Undoubtedly, proponents of American cultural trade policy have imagined the United States as the “last man standing ,” but they have not anticipated that this altered marketplace will also cause changes to American cinema. While we easily accept the commonplace notion that American film culture overcomes (other) national boundaries, seldom do commentators allow for the fact that whatever constitutes so-called American cinema may undergo a denationalizing process in the face of increased globalization. To explore this notion, I will examine American cinema from the perspective of 53 Canada, highlighting several aspects of contemporary trends that indicate the imminent dissolution of the concept of a U.S. national cinema. CANADIANS AS AMERICANS:ABSORPTION VIA “GLOBAL MONOCULTURE” Why Canada? Of all the nations affected by the American cultural juggernaut , Canada has probably proven the least resistant. Because the country possesses a negligible commercial film heritage, the Canadian government has found little to defend when attempting protectionist legislation. And the MPAA has quickly beaten back those few attempts with threats of reprisals. Current Canadian film production (particularly in English-speaking Canada) exists on the margins; typically, the highest grossing film made in Canada for any given year matches the earnings of a low-performing American independent release. In 1999 neither Felicia’s Journey, directed by favorite son Atom Egoyan, nor Sunshine , recipient of numerous Genies, could even crack the $1 million mark.1 Perhaps because of its proximity to the United States, a shared dominant language, and many surface similarities in their cultural makeup, Canada has never carved out a distinct filmic national identity. Ironically, lacking such an identity has not aided Canada in adopting the strategy Martine Danan has attributed to other filmmaking nations under siege: The “postnational” mode of production erases most of the distinctive elements which have traditionally helped define the (maybe) imaginary coherence of a national cinema against other cinematographic traditions or against Hollywood at a given point in time: for example, an implicit or explicit worldview, the construction of national character and subjectivity, certain narrative discourses and modes of address or intertextual references.2 In the postnational era, in lieu of emulating the U.S. production model, Canada has simply infiltrated it. Canadians figure prominently in every aspect of American popular culture. Two of the biggest stars in the American cinema at the close of the 1990s are Canadians by birth: Mike Myers and Jim Carrey. Canadian-born actors populate programming across broadcast schedules, from Will and Grace to Felicity, a grad54 CHARLIE KEIL uate of the Canadian news system anchors a network prime-time newscast , while Canadian-trained producers and writers guide shows as diverse as Saturday Night Live and Family Law.3 Singers whose careers began in Canada dominate radio playlists and sell tens of millions of units, no matter what the format: adult contemporary (Céline Dion), country (Shania Twain), or alternative (Alanis Morissette). Even the new Anakin Skywalker hails from Vancouver. Moving behind the scenes, one could find Canada’s own Edgar Bronfman Jr., scion of the Seagram distillery dynasty, shaking the corridors of corporate power as mightily as Michael Eisner and Ted Turner; Bronfman , after acquiring control of MCA/Universal, tried to match moviemaking might to domination of the recorded music industry by merging with PolyGram. Acknowledged as a Hollywood power player (quite...