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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A Separation's Asghar Farhadi: 'We need the audience to think'

Global hit ... Asghar Farhadi with his Golden Bear prize awarded for A Separation at the Berlin film festival earlier this year. Photograph: Andreas Rentz/Getty Images

In a country where lawyers are jailed for defending their clients (such as Nasrin Sotoudeh, who has got 11 years), photographers are arrested for taking photographs (such as Maryam Majd, still missing) and film-makers are sentenced to lengthy terms for making films (such as Jafar Panahi), Asghar Farhadi has proved able to make good films – and even obtain the government approval as well as international admiration after winning the Golden Bear at this year's Berlin film festival for A Separation.

A SeparationProduction year: 2011Countries: Iran, Rest of the world Cert (UK): PGRuntime: 122 minsDirectors: Asghar Farhadi, Asghar FarhadiCast: Leila Hatami, Peyman Moaadi, Sareh Bayat, Sarina FarhadiMore on this film

A Separation follows the story of Simin (Leila Hatami), who is seeking to leave her husband, Nader, because she wants to leave Iran for a better life. Nader, a traditionalist, wants to remain and care for his ill father. When Simin goes back to her parents, Nader hires a maid, Razieh (Sareh Bayat) to take care of the housework – this results in a cross-class clash after an incident that takes both families to a sharia court.

A Separation is also a bigger picture of the modern Iran with all its complexities and contradictions. Filmed in the aftermath of Iran's 2009 disputed election, which left dozens of Iranians dead and hundreds injured and imprisoned for protesting at what they called a "stolen" vote, the film is a unique insight into Iranian society that, at the time, was invisible because of media censorship.

Farhadi, who looks older than his 39 years, with his sparse hair and goatee, says that his film-making choices were not entirely governed by imposed limitations. "Don't be mistaken, it's not because of the restrictions that I have chosen this style. There is no privilege in restriction. In other words, I disagree with people who say restriction makes you more creative. I think that's a misleading slogan. I might have been more creative without them than with them."

How would it look like if it were to be made in a free society? "I would have had the same narrative, regardless of the atmosphere and the restrictions. This kind of film allows the audience to discover by himself/herself – I see that as a modern art; an art in which the artist doesn't look at its audience from a superior level and it does not impose its viewpoint on the viewer."

But Farhadi does accept that the society he has lived in has influenced him. The role of religion, the confrontation of tradition and modernity, the manipulation of lives by the authorities, and, most importantly, a sense of abnormal stress and frustration in Iran's everyday life are apparent in the film's bigger picture. He says, though, that A Separation "is attempting to give an honest picture of the situation of only a part of Iran's society today and not the whole of it".

As well as the confrontations between the characters, there is, according to Farhadi, another level: "self-confrontation". "The bigger confrontation is the one an individual has with itself. When we talk about self-confrontations, we are speaking about moral issues rather than social issues."

Despite everything, Farhadi still ran into trouble. Official permission for A Separation's production was briefly removed in 2010, after Farhadi's remarks in support of Panahi at the Iran Cinema Celebration. "I think that was a very honest wish and [the authorities'] behaviour was very strange," Farhadi says. After days of negotiations and support from other film-makers, he was told he could proceed with his film.

"More than anything else, I think today's world need more questions than answers," he says. In his films, Farhadi says he wants to offer his viewer questions. "I'm not hiding the answers away from my viewers, I simply don't know them.

"If you give an answer to your viewer, your film will simply finish in the movie theatre. But when you pose questions, your film actually begins after people watch it. In fact, your film will continue inside the viewer."

"The important thing is to think and give the viewer the opportunity to think. In Iran, more than anything else at the moment we need the audience to think."

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