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While British independent filmmakers look upon their government-protected French counterparts with envy, their chums in Paris are far from happy. It seems that while the state is entrusted to ensure that the French film industry survives to battle another day against Hollywood - nobody has passed the message on to the country's film critics. In a letter published in yesterday's Le Monde - as reported in The Times - the French Union of Directors and Producers denounced gallic critics as 'spiteful, contemptuous and sadistic.' Fed up with the poor reviews their movies are getting, directors like Patrice Leconte and Roman Polanski are insisting that the French media holds back reviews until after a movie has been released, allowing good 'word of mouth' to promote the French film industry. Polanski, in particular, has an axe to grind. His latest movie was described in Lib ation as 'a total failure which will go down in the annals of crazed bull-shittery'.