Intervention by Istvan Szabo at the presentation of the 'Study on the economic and cultural impact, notably on co-productions, of territorialisation clauses of state aid schemes for films and audio-visual productions' :

"The culture of letters has been replaced by the culture of moving pictures. Moving pictures are tools of communication just like printed books. If out of about twenty-five thousand books published yearly fifty will be of an enduring cultural value, that means literature, we are talking of a high number.

Ninety-eight percent of the hundred thousand musical pieces composed yearly and played on various instruments have no cultural value at all, they have nothing to do with art but simply fulfill market demands.

Cinematic art is part of the film industry and the film industry is an important branch of the entertainment industry. The entertainment industry and thus the film industry are parts of a globalised market. Cinematic art – not independently of the film industry of course – must be one of the maintainers of cultural heritage. And by our cultural heritage I don’t simply mean a collection of ruins, let it be the Coliseum in Rome or the Berlin wall, but I also mean a system of handing down to posterity ways of life, mentalities, languages, religions, historical experience, life experience. This is why French and Swedish culture differ, so do Hungarian and Portugese, German and Italian not to mention the diversity of Bavarian and Prussian cultures or the difference between Tuscan and Sicilian cultures.

Does then European culture exist? The Old and New Testament, Greek democracy and the heritage of Rome do provide a good common ground. But European culture is like a beautiful meadow full of flowers of various colour, shape and smell. Do you want them to be of the same colour – let’s say brown or red or maybe black, like black tulips? European culture is the richness of diversity. There is only one way to preserve this diversity: if each of us tend to, each of us is allowed to tend to his own patch. And indeed in order to preserve the richness of the whole meadow we should compel one another to water our flowers and never to neglect them. For that we need water. But not every part of the meadow is close to the water.

To be specific: some of the countries belonging to the European Union possess such a small market – due to the low number of inhabitants, the unique language, or temporary social situation – that they are unable to produce works of cultural value, including films, without the support of the community. If we multiply realistic cinema ticket prices and the maximum number of viewers, not even half of the production cost would be recovered. There is a way out, it’s been tested already, to work like amateurs, to create films like home-made products, in small clubs. But because of their low technical standard these works are not marketable, although they might possess cultural value. To lower the production budget is impossible even in the new member states where life is still much cheaper, because European prices and salaries are about to even out due to a sensible European monetary policy. And to constantly lower demands can only lead to the lowering of standards.

If the film industry of countries with a small market is not allowed to benefit even from their own taxpayers’ support, it will slowly die. Maybe a lucky film every now and then manages to hit the world stage - but apart from those few the people of the given country won’t be able to meet their own culture up on the screen. The lack of a national culture – cinema, theatre, restaurant, meeting places – slowly turns into a political force and this political force becomes anti-European. Have you ever analysed why certain countries don’t support the European constitution? Because they feel their own culture is being threatened. Because if people cannot be part of their own culture in their home village then they are not going to feel at home any more. And people can only feel at home in Europe if they are also at home in their own villages.

Competition is a driving engine but only if it’s fair. If one competitor has to use his hands to move his wheel-chair while the other speeds by on a Harley Davidson then it’s not a market competition only a procession to a fancy dress ball.

With political insensitiveness it’s possible to paralyse living local cultures. And if that happens, Europe will be nothing but a well air-conditioned museum where tourists from overseas and the far east can get acquainted with the remains of a bygone world, from the Akropolis to Auschwitz.

I would like to compare films with a similar subject matter made by brilliant European artists. Let’s take three film directors: Ingmar Bergman from Sweden, Fellini from Italy, Bunuel from Spain. They are roughly the same age, all three of them are of a strong Christian orientation, and all three of them – knowing their memoires – were personally touched by the awful history of the 20th century. Let’s choose the subject matter: the crisis of a middle class marriage. The three films: Scenes of a Marriage by Bergman, Bunuel’s Belle de Jour made in France, taking place in France, and Fellini’s 8 and a Half. The three films were made in the same decade, yet they show a totally different world. As far from each other as the Northern night of Sweden and the mediterranian sunshine of the beach at Rimini or the rocky mountains of Spain full of vipers.

And just a few words about my personal experience. I have been lucky to have made films with producers from various countries. Mephisto and Colonel Redl were made at the request of Manfred Durniok from Germany, David Puttnam from the UK produced Meeting Venus, Yves Pasquier from France asked me to direct Taking Sides, the film about Furtwaengler, while The Taste of Sunshine and Being Julia were British-Canadian co-productions by Robert Lantos. These films were predominantly shot in Budapest, predominantly with a Hungarian crew so none of them lost the Central European mentality which is an important element of our identity.

Soil provides food for the tree which then gives taste to the fruit. And so does sunshine which differs in its strength in each country. Farmers know that. And also those of us who like fruit."

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