Marcel Lucont: what we French think about your British cinema

As I say in my wonderful book, What We French Think Of You British … And Where You Are Going Wrong, it is a myth that the French hate the British. Most of the time we choose simply to ignore you. And, of course, the same can be said of British cinema.

When I see what is on offer at most British movie theatres, it is difficult not to recall Truffaut's belief that the words "British" and "cinema" seem to be at odds when placed together in a sentence. Often you seem proud of your productions only when handed statuettes by the USA, like only being proud of a child for winning an eating contest, while we insist on a certain quota of French films being shown in our cinemas (for which the cinemas, in fact, pay less tax).

The French are keenly aware that cinema is so much more than an accompaniment to popcorn, and here are just some of the myriad ways in which we do it so much better …

Gritty drama Of course Trainspotting elicited pathos here in France: heroin addiction aside, we felt for the Scottish for not even having a body of water to separate them from the English. But for those who require more plausibility than the lead junkie walking off into the sunset, choose monochrome miserablism, choose French, choose La Haine.

Nudity In France, our women are proud enough of their bodies to get naked without the aid of a Chinese gay man. This is reflected in our films, so with French cinema you certainly get more loins for your coins.

Comedy While the French were being amused by the subtle quirks of Tati's Monsieur Hulot, the English were clutching their sides at large-breasted women losing their bikinis, and men saying "phwoooar" or "oooh" a lot. English, you are welcome to the phrase "double-entendre," we have little cause to use it.

Heroes and heroines Our film icons are often more rounded, sometimes in every sense of the word. In a wooing contest, Gerard Depardieu beats Hugh Grant every time, by more than a nose. Audrey Tautou you wish to take home and cuddle. Beatrice Dalle you wish to take home and do things I am told The Guide will not print. Keira Knightley you wish to take home and feed.

Taking our time Like the enjoyment of a fine wine versus a beery binge, French cinema knows how to pace itself. Often I feel a British audience has barely the patience to sit through the trailers, let alone the unfolding Nouvelle Vague masterpieces of Rivette or Rohmer.

Et voila. It is clear that, barring a Leigh or a Loach, British cinema has some way to go before surpassing a Bresson or a Besson. This debate, of course, could go on and on. It is therefore best to admit that I am right and to move on. See you in Cannes.

Marcel Lucont Etc: A Chat Show is at Underbelly Cowgate, 4-28 Aug

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The Hardcore truth about women in porn

An old controversy has arisen over pornography; not the usual ruck about whether it is harmful to women, but a debate over the viewing of women being abused during the making of it.

This Monday UK Feminista is screening the documentary Hardcore, which offers a horrifying glimpse into the industry.

First screened on Channel 4 in 2001, it follows Felicity, a 25-year-old single mother living in the UK, who is desperate to make money to improve her daughter's opportunities. She is invited by a porn agent to meet movers and shakers in the so-called US 'adult industry'. The audience watches as she goes from a bright, sparky, pretty woman to a cynical and emotionally exhausted shell.

Her agent introduces her to performer Max Hardcore, notorious for abusing and humiliating women during filming. Aware of his reputation for choking women during oral sex – and that he often asks his co-stars to wear little girls' clothes – Felicity did not want to meet him, let alone work with him, yet she is pressured by her agent until she agrees.

When Hardcore chokes her she breaks down in tears, but he insists on her continuing, calling her a "fucking loser" and she is almost persuaded to continue until the documentary crew steps in for fear of being complicit in her rape.

Feminist group Scottish Women against Pornography says it should never be screened, saying it is a "filmed rape of Felicity" which will be "endlessly re-enacted long after she is gone". But in the early 1980s, Women Against Violence Against Women compiled a "slide show" of pornographic images, and activists, including myself, gave presentations to anti-pornography women's groups. The images ranged from Playboy centrefolds to a Hustler image of a woman being fed headfirst into a meat grinder, and a cartoon of a learning disabled child being penetrated by a penis in one of her ears with the semen shooting out of the other.

Undoubtedly, a number of those at the meetings were upset but the knowledge gleaned was an essential tool with which to fight the liberals when they argue that porn is "just pictures of people having sex". Other human rights campaigners rely on disturbing imagery to add strength to their arguments: footage of animals being caged and tortured; images of men being lynched in the American south by the Ku Klux Klan; pictures of mass graves in conflict zones.

UK Feminista acknowledges the film makes difficult viewing, but says it depicts the true face of the oft-glamorised porn industry. And importantly Felicity, who left the porn industry after the documentary, did consent to the film being shown.

We need to know the truth about the porn industry to be able to effectively campaign against it. Hardcore tells the truth. Watch it.

Hardcore will be screened in London on 18 July, at 6.30pm. See ukfeminista.org.uk

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