14/10/2005

While the doors of the cinemas remained closed last Friday, actors, directors, opera singers, musicians, set designers, and representatives from all sections of the entertainment industry convened in a square just a few meters from Parliament. Hundreds of people and only one slogan: Abolish the proposed cuts to the entertainment industry fund in next year’s Finance Law.

There were many notable national personalities, including Carla Fracci, Roberto Benigni, Carlo Lizzani, producer Aurelio De Laurentiis, Mimmo Calopresti, Valeria Golino and Marco Muller (Artistic Director of the Venice Film Festival, the survival of which is being threatened by government’s cuts). The crowd was such that many weren’t able to enter the hall where the protesters met. "An ineliminable distrust in our strength," commented Nanni Moretti, before adding caustically, "I’m not surprised that this center-right government, which has no respect for democratic rules, has no sense of culture either."
Doyen of Italian cinema Mario Monicelli was also among the protesters. "I experienced a similar situation only right after WWII,” he said. “But there’s no war on right now, only a government expressing an obtuse position. Freedom and culture are equivalent concepts, to the point where it’s even trite to say so.” BR> Even Benigni spoke out against the cuts, both harshly ("Culture is made by the people!") and with his trademark humor ("You’ve given me the opportunity to live out my dream of being a union worker," he said, garnering applause and laughter from the crowd).

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The premiere of Benigni’s film, The Tiger and the Snow was at the center of some controversy, because a few cinemas did not take part in the strike and on Friday night screened the film. The 955 copies of The Tiger and the Snow released in Italian cinemas – a record for a film of any nationality distributed in Italy – were accompanied by a letter in which Benigni, production companies Melampo and RAI Cinema, and 01 Distribution informed exhibitors of having adhered to the strike. "It’s only a suggestion," explained Managing Director of RAI Cinema, Giancarlo Leone. “We can’t force anyone to strike."

(Translated from Italian)