The Transnational Impact of European Film: Perceptions, Identity, and Other Effects

This chapter explores the impact of non-national European (NNE) films (e.g. a French film released in Germany) on people’s perceptions of other countries in Europe and their sense of European identity. Drawing on data from the MeCETES/YouGov Survey, I reveal that only 20% of EU citizens said they had seen an NNE film in the last 10 years that had improved their understanding of another European country, while just 14% had seen one that had made them feel more European. These figures increased slightly amongst Europhiles who regularly watched NNE films. But the impact of NNE films on people’s understandings of other countries in Europe and their sense of European identity was still limited to a minority. The MeCETES focus groups provide some explanation about why this might be the case. Some respondents identified as European but felt this had nothing to do with watching NNE films. Others felt less in common with other Europeans when watching certain NNE films because their stories underlined key differences between European countries. Yet the experience of watching NNE films still affected audiences in other ways, with over a third of respondents saying they had seen an NNE film in the last ten years that had made a positive impression on them.