The laughter of 7,000 is not to be ignored

On the Piazza, the world's top drive-in for art-house movies 'The laughter of 7,000 is not to be ignored,' says festival director Marco Müller, mixing potential crowd-pleasers with intellectual stimuli for the Piazza Grande programme

Once described by French actress Isabelle Hubbert as 'something like the world's top drive-in for art-house movies,' Locarno's Piazza Grande — the town square — is the acknowledged gem of the Locarno International Film Festival. It's equipped with one of Europe's largest screens (26m x 14m) and a mega-boosted sound system which last year carried the racing bus in Speed across the 7,000 spectators all the way to the Italian border.
'Most directors with films screening on the Piazza Grande want to check the response from the audiences,' says festival director Marco Müller. 'I remember patrolling the place with Ken Loach, who whispered, 'If I could only force a laugh out of them.' He could. And the laugh of 7,000 people is not to be ignored.'
For the future Müller is planning also to show some of the competition entries at the open-air theatre, but his 1995 line-up is assembled from his traditional format to include a mixture of potential crowd-pleasers and intellectual stimuli, most of them international premières, and all of them introduced by the filmmakers.
Loach is again represented in the 1995 selection for the Piazza Grande by Land and Freedom, which was awarded the Fipresci Prize at Cannes. Another winner from the Côte d'Azur, Iranian director Jafar Panahi's Badkonak-e sefid (The White Balloon), which bagged the Camera d'Or, will also meet its audiences out of doors.
Swiss director Daniel Schmid, who combined film and opera in Il Bacio di Tosca /Tosca's Kiss) will unveil Das Geschriebene Gesicht (The Written Face) for the first time on the Piazza Grande. Playing with sexual roles, the film offers an insight into Japanese kabuki theatre and the work of one of its foremost performers, Tamasaburo Bando.
Bombay, Indian director Mani Ratnam's love-story between a Hindu boy and a Muslim girl, set against the backdrop of communal riots flamed by religious fanaticism in 1993 Bombay, will show in an uncensored version. Bombay caused local controversy when the release was suspended in the wake of protests from political and religious leaders.
French director Eric Rohmer adds his latest feature, Les rendez-vous de Paris (Parisian Encounters), to his Four Seasons series, with three episodes of love and deceit: a young girl taking revenge on her boyfriend for having an affair, another young girl who wants to leave her fiancé and have an affair, and a painter who meets the love of his life.
Last year's domestic top-grosser in Italy, Daniele Luchetti's comedy, La Scuola (The School), is based on three novels by Demonico Starnone, taking a look at the sometimes unclear aim of public schooling. As the end of term approaches and the goodbye party is being prepared, secret loves and hidden conflicts come out in the open.
After three years of restoration by the Italian Cinematheque, Luchino Visconti's 1954 melodramatic romance, Senso (The Wanton Contessa), has returned to its original colours. Working through the conventions of Italian grand opera, this love story of a married Italian noblewoman and an occupying Austrian officer is set in Venice in 1866.
From the US, Müller had originally selected Wayne Wang's Blue in the Face — film history's first instant movie shot after Smoke — 'as an outlet for all the people, plots and perceptions that Smoke inspired but could not contain', with an additional episode by Quentin Tarantino. But as musical rights for Blue In The Face are still to be cleared, he will make do with Smoke.
Tim Burton's Vincent and Me, the director's tribute to popular cinema and, in particular, to his own all-time screen hero Vincent Price, is another choice which may exit this year's edition in favour of next year's. 20th Century Fox is yet to decide whether it will pay off the copyright bill for the film excerpts Burton wants to use.
Confirmed US productions comprise Paul Schrader's Witch Hunt, the director's theatrical cut of his 1994 HBO film, about flying saucers in 1950s' Hollywood; Michael Almereyda's Nadja; a Dracula's Daughter remake produced by David Lynch; and Anthony Walker's Mute Witness and Gus van Sant's 2 Die 4.

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