Resistance to Hollywood
By the mid to late 1920's countries became concerned about American films becoming more popular, and dominant. Foreign film makers had two major reasons for their concern. The business aspect was their first concern. “American pictures preempted exhibition time and saw locally made films as greater financial risks” (Balio, 1976). This made the development of talent suffer also, there was less certainty that one could pursue a career in film alone. There was a concern about the money drawn by American films in foreign countries, amounts that some thought should remain at home as long as no reciprocal income was derived from America. Germany, hoped that restrictions on U.S. pictures would give its own pictures a greater chance for exhibition (Balio, 1976).
The second concern was on the cultural side. Film was considered to be used for information and persuasion, which presented certain traits and ideals while unintentionally glamorizing them at the same time. “The American film industry was being charged that American products were then actively 'Americanizing' England her, dominions and colonies, and all of Europe"(Balio, 1976) Germany was the first to do something about American pictures. In 1925 Germany introduced an act governing film imports. The act stated, distributors were issued a permit to release a foreign film each time they financed and distributed a German film. The U.K., France and Italy moved fast to follow Germany's example. In France a limit was placed on the number of film imports and in the U.K., and Italy quotas on exhibition required that certain amount of screen time be devoted to locally made films. “ In Italy the quota was set at a low ten percent, the British started at five percent but, in tens years the number climbed to twenty percent” (Balio, 1976). It was clear that these countries wanted to limit the exportation of American films into their countries.