IFFI Bulletin - 21 nd November - International Film Festival of India

02
IFFI | November 21, 2012
Acclaimed award winning
Polish filmmaker
Krzysztof Zanussi,
who received the Lifetime
Achievement Award at the
ongoing festival, said censorship
is a glooal phenomenon and
filmmakers had to contend with
this all over the world.
He referred to the
commercial Indian cinema as
Bollywood which he said was a
contemporary expression of the
lowest common denominator in
this country but could not be the
main vision. However, he said
‘we must be respectful even if it's
not satisfactory to one's personal
tastes."
Both commercial cinema
and censorship, he said, must be
negotiated with judicious reason.
In the case of Bollywood,, the
objective should be to ameliorate
the industry with intelligent
films much in the manner of
filmmakers like Satyajit Ray
"whose films were seen only
by a narrow,but
not insignificant
audience.”
Referring to
censorship, he said it was an ugly
modus operandi harshly wielded
by police states ‘ostensibly to
improve our lives’ in contrast
to democratic nations which do
SCREENING SCHEDULE
21st November 2012
MORE THAN BEAUTY, ART MUST PROMOTE
WISDOM: KRZYSZTOF ZANUSSI
PRESS CONFERENCE
IFFI Director Shankar Mohan with Polish Film Maker Krzysztof Zanussi.
the same in far more humane
ways. “The Internet may build a
completely new
society or it may
even destroy
us, so the big
challenge is to strike a balance."
Zanussi was even-handed in
his opinion of Bollywood, which
he commended for "being faithful
to the Indian aesthetics,mentality
and narrative traditions’ unlike
China which reminded him of
world cinema and did not have
a strong identity unlike Indian
cinema.
Moonlighting as actor in
films and theatre, the film-maker
who “teaches a lot” was live with
self-deprecating humour: “I am
delighted to see so many of you
here I must take your picture to
show my wife."
"Some people think they
should die after receiving a top
award. I'm afraid I can't promise
this, my best film is ahead of me",
said this filmmaker best known
for Camouflage, Family Life,
The Silent Touch, The Contract,
Revisited and Ilumination,
which is being screened here.
" I discovered physics never
loved me so I moved somewhere
else,” he said, in response to a
query on his choice of academics
and career graph. “People with a
humanistic background delude
themselves they know the world
can be explained; that life is a
chaotic and bereft of sense -
Shakespeare put that very well
- but I feel life is a mystery and
I try to make some sense of life,
He visited India for the first time
in 1975.
Talking about the raison
d'etre of cinema, the Polish
Master said "art must promote
beauty but wisdom is above
beauty. I like to think wisdom
is what makes my films more
balanced but this is not always
appreciated by the public.”
Equally candid about Polish
cinema, he observed,"If I say I
am happy with Polish cinema,
it would be a sign of stagnation.
It is not as recognised now as it
was 30 years ago when we were
involved in political struggles.
Today, we have three times
more students than under the
Communist regime; today,
young filmmakers have to cope
with new tragedies and new
injustices. Then, we criticised
the system, now we criticise
ourselves.”
by Ronita Torcato