"This Class Will Change Your Writing Life" Hollywood's Screenwriting Gurus in Paris and Their Public
Abstract
The starting premise of this paper is that 'learning how to write' is still perceived in a very different way in France and in the United States. In this perspective, we want to interrogate the current state of the TV/movie industry in France. In fact, we assume that French TV/movie professionals tend to take part to the screenwriting masterclasses of some of the most famous American script-doctors (aka the "Screenwriting Gurus" as they were called in a LA Review of Books' paper a few years ago) because of a certain professional frustration, to which they feel that the masterclass could be a solution. The purpose of our enquiry was therefore to explore what causes this frustration and why/how “Hollywood” (i.e. the teaching offered by the masterclass) could solve it.