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British Film and Television Industries (Communications Committee Report)

My Lords, I intrude in the gap in this riveting debate to say a few words about film distribution, an aspect of film that has not been overemphasised in your Lordships’ debate. I think that the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh, said most clearly that we have much talent bubbling in this country. However, that talent lies not just in our performing artists but at every level, and film gathers all the talents. Young people are dedicated to becoming film-makers. They gather groups around them and get a bit of money by mortgaging their houses. They do the preparation for the film but, ultimately, they cannot get it distributed. Distribution is absolutely essential. People talk about funding production. However, if you have a good story and somebody who can get big American money involved, production is not so difficult. What is really difficult is to get the film into cinemas. The only way in which you can do that is through distribution. It is rather like books; if you write a book but do not have a publisher, no one will read it. It is not quite as grandiose to start a distribution company as the noble Lord, Lord Gordon, said. It can be done. It is expensive—companies have to lay out a lot of money to gain the rights to distribute films—but we have recently seen an encouraging piece of good news. Curzon Cinemas was an exhibitor, as those of your Lordships who have been into its comfortable cinemas will know. It has acquired Artificial Eye, one of the surviving distributors of world cinema in this country. It has the interesting idea—probably from Philip Knatchbull, the son of Lord Brabourne, who contributed so much to our industry—of doing everything in one group. It shows films in its cinemas, produces films and distributes them. Furthermore, it has had the wonderful idea of getting together with HMV record stores, which are interested because they usually have spare space where retail is beginning to decline. They now have two or three small, 60-seat cinemas where they can show, alongside a mainstream film, either an interesting independent production in world cinema or a British film that cannot get distribution. This is an important development and I hope that the Government will take notice of it. I tried in this House many years ago to persuade the Government not to use lottery money to produce films. The slate of films made via the Arts Council that never got distribution bears out my argument. I hope that the Government will take notice of this new development. They will see that for taxpayers’ money—public money—to be well placed, this needs much more serious investigation. The path that Curzon is going down—and taking that path seriously—could be the shot in the arm that our industry needs.