Alberto must admit, he was moved.
Originally it was just a flash of inspiration, but Renly's response and attitude proved his skill and wisdom. He definitely has the ability to serve as the chairman of the jury. It has nothing to do with age, but about strength, personality, attitude, and ability. , which made Alberto excited:
If Renly can be invited to serve as the jury chairman of the Venice Film Festival, it will definitely set off a global focus, and it will be able to spark discussions for a long, long time in the future. Coincidentally, it can even complete the task better.
Alberto's whole head is now full of this idea, and some can't get rid of it.
But Alberto also knew that Renly was right: Impossible, this could not happen in Venice, and even inviting Renly to be a member of the jury would have to face many problems—
Because of Renly's age, and because of Renly's qualifications, and another point is that Renly has not participated in the main competition of the Venice Film Festival, and has never been on the awards stage of the Venice Film Festival, that is to say, Renly is in the Venice Film Festival. Venice's resume and seniority are far from ranking... These factors will hinder Alberto's invitation to Renly as a member of the jury.
If he really drafted the proposal, Alberto could even imagine what he would face next, and what kind of criticism he would encounter. It was a high probability event that he would eventually be rejected, even if it was a certainty; After refusing, his work will face many voices pointing fingers, and that is the beginning of the disaster.
After all, the situation in Italy is different from that in other countries.
In 2012, Alberto was entrusted with the helm of the Venice Film Festival, taking on the presidency, with the task of bringing the festival back to life, but it was no mean feat.
As the oldest film festival in the world, the recent history of the Venice Film Festival has encountered many obstacles and confusions.
On the one hand, there are multiple internal pressures from Italy, the economic downturn, the constant factional struggle within the industry, the weak attention and support of the new generation, and the decline in innovation ability. The overall quality of Italian films has declined significantly, and even the overall cultural atmosphere has declined. If it goes on, it will be a fatal blow to artistic creation. The former European film kingdom is no longer in its sights.
However, the top insiders in the film industry refused to accept the facts, refused to keep pace with the times and kept pace with the world, lacked understanding of the development of the industry, always focused their attention on the local area, and constantly put pressure on the Venice Film Festival, hoping Film festivals can support local films more, and even bring local films back to glory—however, they can’t follow the example of the Berlin Film Festival to set up an official foundation to support local films, because… lack of money, and then fall into an endless loop, This led to many problems.
Every year, the Venice Film Festival has to face severe challenges in the competition and selection. The selection of the jury, the selection of the entries, and the attitude of the local media are all without exception, which restricts the film festival's attraction to excellent works to some extent. force.
As if Alberto wanted to invite Renly as a member of the jury, he would have to face pressure from domestic practitioners and the top management of the institution, things are far from simple.
On the other hand, there are multiple pressures from outside Italy. The Cannes Film Festival has gradually developed its own characteristics and gradually stood out among the three major European film festivals. The blurred Venice has formed more squeezes; at the same time, the Toronto Film Festival has risen rapidly, overtaken it in an all-round way, and then gained a firm foothold in North America, making full use of its geographical advantages to seize the market, and the two film festivals are scheduled one after the other. , which further robbed Venice of the audience and works, which also made Venice face the dilemma of a full-scale attack.
From the point of view of the quality and quantity of the submitted works, Venice has not been able to show enough advantages. It lacks attractiveness and competitiveness for excellent directors and excellent works. Every year, the selection stage faces serious constraints. Even the intimacy of Asian films has begun to decline, and the excellent works that go to Venice every year, including the three East Asian countries, are drastically declining.
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To make matters worse, the Venice Film Festival has never been able to determine its own position.
Comparing the Berlin Film Festival horizontally, although the number of moviegoers and the heat of discussion are the last among the three major European film festivals, the positioning of Berlin is very accurate, from social and humanistic concerns to reflection on political/political issues, artistic creation and real life The close connection and even in-depth thinking are always at the core of Berlin, giving the Berlin Film Festival a unique artistic atmosphere. From this perspective, Berlin is in better shape than Venice.
It is no exaggeration to say that the Venice Film Festival is now facing a crisis of internal and external troubles, and many senior film lovers are even beginning to worry about the prospects of Venice. It suddenly disappeared from the public eye.
There are actually many intricate reasons for the resignation of the former chairman Mark Mueller, which cannot be summed up in a single word. One of the reasons is that he hopes to inject a new atmosphere into the film festival, let the new chairman bring a new atmosphere to the film festival, and try to find a way out. , to continue the longest-running film festival, avoiding the situation that fans feared.
For Alberto, the first task is to find the exact positioning of Venice: whether it is art or culture; whether it is a publicity model or a marketing positioning, in short, it is necessary to find a clear idea so that Venice can bloom again, maybe Cannes Can be a very positive reference sample.
At one time, the Cannes Film Festival was controversial because of its frequent invitations to Hollywood films—especially commercial films. Both Berlin and Venice believed that Cannes had lost the essence of the film festival, and became more and more commercial and utilitarian. Abandoning self-persistence, everything is hype, everything is propaganda, which has nothing to do with movies, and even more has nothing to do with art, so that people's impression of Cannes only has three "S"s left: Sun, Sea (Sea), sex/sensation (S/e/x), this is definitely not what a film festival should look like.
At that time, Cannes was considered to be a "film market" full of copper smell, and all films went to Cannes to "sell a good price".
But with the advancement of time, Cannes's thinking has gradually become clear, and the situation has been successfully opened:
They invite Hollywood blockbusters or superstars to open the film festival—without participating in the competition, they create discourse and focus, and attract attention and attention. Find your own position in the fusion, and cultivate the direct line artists of the "Cannes Department" in different regions:
For example, Javier Dolan of Canada, Hirokazu Koeda of Japan, Michael Haneke of Germany, Christian Mongi of Romania, Nuri-Bilge- of Turkey , another example of Quentin Tarantino in the United States... and so on.
The so-called "successor" means that whenever these directors release new works, Cannes will send an invitation as soon as possible, hoping that they can submit their works and hold the world premiere in Cannes. If the quality of the work is excellent, then it will be the main competition; even if the quality is a little less than satisfactory, it does not matter, the director's biweekly, one kind of attention, non-competitive opening films, etc. can all find positions, and do their best to continue the fate and maintain it in this way. The fetters of artistic creation.
Over time, Cannes has formed a system, just like the "Oscar department", they also have the "Cannes department", creating an impression: "This movie is Cannes style", "This movie is suitable for Cannes. release”, which is undoubtedly crucial for brand promotion.
After the completion of the whole system, the attraction of Cannes to other directors and other works will gradually increase. Even if it is not a "Cannes" style work, they are willing to sign up for Cannes because of the strong influence of Cannes to increase their exposure, including Cannes has become a dream land, including many American directors.
Gradually, Cannes gained both fame and fortune, gradually leaving Berlin and Venice behind.
Of course, this long process took more than ten years of deliberation and promotion. It is simple to say, but it is definitely not that easy to operate; in addition, the cultural atmosphere of the whole film festival is also an indispensable part, and Berlin and Venice are more or less. Or at least subject to the constraints of the country, society and culture, after all, it has not been able to develop like Cannes, and France's enthusiasm for movies also played a key role.
If we can refer to the development route of Cannes, and Venice can find its own path, it would be great; but the idea is beautiful, but the reality is cruel. There are too many problems inside and outside the Venice Film Festival. It's like a mess of wool, making it impossible to get started.
Not to mention whether the Cannes model can be copied to Venice, it is certain that even if it is implemented according to the road of Cannes, Venice will still need to face many obstacles, just like Alberto’s flash of inspiration:
Inviting Renly to be on the jury, even if it was a good idea, a good idea that everyone could see, the positives far outweighed the negatives; but its implementation within the Venice Film Festival remains elusive and more absurd. Yes, even outsiders like Renly knew that they should try to change, but in the end they would end up hitting a wall, and they still couldn't break through it themselves.
Alberto himself was powerless, staring at Renly in front of him. He could only temporarily put away the idea of the temptation and focus on his original plan.