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Time to imagine
DEEPA KURUP
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Cinema has been reduced to a mere source of entertainment, laments Italian director Stefano Odoardi
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Photo: murali kumar k.
IMPACTFUL IMAGINATION Stefano Odoardi: ‘There is no art where there is no imagination’
An artist who relinquished the brush to embrace the more dynamic world of motion pictures finds that market-driven distributors have reduced the object of his passion — cinema — into a mere source of entertainment. Through the course of t
his interview, Italian film director Stefano Odoardi, whose movie “A White Ballad” (Una Ballata Bianca) was screened at the Bangalore International Film Festival, interrupts several times to correct the usage of the word cinema.
“I do not call it cinema because cinema has grown to represent commercial films that have destroyed the spirit of film making. Film as an art is what we are here to discuss,” he points out assertively.
His eyes light up with passion as he talks about his work. He dismisses those who claim to not be concerned with an audience, and are content with simply making movies. “I definitely want and seek an audience. My work is nothing if it fails to communicate with others…it is part of my purpose,” he says. He blames the current situation on insensitive distributors who he says “underestimate the intellect of the audience”.
His film was scheduled to be screened for a week in Holland, but ran to packed houses for seven weeks. “People want to see quality cinema and I still have faith in my audience.” Though he works in Italy, he spends a substantial amount of time in Holland, where he finds a better support system.
Hailing from the land of maestros like Michelangelo Antonioni and Federico Fellini, Odoardi says that he grew up on a strong diet of “good, beautiful and imaginative” cinema. He waves his hands in the air as he speaks about imagination and the pivotal role it plays in the creation of a movie. “There is no art where there is no imagination. Telling a story is like reporting the news…it is not a film,” he says. “A White Ballad” is practically without dialogue and the plot is non-linear.
“The purpose is not to narrate some sequence of events; it should make the audience reflect. A plot will take you into the story, but may not give you the space to reflect.”
With talented actors using art films as a launch pad into commercial films, and television taking over our attention spans, Odoardi points out that it is an immense battle for the few proponents of art films. It is with a great sense of irreverence that he discusses the concept and trend of digital films. It can never live up to the good old film and there is no challenge in working in a highly technical medium, he says.
His movie is a beautiful portrait of an old couple’s last night together, lost and found in the realisation of her impending death. Odoardi says that through the interactions of the old couple he dwells upon death to talk about life, adding that he does not like to define anything, be it his work or his outlook on life.
His movie, the concept for which was sparked by a conversation with a shoe-maker, is more about symbols and gestures, which, much like his abstract paintings, (that have been replaced by sketches owing to his busy schedule) can convey a thousand words. In the ‘white ballad’of life and death that he has created, words are isolated gestures and the dialogue is only introspective. Without speaking a word to each other, they convey and go over the lost conversations of an entire lifetime. When asked about the long silences, he explains that it helps create the space for communication at another level altogether.
Odoardi says that he is here to stay. He wants to continue making the films that he believes in, and is confident that he will find the audience for it. “Things are already changing in Europe. People are bound to rise against the diktats of commercial cinema.”His next venture will be a more pessimistic one — the story of a boy who grows up with the reality of war — but the bottom line will be a message of hope and love. “Those are the values I believe in, and I know they are the most basic and universal of all emotions.”
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Friday Review
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
|
