Rai: "less films, but the right ones"
"Our budget of €30 million is sealed, so we will go from the 15-20 titles made in 2003 and 2004 to a small dozen". Carlo Macchitella, General director of Rai Cinema (film production arm to the Italian public broadcaster), has to deal with a much smaller budget at his disposal, and his wish expressed in Cinecittà News, is for Italian producers to "make less films, but the right ones".
Currently in production or in post-production for Rai Cinema are the new Cristina Comencini (La bestia nel cuore), Marco Bellocchio's (Il regista di matrimoni), Gianni Amelio's (La stella che non c'è), Pupi Avati's (La seconda notte di nozze) and Maurizio Costanzo's new project Passo a due, to be directed by Andrea Barzini.
"Those are safe movies- says Macchitella - that we make in co-production with companies such as Cattleya, Filmalbatros or DueA, and that offer bigger profit potential. But other productions are on hold, waiting for support from the Guarantee Fund ". Among those films blocked because of cuts in public finances are Sonata a Kreutzer by Maurizio Sciarra, Riccardo Milani'sIl disco del mondo, Francesca Archibugi 'sLezioni di volo, and Michele Soavi 'sArrivederci amore ciao. "There is a real bottle neck situation - continues Macchitella- but I still believe that the 'Urbani Law' is positive because it rationalizes the system, although there are still difficulties to overcome. Anyway, the vitality of a film industry is not measured by the number of films produced".
Then how is it possible to support the emergence of new authors and new trends? "I'm all in favor of giving less money to new talent to force them to think low-budget filmmaking, where the whole emphasis is on the story. Let's take for example Private or Mobbing; this isn't a first feature film, but a small film low budget and still very original ".
(Translated from Italian)
Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.
