Pierre Lescure was sacked

The channel has a strong history of funding offbeat but successful films, including Billy Elliot and The Others, and has a three-year film deal with Secrets and Lies director Mike Leigh.

Lynch, whose film Mulholland Drive was produced by Canal Plus, told the French newspaper Le Monde: "We are entering an era of standardisation and of mass-produced cinema."

Prime Minister Lionel Jospin has asked French broadcasting officials to make sure that the changes at the top of Canal Plus are in accordance with French law.

Mr Messier was forced on Thursday to turn back from scheduled talks with French media regulators the CSA as protests were staged outside the watchdog's Paris headquarters.

Crowds have turned out in support of Mr Lescure

He eventually gained access to the building via the car park, in time to arrive at the meeting some 30 minutes late.

The debate over Mr Lescure's sacking centres on the so-called French cultural exception - the system under which broadcasters are obliged to fund French cinema in exchange for the right to screen recent feature films.

Mr Lescure is a staunch supporter of the cultural exception - unlike Mr Messier, who has described the system as "dead".

'Scandalised'

Lynch, who heads the jury at this year's Cannes film festival, is quoted in Le Monde as saying: "France has an incredibly strong tradition of film-making, helped by a regulatory system that has permitted it to retain a local industry."

Charlotte Gainsbourg is supporting Mr Lescure

"If I were French I would be scandalised to see that system come under threat."

More than 250 celebrities have turned out in support of Mr Lescure, including footballers Nicolas Anelka, Patrick Vieira and Emmanuel Petit, actors Juliette Binoche and Charlotte Gainsbourg and Bosnian film director Emir Kusturica.