French President Jacques Chirac invited hundreds of artists and intellectuals from around Europe to the Elysee Palace this month to promote the European constitution as a barrier against "homogenization."
France is in a heated debate ahead of a May 29 referendum on whether to ratify the constitution, which includes measures that will continue to protect state aid for the audiovisual sector.
In France, the industry had a particularly successful year.
The Chorus, the French tale of singing schoolboys, was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards and was the biggest box-office hit at home.
The movie drew fans in part for its very specific postwar small-town-France setting.
Lange said that with more hit movies like those, a stronger European film industry might build confidence in the entire European project: "Films contribute to your understanding about your neighbors, their social and historical issues."
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