05/05/2010

Simone Bachini, founding partner and vice-president of Aranciafilm, has just returned from Japan. Together with director (and company president) Giorgio Diritti, he accompanied Diritti’s The Man Who Will Come [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Giorgio Diritti
film profile] to the Festival of Italian Cinema in Tokyo, where the film was lauded by audiences and picked up by distributor Alcine Terran before it’s official screening even. His calendar, however, is far from clear: May 7 marks the David di Donatello Awards (The Man Who Will Come received 16 nominations), after which Bachini will fly to Cannes, having been chosen by Cinecittà Luce/Filmitalia as Italy’s Producer on the Move.

Cineuropa: How do you feel about having been chosen?
Simone Bachini: It means a lot, it’s an important opportunity because I think one absolutely must work with European and international partners. Italy is a bit behind in this, co-productions aren’t very frequent here. Our country enters partnerships with difficulty, especially minority ones. It’s a shame, because in this way you forego producing more exportable films. It’s one of the weaknesses of our film industry.

Have you ever made a co-production with European partners?
It hasn’t happened yet, but we tried with The Man Who Will Come. But the Austrian partners couldn’t do it in time, so the co-production was scrapped. We’re now searching for co-producers for our next project, a debut feature we really believe in.

Do you evaluate many screenplays?
We’re sent more film stories and treatments than screenplays, which makes us happy. They are projects that have not yet reached an advanced stage of development, which gives us the opportunity to develop the work with the filmmaker.

What do you think specifically about Aranciafilm convinced Filmitalia to choose you for Cannes?
I think they chose us because the production and financing paths of our first feature film, The Wind Blows Round [+see also:
trailer
film profile], were rather anomalous with respect to the usual ways in which a film is made in Italy. The Man Who Will Come followed more traditional methods, but we nevertheless managed to maintain our autonomy and make the film we wanted to make.

Is there a mission statement that guides your choices?
We’re interested in creating works that present a stand, a poetics, an idea of the world. These are “important” statements, I realise that, but let’s say that if the idea and desire are strong, we don’t let the first budget problems stop us. And we are deeply convinced that the provinces have a lot to say, that outside of Rome there are many important stories to tell. This conviction is the driving force behind our not moving to the capital – Aranciafilm will remain in Bologna.

What do you except from your experience as a Producer on the Move?
It’s very important for Aranciafilm to create fertile terrain for fostering relationships with other European producers, in the hopes that they lead to fruitful and interesting collaborations in the future. Our aim at Aranciafilm is to broaden our activities, to develop projects by other directors as well, and to launch European and international co-productions.