THE Cine Europa, a festival of films from different European countries, has turned 20. It has attracted many audiences and already has a following in Metro Manila and other parts of the country. For many years, as with other art festivals organized, Cine Europa has stayed in Metro Manila before it branched out into pocket festivals in selected areas in the Visayas and Mindanao. This year Cine Europa is going to be brought to Naga City in Bikol, with Ateneo de Naga as host.
The Ateneo de Naga acknowledges one person, His Excellency Yaroslav Olsa, the Czech ambassador to the Philippines, for linking the Ateneo de Naga community to the people behind the Cine Europa. Olsa is considered already by Ateneo de Naga and many Bikolanos as a friend, having gone to the city several times.
The first time, Olsa got interested in an endeavor which was the translation of Franz Kafkas’s Metamorphosis into the Bikol language, a project done by Kristian Sendon Cordero, prize-winning poet, translator and filmmaker. The good ambassador had also donated millions of pesos through the university to help selected communities affected by several typhoons that hit the region.
The Ateneo de Naga joins other prestigious universities in the Visayas and Mindanao in hosting this grand film concourse.
Cine Europa has built considerable fame in the country because it’s one legitimate source of new compelling cinemas from Europe. The notion of national cinema can be traced back to the period in the 1950s and 196os when European artists reacted to the massive Hollywood machinery. Considered by film scholars as basically and “inescapably inter-national”, cinema assumed essential cultural qualities because of European filmmakers.
When one talks therefore of films from Europe, one can think of films that are labeled as “cinema”, of films that are not merely entertaining but also intellectual enterprises. Think of filmmakers like Claude Chabrol, FrancoisTruffaut for France; Fellini, de Sica and Pasolini for Italy; Werner Herzog, Rainer Fassbinder for Germany; Ingmar Bergman for Sweden, and many other directors who still stand as introduction and foundation for film studies in the 1970s and even up to the present.
In the Cine Europa Naga edition, there are many new films that are expected to update Bikolano enthusiasts about films from Europe.
There are, however, classics to remind or even initiate audiences to the breathtaking collection of films available in Europe.
The classics that share centerstage in the Naga Cine Europa include Babette’s Feast; Run, Lola, Run and Jules et Jim.
Babette’s Feast is a film from Denmark directed by Gabriel Axel. The film tells the story of two aging single women who remain unmarried because their father never liked any of their suitors. The pastor leads a congregation that’s raised to be circumspect and live a frugal, austere life. When the pastor dies, two of his daughters are left to fend for themselves when men who were once interested in them are already gone.
One day a woman comes to apply as a servant for free. This woman is Babette, who will win in a lottery and spend all her winnings on a banquet for the two sisters and the entire village. The feast awakens the place and challenges the austerity of its inhabitants
The 1987 film Babette’s Feast would participate in a section called “Un Certain Regard” in Cannes. It would also win the Best Foreign Language Film in the Oscars. Babette’s Feast is based on the story by Isak Danisen, the famous Danish writer.
Another classic comes from Germany: Run, Lola, Run, an action thriller where Lola is shown running three times from a similar starting point. Each run has a different trajectory and a different conclusion.
Made in 1998, Run, Lola, Run is directed by Tom Tykwer, who also directed Perfume: The Story of a Murderer. The film stars Franka Potente, who would move on to Hollywood and star in two Bourne films.
The oldest film in the Cine Europa lineup is the 1962 film, which is considered by critics as one of the top films in the world. It is directed by Francois Truffaut, who belonged to the French “La Nouvelle Vague”, or French New Wave. The movement was interested in social issues and moved away from cinemas based on literary pieces.
Jules et Jim tells the story of two friends and the woman who lived between them and baffled them for her free spirit. This woman is Catherine, who leaves Jules at some point. Jules is so anxious that Catherine might leave him again and never come back He asks Jim to get Catherine, be her lover, so at least he, Jules, could still see Catherine, his former wife
Jeanne Moreau, who plays Catherine, is regarded as one of the top film actresses of the western world. Moreau recently passed on
To sort of pay tribute to Ambassador Olsa’s significant role in the staging of Cine Europe, the Naga edition opens today, September 28, with the Czech film The Angel of the Lord. The film tells the story of an angel who destroys whatever he touches. He is punished and sent down to Earth. This angel is so naïve he thinks the devil is his friend.
The festival will have its closing ceremonies with the ambassadors of the European Union and the Netherlands in attendance.
With 20 years behind it, Cine Europa fulfills the soft and easy aspect of diplomacy for certain countries in Europe. The gathering is seen, as well as re-introducing, the Old World through the technologies of film and filmmaking.
Philippine cinema, if years of existence are to be counted, is an old person now. It is not as old as the civilization and cinematic arts of Europe, but it’s one industry that deserves reckoning.
Through the initiative of Liza Diño, the Film Development Council of the Philippines is organizing with other institutions like the Executive Committee on Cinema of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), a centennial commission. There are processes being prepared for this body to be created. There are, however, already big projects that are being done and consolidated under the aegis of the centennial celebration. “Sandaan”, or “One-Hundred Years”, was one of such initiative. The activity was led by the University of the Philippines Film Institute, which works with other institutions like the NCCA and other bodies.
The event was a conference held in two sites, one after the other. The first day was held at UP; the second day of the conference was brought to the College of Saint Benilde’s School of Design and the Arts. A commission to lead the celebration will soon be put up. More events are being cooked up, some being extended to other places. Recognizing how Manila has always imposed itself on cineastes, the commission sees itself as helping and coordinating the film fora and conferences that are already being planned for selected sites in Metro Manila. Stand-alone cinemas are making a comeback, a development that seems to augur well for the hundred years of Philippine cinema. Even as cultural nostalgia is fueling the passion and energy of those behind the commission, the celebration should not be confined to history but to an assessment of what happened to the industry after a century. Indeed, where are we, what are we and where are we going after 100 years?