Does European cinema have an identity?
Is there such thing as ‘European cinema’? And if there is, what defines its identity ? This issue was debated at a conference organised by the National Union of the Italian critics (Snci) during the"European Film Festival in Lecce". Several personalities from the European film industry joined the discussions. For Bruno Torri, president of the Snci, ‘it is not yet relevant to speak of a real identity, for ‘it cannot consist in the sum of the national cinematographies. To define a cinematography recognisable as European, we need to find in all the different productions what values we share, what themes are common to all European countries.’
Director Francesco Maselli does not agree with this opinion ; he points out ‘the incredible variety of our different forms of expressions. What defines European cinema is precisely this lack of identity. All our different countries put together are an extraordinary creative laboratory ; the difficulty lies in defending this creativity through national legislations.’ For the journalist Oscar Iarussi, ‘there is not point in competing with the American film industry if we do not have the means to do it. The future of European cinema come from the margins, from the Finland of Kaurismaki, the Portugal of De Oliveira, the Denmark of Lars von Trier, or from the Greece of Angelopoulos, from all the countries where films take their time and show attention to detail. If American cinema is defined by action, the specificity of European cinema could be contemplation.’ The Polish director Krzysztof Zanussi, back from the United States, agrees with this view : ‘Americans enjoy this different pace they don’t find in American movies because it is a typically European approach. But here, we feel defeated in advance.’
According to Edgar Reitz, the director of the German saga Heimat, it is all between the authors and the public. ‘We, the directors ourselves, need to find what makes us feel European to convey to the spectator, in his everyday life, the pride of our European identity.’
Gaetano Blandini, head of the cinema section of the Ministry of Culture, mentions the EU regulation, currently in the making, which threatens to abolish, starting in 2007, all support to ‘cultural diversity’ : ‘Any cut on this budget would be a catastrophe and affect up to national film industries.’
(Translated from Italian)
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