Serious challenge to traditional notion of European art films

By Anuradha KODAGODA

Paolo Bertolin

During the past few decades a new wave of enthusiasm has urged the youth to broaden new frontiers of Sri Lankan cinema. In the past there were a few cine-artistes who blazed the trail by winning international recognition and awards for their cinematic creation. Vimukthi Jayasundara is one such cine-artiste who won the Camera d'Or in Cannes in 2003.

Today most of the young cine-artistes try to win international recognition from their first attempt in cinema. Therefore, today Film Festival Cinema is the latest sub-genre which is common around the globe. Though it sounds controversial in many aspects, it is one of the ground realities which we cannot just easily surpass.

Recently, there was a rare opportunity for young filmmakers to meet one of the official representatives of Venice International Film Festival which is the oldest established and longest running film festival in the world.

Paolo Bertolin, official correspondent and consultant for Venice International Film Festival was in Sri Lanka on a personal visit. He spoke to the Sunday Observer on many aspects of the Venice IFF and the aesthetics of Asian cinema.

Excerpts:

Question: Tell us about the Venice film festival.

Answer: The Venice International Film Festival (VIFF) is the oldest film festival in the world. Actually, it was the very first film festival in history, created originally as an extension of the concept of art exhibition - from the Biennial of Arts taking place in Venice. The festival's main award, the Golden Lion, has recognised great directors in the past, and contributed to establishing their international careers. Among Asian filmmakers who received the festival's main prize were Satyajit Ray, Akira Kurosawa, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Tsai Ming-liang, Kitano Takeshi and Jia Zhangke.

Feedback

Q: What is your role in Venice International Film Festival?

A: I started working for Venice IFF in 2008. In 2008 and 2009 I was a member of the selection committee which is the advisory board that gives direct feedback to the artistic director about the films that have been submitted to the festival.

Already at that time, I was also covering some territories as a correspondent. From 2010, I only retained the position as correspondent, working with several territories mainly in Asia.

What I mostly do now is to scout for new films, filter them with a pre-selection purpose, and submit the ones I chose for final evaluation to the artistic director and the selection committee.

Q: What kind of criteria have you adopted when selecting films for the festival?

A: There's no such specific guidelines determining the choice of our selection. Obviously the films have to be good - at least in our eyes. That means that they should or might have a very strong degree of originality and creativity in terms of film language or narrative development. But again, that is a very vague concept that is difficult to reduce to one plain explanation.

Judgement

Q: What kind of understanding or a judgement you have of Sri Lankan cinema?

A: According to my knowledge and understanding of Sri Lankan cinema, it is obviously and unfortunately limited to what international film festivals have been screening in recent years. As for recent films, I have tried to watch as much as possible, whenever I had the chance.

On the other hand, as for classic films, the access to them is very limited. I only had the chance to watch a couple of films by Lester James Peries and by Dharmasena Pathiraja, in the framework of festival tributes.

And also I could watch the films done by the young cine-artistes who have been internationally recognised. Some of them are Vimukthi Jayasundara, Sajeewa Pushpakumara and Sathyajit Maitipe. However, I would of course be glad to have the chance to see more.

Q: As you have travelled in many South Asian countries, are there any particular specialities that you have identified in Sri Lankan artistes?

A: I don't think I know Sri Lankan cinema enough to single out a 'specialty' or a prerogative of its auteurs.

My view is certainly partial and heavily influenced by the little number of films discovered at international film festivals. The most obvious thing I could notice, though, is the frequent inspiration coming from and the references to Buddhism.

Q: When selecting the films for VIFF, do you consider more of the content of political issues or aesthetics?

A: The aesthetics of a film are paramount in determining the selection at a festival like Venice.

Of course, matters of content, as the political relevance of a film, could count too. But, if there is not a strong cinematic way of presenting the content, the film could not be of real interest for a big international festival.

Q: If you consider more on aesthetics or if more on political issues, isn't that particular aesthetic or political issue have defined according to the VIFF's agenda or selection committee's viewpoint? Because, there is a clear difference between the Asian aesthetics and the European aesthetics. In the circumstances do you refer different strategies to identify particular country's aesthetics or political issues?

Media attention

A: Once again, there is not a real 'agenda' in what we do. The only preoccupation is that of selecting good films. In terms of that, though, since Venice IFF is an event that gathers the attention of media from all over the world, we would have to guarantee a certain standard.

A standard of technical quality of the films first - amateurishly made works obviously cannot be taken into consideration.

But also, the standard of general international acceptance, which means that films that are deemed too local, in content and cinematic approach, might also find a hard time being selected.

It is not a matter of European aesthetics against Asian aesthetics. I believe such boundaries count less and less these days.

And I can certainly tell you that these days, the traditional notion of European art film has been seriously challenged, and the 'prestige' productions identified with that label have a hard time making it to big international film festivals as much as very local Asian films.