The quality daily Le Figaro concedes “The American Parade—the Grand Summer Offensive of American Movies.” The article adds, “The French moviegoer is eclectic. They love the French cinema over all others. But Hollywood is in the summer, without question, the favorite child of the French public with the super productions of animation, action, and fantastic comedy with special effects and suspenseful dramas.”

Despite the French film industry being highly state subsided and filled with many artistic and creative productions, the marketplace (read the popular tastes) clearly favors the cinematic sensations and special effects from the USA. As Le Figaro admits, “with 89 percent of the market, American films reign supreme.”

But it’s not only a summer romance. Among the box office favorites of the past year, Pirates of the Caribbean 3 remains a sound number one followed by Spider Man 3, and Shrek 3 with the latest Harry Potter story gaining fast. These themes are not even original but even more popular sequels in a series. In other words it is not just a flash in the pan of curiosity but continuing interest in a storyline.

Successful French productions such as the adventure film Arthur and the Minimoys or Persepolis, a troubling story of the 1978 Iranian revolution, are among the few movies which have reached the top ten with audiences.

According to the entertainment weekly Paris Scope, of the top ten films in Paris showing in mid-August eight are American. Ratatoullie, appropriately set in France, is overwhelmingly in the lead followed by the Simpsons and Harry Potter. Rintintin is set to open along with Even Almighty.

The grand cinemas of the Boulevard Montparnasse or the Champs d’Elysees are flush with American films. If we look over the top ten box office hits of the past year, six of the selections are American.

While many observers will jump to the conclusion this is globalization (it really is) one must then ask, who is going to the cinema? The French! The patrons obviously have a taste for the American selections and this reflects the free choice of the marketplace. Though many Left-bank leftists will deliriously decry all things American, the consumers sans politics see their entertainment quite differently.

Cinema is hardly novel. Just surf the air waves of Paris and be deluged with a flood of American or American-inspired music on the radio ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous to raunchy rap.

Television programming though having much higher French content also is brimming with American shows from classic movies to current sitcoms and soaps. Selections from the old Columbo series (well he did drive a Peugeot!) to the current Cold Case to FBI Missing persons to even the military based JAG are on TV. So are the ubiquitous Simpsons and the Desperate Housewives. Earlier in the year the counter-terror suspense thriller 24 was a hit.

The point remains that despite the political chill between Paris and Washington in recent years over Iraq, what many people see as habitually knee-jerk anti-Americanism hardly extends to popular culture. Here it’s a different dynamic far from the fog of diplomacy and the intricacies of global economics, it’s all about entertainment.

Hooray for Hollywood?