White paper on creativity - ebla center

Chapter 7In the last few years Italian cinema hasmade a last-ditch recovery which wasunexpected even by the mostoptimistic forecasts. At times (forexample February 2007) Italianfilmgoers saw more Italian films(49.9%) than US films (41.7%) and thisis particularly significant because it hadalready occurred twice in 2006 (inMarch and December) and once inOctober 2005; the previous time onlybeing January 1997. But this is not onlya feature of the Italian scene, since inneighbouring France, domestic films’share in the first four months of 2007was 55% thus beating the UScompetition (in 2006 the overall sharefor French films was 50%). Thisphenomenon may also be due,however, to less attractive Americanproducts in recent months.7.2 A change in businessmodelThe trend in the last two years suggeststhat something different is happening,that some strong ideas are beingconsolidated and a solid base isgrowing. But it is also a warning for theprofessions involved that the time hascome for new projects. If Italiancinema is to return to the creative roleit played in the 1960s and 70s, there is aneed for greater discussion on whatcultural form it will take in three or fiveyears’ time, in a much different worldfrom that of today. To do so, we mustbear in mind three elements, which wecan add to the factors mentionedabove.1. Firstly, a return to the policy ofsubsidised Italian films is no longerconceivable. The age of the state “cashdispenser” has definitely ended and thecriteria for ministerial incentives havenow been greatly reformed. The Italianfilm industry must stand on its ownfeet and accept a healthy managerialand entrepreneurial logic.2. The film business has, however,become much more complexcompared even to the late 1990s.Traditional cinemas have seen thenumber of competitors rise in the formof pay-TV, Internet downloads andnow also mobile telephones. On theother hand, contemporary filmconsumption is increasingly focused ona few films attracting mass audiencesand generating large proceeds, whilethe vast majority of films is practicallyignored by the public. On this scene,the traditional quality Italian film iscrushed by distributors increasinglyforced to bow to the practice ofdistributing hundreds of printssimultaneously for the openingweekend. At the same time qualityItalian films have been neglected bytelevision and therefore pushed to thesidelines of the country’s cultural life.3. Given the increasinglyfragmented nature of consumption, onone hand, but a growing trend toconcentrate on a few products, on theother, there is only one possibleanswer: identify the ingredients forsuccess, but correlate them to thedifferent possible consumer formatsand therefore attempt to vary as muchas possible the portfolio of productsoffered in cinemas and post-cinema(and in some cases also parallel toWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 161