French celebrate an iota of quota

Korean helmers discuss pic regulations in Gaul

By ALISON JAMES

It was a major coup for the U.S. when Korea slashed its screen quotas earlier this year, paving the way for Hollywood pics to grab a bigger slice of the country's box office pie.

But France -- which continues to fight deregulation at home and abroad -- hasn't given up courting the Koreans to its point of view.

At the recent Paris Cinema, a fortnight of screenings and movie-themed events in the French capital, a dozen Korean helmers were guests of Paris City Hall for a retrospective of Korean films. Kim Dong-ho, director of the Pusan Intl. Film Festival, received an honorary medal from the City of Paris.

In turn, the Pusan topper announced French cinema would be the subject of a retrospective at his fest's next edition, with pics such as "Breathless," Patrice Leconte's "Ridicule" and Francois Ozon's "Un lever de rideau" among some 20 films.

Kim even took time to bemoan his country's screen-quota reductions as "a tragedy for Korean films" -- words that fell on sympathetic ears in Paris.