"Never again in competition"
Rai Cinema’s films will never again take part in the Venice Film Festival competition. The managing director of RAI Cinema, Giancarlo Leone, was speaking on the TV news broadcast by RAI Uno, he went on to say, that "this festival has not protected some important films, works of art like Bellocchio’s film, as it should have done.”
In a letter addressed to the Biennale president, Franco Bernabè, Leone writes: “The Bellocchio case is the straw that broke the camel’s back but our position is not simply a reaction to the decisions regarding Good morning, night [+see also:
trailer
interview: Marco Bellocchio, director …
film profile]; we believe that, in general, there were no guarantees in the criteria of selection for the films and the jury members. There was none of the attention that we wanted for the Italian film industry. We don’t expect to win, but, all festivals tend to highlight their own cultures. Bellocchio’s film has united national and international critics, and the public who has been crowding cinemas since Friday to see it; it deserved to be up there with the Russian and the Japanese films. We shouldn’t be afraid of promoting our films, obviously through all legitimate means available. It is time to stop the inverted snobbery that gives awards to Third World films, which tell stories that are hard to understand. For once, the priority should be passion not diplomacy. So, if we want to avoid a future full of contention, we will have to send our films to Montreal, Cannes or Berlin.”
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