but also the growing influence of the American model

The "culture wars", subject of this investigation-River, is not the "clash of civilizations" that announced the political scientist Samuel Huntington: in this war, it does not seek to destroy the adversary, but the seducing. It is not political systems that compete, but products of entertainment - and "entertainment" - first of the films and television series. To please the greatest number, in the world, it must be "mainstream" (follow the mainstream). Is the supremacy of the United States, conducting, in this area, half of global exports, indestructible To describe the State of the forces in presence, Frédéric Martel, writing and radio man, travelled about 30 countries, interviewing more than 1,200 professional. The book has the qualities of a good story, but also its limits: it is a subjective story, which does not purport to be exhaustive, and in which information is often drowned in details of portraits and stories (but the reader can refer to the conclusion, both synthetic and prospective).

The most interesting discovery, in the first part of the book, is Hollywood mechanics. First his extreme decentralization: each film is an autonomous company, led by a myriad of independent contractors, ephemeral contracts, each with its specialty (production, casting, effects, spéciaux). Two categories of stakeholders ensure the cohesion of the system: talent agencies, which bring together designers and producers; and the unions (actors, writers, of producteurs), who hold the monopoly of hiring. As the major studios, their role is limited to endorse projects, to fund and to collect revenues - that they amplify with merchandising, DVDs, video games or even theatrical adaptations (such as for Disney, one of the "Lion King", who reported more than 1 billion dollars).

This organization reconciling flexibility and rigour (the scenario of a "blockbuster" film produced by almost industrial procedures) is one of the explanations of the fertility of us production. Another reason cited by the author: the boundary between elite culture and mass culture is much less marked in the United States and Europe. It is significant that many studios so-called "independent", Focus Features, which produced ambitious as films as "Lost in Translation" or "The pianist", are in fact "specialized units" in the majors.

The voyage continues in China, India (Bollywood), to the Japan, in Latin America, the Middle East and, finally, in Europe. Behind these landscapes varied, some constants: the desire on the part of countries ' emerging cultural ", to extend their influence beyond their borders - across their region or their diaspora across the world. but also the growing influence of the American model. Not only the weight of the United States in exports continues to grow, but their creation and dissemination methods are copied across - as reflected, for example, the global wave of creation of rooms multiplexes. This dominance is not matter of political will, but market share: the Hollywood studios turn each year approximately 200 films in foreign languages, only for export, adapted to the cultures "mainstream" of the target countries

Will Internet shock the balance of forces Hollywood marketing has already integrated it into its strategies: companies specialize in the creation of "buzz" to promote the film. Prediction of the author is that entry into the digital age will strengthen the forts and will weaken the weak. It is not likely to say which side is Europe, making a third, rather declining cultural exports.