Berlusconi's man threatens to pick Venice judges next year

According to an interview in the Italian magazine Panorama, Silvio Berlusconi’s government is threatening to step in and choose next year’s jury at the Venice Film Festival.

The remarks from the Italian culture minister Sandro Bondi come after the 67th Film Festival, which saw judges failing to award any of the big prizes to Italian filmmakers. Bondi launched an attack on the jury President Quentin Tarantino, calling the awards, “the expression of an elitist, relativist and snobbish culture.” He continued, saying that the filmmaker “pays no attention to the sentiment and the tastes of the people and of traditions, which are now considered unsophisticated and outdated. And that vision influences his critical judgement of films, including foreign films.”

This is not the first time that that 51-year-old culture minister has become enraged when his ideals of party loyalty have been challenged by independent cinema. He turned down the opportunity to attend Cannes Film Festival earlier in the year when it was announced that the documentary Draquila, which criticised Berlusconi’s handling of the relief effort after last year’s earthquake in Abruzzo, would be screened. (You can read our review of Draquila here.)

It must be a change of pace for Tarantino to be accused of cultural snobbery. In fact, the majority of the winning films were at the more accessible end of the Venice line-up. If any charge should stick, it’s one of nepotism, as of the nine big prizes, he gave four to close friends. His ex-girlfriend Sofia Coppola took home the Golden Lion for Somewhere, his friend Alex de la Iglesia won best director and best screenplay for A Sad Trumpet Ballad and Tarantino created a new award, The Special Lion, to honour his friend and fellow director Monte Hellman, who was one of the producers on Reservoir Dogs. Two of the three acting awards (Best Actor, and Best Young Performer) also went to Americans. Still, no one should be surprised that when you put Tarantino in charge of a jury, he’s going to reward Tarantino-like films, and films Tarantino likes.

Nonetheless, Bondi’s disturbingly over-the-top comments have already attracted criticism in his home country for the suggestion that government should control any aspect of independent cinema. It’s particularly worrying given the long shadow of political censorship and propaganda of Mussolini’s government, which arguably smoothed the way for Berlusconi's current control over news and entertainment media at home. The Italian government contributed €7 million of the festival’s €12 million budget this year. I suppose it sounds reasonable to the culture minister that for that kind of funding, you should be able to ensure a few home-grown winners. 

Bondi’s interview with Panorama was quoted in a news article in The Guardian.

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