Radmila Djurica's blog

Another exclusive guest coming from France on FEST2011 is indeed writer and author of a book about Stanley Kubrick  and Editor of the most exclusive French film magazine ever “Le Positif”, a film critic, Michel Ciment. Ciment held a Master Class, moderated by the black wave old Yugoslav film Dušan Makavejev on the festival, because Ciment (as many others) is truly nostalgic for the times of the big Yugoslav cinema. And for those who do not know, Pavlovic, Djordjevic and Makavejev of the Yugoslav film were heavily acclaimed by the French magazine “Le Positif”, at the time.

Ciment has been writing about film for fifty years now and collaborated with many filmmakers. The participants of his Master Class had the unique chance to hear about the most prominent names of French Cinema and to engage themselves in a insightful informative conversation relating French film in general, as the Ciment being the key witness of the history of film. As for French production today, according to Ciment, French productions today managed to avoid trend of plummeting of the quality of films presented in most European countries. France every year make 230 films, which means that at least couple of films made every year, must be very good representative for a French Cinema today.

Of course, Ciment answered questions important to all film critics presented about other cinematography and the future of film, “the map of world film is today much more diverse than 50 years ago. Back then, there were a couple of Japanese and Indian authors and that was it. The rest of Asia was, film wise, uncharted territory. Today you have great films from China, Hong Kong, Korea and Japan. However, there are no incentives for making innovative films, because of the conditions of financing. European television stations want strictly formatted films intended for the general public and in such a situation there is almost no possibility for innovation. I have recently had a meeting with the executives of the Arte television that refused to make a film, since, in their words, the commission wasn’t able to envision how this film would look like after reading the script. It is impossible to imagine that someone would say something that stupid fifty years ago. After that I asked the Director of Arte if, after reading the script of the film “Hiroshima, my Love” he would have been able to imagine the film itself,"stressed out Ciment.

 One of the most interesting messages that Cimont gave on Master Class was advice to a young authors today, where he mentioned German aesthetician who said that there is a double solution for young film directors today and that is "to remain old maids or to become whores. The old maids make films for the critics and festivals, while the whores make film for an imagined audience of millions of people. If you are non-stop chasing the audience, you will ultimately only see your bottom”.