in France, at least. Some years after manufacture stopped in France, Chrysler had one of the cars shipped across the Atlantic, took it to bits and used it as the model for a people's car for China, India and South America, made of plastic. A Citron spokesman agreed that imitation was the sincerest form of flattery. The Lumire brothers made the first moving picture. Marcel Carn's Les Enfants du Paradis regularly figures high in lists of the best films ever made. One French author provided the inspiration for both The Bridge on the River Kwai and Planet of the Apes; two others served up the plot for Vertigo, and films noirs have become a Hollywood genre. French films have been a highly fruitful pillaging ground for a string of Hollywood vehicles for Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sharon Stone, Steve Martin and others. `Another week, another Hollywood remake of a French movie,' as the New Yorker remarked. Although patriotic French cinastes decry the process and insist that Trois Hommes et un Couffin is far superior to Three Men and a Baby, the studio bosses may not always be wrong in their remaking frenzy. French directors and actors do not, as a rule, work well in Hollywood. In France, Disney's cartoon version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame was a major hit, while France's biggest-ever home-grown success, Les Visiteurs, grossed just $36,732 across the Atlantic. ...
