Top directors back tiny art house in battle with Hollywood

· Suburban cinema in Paris takes on multinational
· David Lynch and Wim Wenders among allies

In the ongoing battle between French art house cinema and the might of blockbuster Hollywood, the Europeans refuse to go down without a fight. And when a tiny suburban cinema outside Paris was challenged by the multiplex giant UGC, some of the biggest names in cinema joined the brawl.

David Lynch, Wim Wenders and Wong Kar-Wai are among 60 of the world's most acclaimed film directors who have surprised the arts scene by taking up the cause of the Georges-Méliès art house cinema in the suburb of Montreuil-sous-Bois.

The film house has positioned itself as the guardian of the soul of French cinemagoers. Founded in the 1960s and named after the French father of special effects, the cinema shows French art films, documentaries and subtitled foreign films; current offerings including Michael Moore's Sicko and the Joy Division story, Control.

As part of the French state's drive to protect culture, the Méliès receives a subsidy. Now the cinema plans to expand from three to six screens. But UGC, the third-biggest cinema chain in France, has gone to court complaining that public subsidy to an expanded Méliès would be "a violation of competition rules" because the cinema would have gone beyond its public service remit.

UCG has a vast multiplex in a neighbouring suburb which attracts over 2 million filmgoers a year. The Méliès pulls in 200,000.

The chain has launched similar court cases over cinema competition and French state subsidies. But the contacts book of the Méliès's head, Stéphane Goudet - a former film critic and director - is not to be underestimated.

In a petition to the court and film bodies, directors including Abel Ferrara, the Dardenne brothers and Theo Angelopoulos back the small cinema, saying: "In these cowardly times where artworks are reduced to a consumer products, auteur cinema and enterprising art house screens fight the same battle for quality, respect and freedom for directors and filmgoers."

Mr Goudet told Libération his programming sought to counter the "overkill" of Hollywood public relations machines. He said state subsidies had enabled arts cinemas to exist all over France and he feared multiplexes were trying to press the government to stop supporting them.

France is one of the few countries where home-grown films stave off Hollywood domination, helped by a strict government-enforced quota system.