Cannes set to boost support for EU film industry, says Redding

Date: 13/05/04

JD: ARE you looking forward to the second Europe Day (18 May) at the Cannes Film Festival (CFF)?

VR: We have been working, in order to make Europe Day possible since I became a commissioner.

In the beginning it was difficult, because previously politicians had never really had a role to play at Cannes.

So last year was really a great 'premiere' for the event, with many ministers showing up and the beginning of a real 'love story' between political decision-makers, film professionals and the CFF.

The whole world was able to see member states' culture ministers, hand-in-hand with the European filmmakers.

They showed their pride in European film and demonstrated why we have to fight to ensure that the industry becomes stronger. The day was such a success that this year, it was the festival organizers who asked for a repeat performance, but this time they want us to really integrate it into the programme of events.

From where this education and culture directorate-general began in 1999, to where we are now, it is a miracle. What is very important is to see that people have understood only if politicians and filmmakers join forces and if we fight together for the European film industry, that we are going to get the results we want.

Political life is not normally associated with the CFF and film in general - in fact, one of the mantras of Cannes is that it is supposed to be an apolitical zone. However, you clearly believe that the two professions have meshed together very well?

This is not party politics.

It is lobbying for cultural diversity in Europe and doing it with major players.

Politicians are players, filmmakers are players, distributors are players - they are all at Cannes.

Ministers go there and they integrate with the profession - it is a very efficient joint venture, one of those public/private partnerships, I believe, which wouldn't have been possible some years ago.

Film piracy, which costs the industry worldwide some l400 million per year, will be the focus of a special discussion group on 16 May. What is the Commission doing about this scourge on the profession?

We are all very worried about it. We have already begun to put our research capacities at the disposal of the film industry, to help it develop new technologies to aid the fight against piracy. I will be meeting studio directors, in order to evaluate what can be done, both in Europe and the US, to help alleviate this problem, because I don't think that it will ever be completely stopped. We have to make it more difficult for film pirates, because it is clear that our filmmakers will only survive if proper audiences appreciate their artistic work.

Most of all, piracy makes life even more difficult for young directors struggling to make a name for themselves, because if there is less money for investment, investors are less likely to take a chance.

The discussion in Cannes this year is a good indicator of the strength of the EU-US partnership, but we also need Asia to join in. We need to build up a new worldwide joint venture, in order to protect our cultural products.

At the finale of Europe Day, there is a prize awarded to a new talent, given to a young director to assist in his/her ongoing project. What is the prize in question?

In Cannes, you have the stars of today, the great filmmakers, whose place is already well established.

We have to develop ways to ensure that the European filmmakers of tomorrow will be the stars of Cannes. That is what Europe Day is all about - how to become a famous filmmaker tomorrow, how to help our young students of today.

The prize is to enable one of these new talents to have practical, invaluable help from established filmmakers - those who know the job, who know how to get funding, those who know how you sell a film. The 'new talent' is invited to Cannes and will be taken in hand by experienced filmmakers, to allow him/her to get to know people, to be introduced, to allow their brilliant idea, which is still in the development phase, to be made into a film in the future.

You seem to be aiming to encourageintelligent European filmmaking. Do you feel the Commission can also encourage an appreciation of the diverse films that are being made in Europe, which are different from the US-produced mainstream?

How important is it to encourage a new generation of film watchers as well as filmmakers, so that they are not just watching multiplex blockbusters all the time?

That has been my aim since I arrived here. It is about nurturing new talents and having good films.

But then you have to have audiences that are willing to see those films.

Now, European films are much more complex, in general, than US films - so people have to learn how to 'read the images'. That is why we have been working, together with audiovisual and education ministers, in order to promote this idea of 'media literacy', to have the concept introduced in schools.

Great experiences such as 'Ciné Days', which were launched two years ago, were the first-ever pan-European cultural event in which hundreds of thousands of young people went to cinema, in order to be presented with good European film.

Filmmakers were able to meet them and talk about film issues - I remember young people sitting on the cobbles of Grand'Place in Brussels last year, watching a medley of European films, talking to representatives from nine cultural institutions that were there, and saying 'cool!'.

That is the message we want to get through. Another experience that has influenced me very much was when I visited Danish director Lars von Trier's Zentropa studios in Copenhagen.

There were children everywhere! "What's going on?" I asked Lars, and he told me: "We are looking for the next Lars von Trier!"

He had invited all the schools in the neighbouring villages and small towns to come and see how a film is made.

They put a video camera in the children's hands and they had a chance to make their own films, with Lars selecting a winner.

The lesson from this is that you have to be proactive - the viewing figures, in Denmark, for audiences enjoying both Danish and foreign film, are very high. When you are proactive and when you do media literacy training for young people, you get the results that you want.

Audiences are starting to pay more interest in their own national films, apart from US blockbusters, but they are not yet so willing to entertain international films. This is one of the reasons, perhaps, why European films are not 'travelling' as well as they might and why we still have to make every effort to invest in and facilitate production of European films.

I am proud to say that nine-out-of-ten European films that enjoy success outside their own country of production do so with the help of the Commission's MEDIA programme.

More than 20 culture ministers will be present at Cannes - they feel that something is really going on there, which is excellent. Their national filmmakers have asked them to attend, so they must have really good reasons for not going!

For example, Austrian Culture Minister Elizabeth Gebra was nearly crying when she spoke to me on the telephone, saying she had to be in parliament that day: "I can't escape, I HAVE to be there!"

But an attendance of 20 out of 25 is really very, very strong. And the filmmakers, whom we asked to join the politicians, are also fighting to be there.

An unseemly scramble! From the Left, rom the Right, from the Centre, it doesn't matter.

It is absolutely apolitical. They have understood that what we want to do is progress and that we're going to succeed if we collaborate.

So it is a real success story: Europe has so much talent and so many talented film artists yet to come.

Everybody is now going for it - all nations are now showing real pride in their films. Luxembourg, for example, my home nation, organized its first film awards last year. There were only enough to have one evening, but that is a start!

People might say it's not important, but for Luxembourgers, it is vital, because it is our culture. That is what is new - everyone now accepts that films are important ways of showing our cultures and, yes, we have to work internationally, Europe-wide.

We have to join forces in order to go ahead. There is not a single nation, in the EU-25 that is standing apart from the rest.

• Eleven of the films at Cannes have enjoyed the support of the Commission's MEDIA programme:

Three films in competition:
Clean by Olivier Assayas
Comme une image by Agnés Jaoui
Kad je zivot bio cudo (La vie est un miracle) by Emir Kusturica

Three films out of competition:
Mondovino by Jonathan Nossiter
Salvador Allende by Patricio Guzman
La mala educación by Pedro Almodóvar

Two films in the Un certain regard selection:
Terre et cendres by Atiq Rahimi
Nelly by Laure Duthilleul
Quinzaine des réalisateurs:
Je suis un assassin by Thomas Vincent

Two films in Semaine internationale de la critique:
L'après-midi de Monsieur Andesmas by Michelle Poite
Or (mon amour) by Keren Yeday

Interview with Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for Education and Culture. The second day of the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, 18 May, was designated 'Europe Day' for the second year running