The article deals with questions of continental film market and issues of common European identity. The author tries to combine different perspectives: economical, political and cultural in order to create comprehensive picture of contemporary European cinema in 'global Hollywood' reality. The first part is about traditional film studies topic - 'Hollywood vs. Europe' and old issues of European 'hostility' towards Hollywood and perception of LA studios as a 'threat' to European identity. The next part is a description of profound changes in cinema reality in 1980s and 1990s, which took place in the frames of globalization. Those changes substantially enforced Hollywood domination in European film market and film culture. Part three is a short outline of three possible strategies for European producers, which can be deployed against Hollywood's market hegemony. The author reconstructs: the 'Airbus (Asterix)' strategy, the 'niche' strategy and the 'join to stronger' strategy, trying to show also the traps and difficulties which are connected to them. Neither of them seems to be a simple remedy for uneasy market situation of European cinema. The last part of the article is a kind of 'deconstruction' of previous dichotomy. At first, in terms of film market, culture and identity issues - Europe looks much more as an 'archipelago' than as a 'continent'. At second, if Europe is an 'archipelago', in terms of culture, or at least film culture - USA is inevitably one of the islands of those 'archipelago'.
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