Reykjavík Grapevine - 09.09.2011, Blaðsíða 28

28
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 14 — 2011
"Social disease and a new energy
coming from a new generation is
quite visible in the films I've seen,
but cinema continues to be have
a avant-garde view of the new so-
ciety we'll have to face. In a sense
you can discover the roots of the
crisis and the new hope of the Arab
Spring in the films we have seen in
the last two years. Documentar-
ians are now ready to show us what
happened and what will happen;
fictional movies will use reality to
help us understand more," says Gir-
gio Gosetti when asked about the
way films have changed along with
a changed world.
The films Giorgio is talking about have
not always been seen by the masses.
This is because Giorgio is a festival
director and organiser, and thus views
some 800 films each year. Giorgio Gos-
etti also happens to be the new pro-
gramme director of RIFF, the Reykjavík
International Film Festival. Welcome to
RIFF, Giorgio!
RIFF’s new programme director
grew up in Venice, home to Italy's big-
gest film festival, and that's the festival
he's at when we contact him. "I moved
to Rome under the pretext of study-
ing at the university; but the real goal
was to discover the film community and
find a way to be part of it. Like anyone,
I dreamt of being an artist—in my case
a screenwriter—but I got the chance to
prove myself as a reporter and I thought
it was the best way to get in contact
with filmmakers and producers. But
then I discovered how important is to
know the cinema system in depth, and
also discovered a certain talent in or-
ganising events and in programme fes-
tivals."
AN OLD-SCHOOL SALESMAN
But what is the job of the film festival
programmer like? "A festival program-
mer is like an old-school salesman, he's
always ready with his luggage, always
moving from a market to another, look-
ing for rumours, screenings and meet-
ings. Every one of us sees at least 800
films over the year, in order to be up
to date. You receive suggestions and
DVDs, but you have to fight to make
sure your favourite films get shown.
You need to gain the trust of the film-
makers and everyone involved."
But how can we, the audience, trust
Giorgio’s tastes? The simplest way to
gauge that is to ask him about his fa-
vourite films. "I can mention three films
by three directors close to my heart:
‘Barry Lindon’ by Stanley Kubrick, ‘Il
conformista’ by Bernardo Bertolucci
and ‘Le Havre’ by Aki Kaurismaki," he
says and adds the names of directors
such as Sergio Leone, Ingmar Bergman
and John Cassavetes to the mix.

I ask him how the Venice festival is
shaping up. He says it's too early to
judge; the best films often come near
the end, yet the films so far have been
good. "Everyone was impressed by the
quality of George Clooney's ‘The Ides Of
March,’ and the emotions raised by the
French film ‘All Our Desires’ (‘Toutes
nos envies’), but I could also mention
films like ‘Historias’ by Julia Murat,
‘Twilight Portrait’ by Angelina Nikonova
and the Argentinean ‘El campo.’
‘VOLCANO’ AND THE THIRD OLSEN
SISTER
At RIFF, Giorgio is in charge of New Vi-
sions, the festival’s main category (it
focuses on directors making their first
or second feature film). And for the first
time, there's an Icelandic film compet-
ing: Rúnar Rúnarsson's ‘Volcano.’ "I
saw ‘Volcano’ in Cannes and was really
impressed: he's a visionary in describ-
ing emotions and characters. I think he
will be a prominent personality in Euro-
pean cinema and we are proud to host
him in the New Visions' programme."
The beauty of film festivals is often
the unknown, even the buffest of film
buffs will be unfamiliar with most of the
films in the New Visions category—the
exceptions being ‘Volcano’ and ‘Mar-
tha Marcy May Marlene,’ which already
made waves at Cannes and Sundance,
and seems to be making a star out of its
leading lady Elizabeth Olsen (a younger
sibling of the Olsen twins, fancy that!).
But the trouble is that many of them
are destined to remain ‘festival films,’
films seen only at festivals—and if you
miss one of the three screening RIFF
offers, there often won’t be a chance
to view them later. Acquiring a DVD or
illegally downloading them might even
prove bothersome.
So what is the best way forward
to make sure people have better op-
portunities in seeing independent and
non-English speaking films? "This is
the crucial question in the distribution
all around Europe—and in the U.S. it is
even worse,” says Giorgio. “Festivals
are responsible for offering an almost
unique chance to many very talented
filmmakers who are sometimes totally
unknown by the larger audience. I think
that in the future, the digital system will
offer a very different landscape and
could be a major chance for art cinema.
But the risk is that it will transform cin-
ema into a very personal platform, in
which you are pretty alone facing your
choices, and cinema must be a collec-
tive experience, not just an extra click
on the web. But just like with every
revolution, you can't really imagine the
consequences right now. Somewhere
along the way, we'll have to take stock
and shape the changes of the future."
Films | RIFF
From Venice to Reykjavik
We speak to RIFF programming director Giorgio Gosetti
and check out some coming attractions...
“But how can we, the audience, trust Giorgio’s tastes?
The simplest way to gauge that is to ask him about his
favourite films.”
One thing that's kind of troubling about RIFF is that one
isn't really allotted a lot of time to actually see all those
great films. Goddamnit.
Words
Ásgeir H. Ingólfsson
Photo
Halldór Kolbeinsson
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