White paper on creativity - ebla center

Chapter 7Chapter 7Film7.1 Italian cinema: apromising resurgenceThe starting point of this chapter is thecurrent state of the Italian filmindustry. Having marked a return togrowth at the turn of the 21st century,Italian cinema has enjoyed aparticularly brilliant period in the lasttwo years. This resurgence has evensuggested a full-blown renaissance maybe underway and many causal elementsshow that the growth is not simply anunexpected positive trend. What iskeeping the Italian flag flying high isnot only commercial films or films foryoung audiences. Middle-brow and artfilms (such as La cena per farli conoscere,Lezioni di volo, Uno su due, Centochiodi,Mio fratello è figlio unico, Saturno contro,Giorni e nuvole, La ragazza del lago,Milano-Palermo –il ritorno) have alsocontributed to the overall success,which in some weeks saw Italian filmstake a share of over 40% of nationalbox office sales.In 2007, there were 120 million cinemaadmissions, a return to the kind offigures for 1986, and Italian films droveadmissions up by 12% on 2006. In thefirst two months of 2008, the marketshare of Italian films was 36.3%, whichis much higher than the figure ofaround 32% for the whole of 2007.But how can we explain the success ofItalian films over the past few years?And why have filmgoers shown greaterinterest in the seventh art, usuallyleaving cinemas well-satisfied with whatthey have seen? Here we will try tosupply some answers to these questionsby presenting the principal factors inthe growth.1. The emergence of a newgeneration of producers. After theprevious generation’s long period of“subsidised” survival and shaky, halfheartedentrepreneurship, producersare showing a greater sensibilitytowards the complex challenge ofreconciling artistic products with themarket.2. The generational turnover of thecommunity of artists (film directorsand screenwriters) has led to a newfocus on narrative: less intellectual,more open-ended stories, inspired bygenres favoured by Italian audiencesand anything but self-referential, areattracting much wider sections of thepublic.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 159