But now Lord Chris Smith, chair of the independent film policy review panel, has unveiled the actual report, and you can almost hear the collective sigh of relief from professionals and aspiring professionals alike. In fact, on paper, parts of it are pretty refreshing. In something of a response to Cameron's plea, Smith noted that funding exclusively huge hits is impossible since box-office success cannot be reliably predicted. He thus urges support for "the widest possible types of films, from the commercial to the arty." Are you listening, Hollywood?

That said, the report does seem to aim to take some of the pressure off of public National Lottery funds to sustain the British film industry, with numerous incentives to spur private investment, and in turn, box-office success. In all, the report introduces 56 recommendations to the government to sustain success in the British Film Industry, with the majority of Smith's focus going towards building an audience for British film.

The most intriguing recommendation to this end involves "a new program to bring film education to every school, giving every pupil the chance to see, understand and learn about British film." Still I'm guessing they're not about to start showing If... in British schools.

Meanwhile, in France, everyone's quite proud of the massive awards attention The Artist is receiving stateside. Only... the film didn't do that well in France. Certainly, it wasn't a disaster, earning around a respectable $12 million total, and as with the U.S., it was something of a critic's darling, though not to quite the same extent. But it fell well behind numerous other French films like Nothing to Declare, Polisse, Hollywoo and of course Untouchable, many of which may not ever see the light of day in the U.S.

In fact, with the awards season hype still swelling, its gross in the U.S. looks sure to surpass that of France soon. But no way are the French just going to give that away! A re-release of the film on 200 screens is scheduled for next week, so that France can "rediscover the film that enchanted America on the big screen." Never mind the fact that at least five actual silent movies with more heart, soul and visual pizzaz than The Artist screen in Paris theaters every week.

Also, the Quinta Industries bankruptcy that was threatening the release of 61 French films seems on its way to resolution. The French organization for technical industries, FICAM, reported that, after three weeks of work from professionals and public organizations, all products held by the defunct post-production facility are now "technically secure." So, those worried that they'd never get to see Gerard Depardieu play a cartoon Viking can finally rest easy.

And so can European production companies that depended on Quinta. Technicolor has stepped in to take over several major arms of Quinta Industries, including post-production house Scanlab. It's still a good news/bad news situation though, since while it's great that the facilities will continue operations, Technicolor plans to lay off 30% of the previous work force.

Finally, after a relatively static month at the box office where tentpole films dominated, Europe saw a few major shakeups in the last two weeks. In the UK/Ireland, War Horse overtook Iron Lady with a solid $6,048,085. Even more surprising, Untouchable was finally dethroned in France! But it wasn't by any of the usual suspects like Sherlock Holmes, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo or Mission Impossible. Nope, Clint Eastwood's J. Edgar rocketed to number one with $4,134,574, probably a combination of star power and the rave reviews it received from major French publications including Le Monde, Libération and Cahiers du Cinéma. Maybe French critics were more inclined to be kind to the biopic since it wasn't their country that the protagonist screwed with. Or maybe they just still really like Clint Eastwood, a theory which the just-finished, totally complete retrospective at the Cinémathèque Française supports.

But, Untouchable isn't through with Europe yet - It opened in Germany at number one, and it's still sitting pretty at number two in France. And now Italy has its own hit comedy too! For the second week in a row, The Immature 2 took the top spot, pulling in an impressive $11,909,667 in just two weeks. Naturally, the film is a sequel to The Immature, a comedy about a high school band who is reunited twenty years later because The Minister of Education erroneously sends them a letter demanding that they take a formal high school exam again. For the sequel, they reunite on a Greek Island. Wacky hijinks surely ensue.

Ultimately though, the perhaps best film news in Europe has nothing to do with comedy trends or box office grosses, but rather with martial arts adventure films from the far East. Yes, the Cinémathèque Française is giving cinematic Wuxia godfather King Hu a comprehensive retrospective, starting February 8. This will share time with the museum's ongoing Robert Altman restrospective, which last weekend likely distinguished the Cinémathèque as the only the theater in the world to ever show Popeye and O.C. and Stiggs back to back.