13/01/2003

Artificial Eye, one of the UK’s most well established longstanding distributors of European and art-house films is looking forward to 2003, not least because, in the words of the managing director Robert Beeson the results of 2002 were “not really great”.
Of the dozen films released by Artificial Eye last year, the most successful one was French, L’emploi du temps, grossing over GBP153,000 (Euros300,000). However that was not even half the GBP 366,726 (Euros550,000) grossed by A.E’s most successful film of 2001, The Piano Teacher.
“The cream of European films are now taken out by big distributors such as Miramax and Pathe, so it’s much harder for smaller independents to survive on what’s left,” says Beeson.
Although Artificial Eye owns two flagship cinemas in London (The Renoir and Chelsea Cinema), and many of the films they release get good reviews in the British press, for example, Otar Iosseliani’s Monday Morning or Bertrand Tavernier’s Laissez Passer, released last Autumn, it’s still very difficult for the company to recoup on the theatrical market. “DVD is now where we make our money, and BBC 4 is a new TV buyer of many of our films,” explained Beeson.
Artificial Eye’s current release, 11’09’01, 11 episodes by established international filmmakers, only managed GBP 10,000 (Euros15,000) after two weeks out on six screens (three in London and three outside the capital). The film will probably end its theatrical run next week. The next film on Artificial Eye’s slate is Divine Intervention, scheduled for 17 January. It won best non-European film at the last European Film Awards in Rome.
Beeson has high hopes for 2003: Alexandre Sokurov’s Russian Ark will be released in April, as will the Dardenne brothers’ Le Fils (both titles were in competition in Cannes 2002), Japón and China’s Springtime in a Small Town, selected for the “Controcorrente” competition at last year’s Venice Film Festival.

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