MATT'S EDITORIAL 12/9/2014 - From Venice to Venice
Another late editorial, but I don’t want to drop the habit, so here it is!
I am just back from the 71st edition of the Venice Film Festival, which kept me incredibly busy but the works was very rewarding. I was at last year’s Venice Film Festival, as part of the 28 Times Cinema programme, which for people who do not know is a programme promoted by the European Parliament that seeks to bring a young cinephile from each of the European Union countries to the Venice Film Festival each year. It was around this time last year that I decided to give the film festival world a fair go, gathered my money together and started globe trotting – or Europe trotting for now. Like I always say, it was this time last year that I started my journey chasing that celluloid dream, catching that butterfly.
Venice kept me incredibly busy, but the fact that I went there last year means that I was able to make a fair comparison between the two edition. It didn’t take a genius to notice some major differences in the outlook of the festival. Italy is in the midst of an economic crisis, so the festival as a result did not enjoy a lot of the embellishments it could afford last year. This was true right down to the little things, such as the lack of free coffee in the press room. But what hurt it the most was the expense of the essentials, like food and water, on the Lido, which for those who do not know is the small island off the Venetian coast where the festival takes place each year.
Nevertheless, the selection was much more impressive. Having been to Berlin and Cannes as well, the other two festivals with which Venice contends the title for most important festival in the world, I can say that either I was luckier with my viewing choices this year, or that it was just a matter of Venice having had a better selection than the other two major festivals. From a personal point of view, Venice will always hold a rather big importance for me as it signalled a change in lifestyle that led to travels, excitement, tiredness and sometimes even loneliness – always fuelled by my passion for films and cinema in general.
In many ways, it was a key stepping stone. A vital landmark in my life story, and as things got tougher and I felt more alone than ever, as I suffered incredible sudden heartbreaks at times of great vulnerability, I became infatuated with meeting new people, sharing new adventures and becoming more keen on saying yes even in the times when in the past I would have said no. In this sense, I guess, I am no different from the vast majority of people attending film festivals in rotation – you realise that it becomes a big, large travelling community with great passions, fears, concerns and mostly great humanity.
Last week, in my editorial, I spoke about how Sarajevo had so well represented with great romanticism how cinema has such a great power and could play such a great role in bringing people who just the other day hated each other together – or together again. So, I am going to wrap up my trail of thoughts by saying that even though this year the Venice Film Festival showed all the signs of a film festival of a country in recession, the fact that it was still there, and the fact that it remains so relevant to this day after its 71 years of existence is cause of great pride for all the film community and for all who hold the matter of relevance of cinema in today’s world very dearly and closely to their hearts.
Will I go onto another year of film festival travels? Who knows where the time goes.