LONDON -- Udine was born from the ashes of one event and the desire by
a tiny group of people to change the way Far East cinema was perceived
in the West.
The
string of coincidences that led to the initial 1998 fest was long. In
1995, Italian critic Lorenzo Codelli, whom I'd known for some years,
recommended me to curate a program of silent Chinese cinema for the
renowned Pordenone fest. The success of that led to a second program in
1997 -- and a meeting there with two people who wanted to mount a
one-off celebration of 50 years of Hong Kong cinema.
Sabrina
Baracetti and Thomas Bertacche ran the Centro Espressioni
Cinematografiche in nearby Udine. CEC was based in an old railroad
building that was once one of a string of "railroad cinemas" throughout
Italy; it had a year-round calendar of repertory screenings and
mini-fests, with publications attached.
The Hong Kong event was
to be CEC's first non-European event. I contributed my personal
contacts and movie knowledge, Codelli came onboard as project
coordinator, and a Hong Kong critic, Linda Lai, helped with local
liaison. At that time, following the handover to China and the Asian
financial meltdown, Hong Kong cinema was on its knees, with tumbling
production and waning interest from Western fests, so we received a
warm welcome from the territory and individual filmmakers.
Guests for the event, held April 18-24, 1998, included directors Peter Chan (with a mini-tribute), Johnnie To, Ringo Lam and Yim Ho, and actors Lau Ching-wan and Anita Yuen. The 40-odd titles came from all genres; To arranged for a new print of his path-breaking "The Longest Nite" (cut in Hong Kong) to preem at the fest, and we threw together a catalog (in Italian only) by the skin of our teeth.
From the success of that event, Baracetti and Bertacche had the idea of spinning off an annual Far East Cinema
fest. I agreed to head it, as artistic director, on several conditions:
(a) the fest should fill a yawning gap by concentrating on
good-quality, mainstream Asian cinema, and not be just another showcase
for a limited number of arthouse names; (b) for good or ill, I would
have total control of selection; and (c) it should not be like most
other fests.
There would be no juries or competitions (I hate the
idea of both); no panel discussions (which serve no useful purpose
except to boost the participants' egos and air miles); a single venue,
with each film shown once (so no viewing conflicts); free, walk-in
entry to all movies (so no barrier to auds experimenting); and a
relaxed atmosphere of screenings, lunches, dinners (and beyond) in
which filmmakers could mingle with each other and the public.
In other words, the movies should be the one and only thing.
The
new venue, Udine's theater-cum-opera house Teatro Nuovo, would thus for
seven days become a Virtual Far East Movie Theater, showing films
watched by normal Asian auds. By showcasing the other 90% of the Asian
film iceberg, we'd somehow help to balance the cockeyed view
promulgated by most Western fests and many Western crix.
With the
three editions I programmed -- before the sheer pressure of work forced
me to quit -- I think we started the ball rolling. We championed many
directors who have since become big-fest favorites, from Hong Kong's To
to China's Feng Xiaogang, from local producers like Peter Loehr to regional stars like Stephen Chow and countries like South (and even North) Korea.
Most
of all, I have wonderful memories of those crazy, let's-just-do-it
early years and the warmth of filmmakers who felt shut out by regular
Western fests but always knew they had a welcoming home (and
enthusiastic auds) in Udine.
Derek Elley is senior film critic for Variety.
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