Prove tecniche di Blog in inglese: The War of two Festivals explained for foreigners

"Two Festivals, both alike in dignity…" or maybe not… "War is over!"… Or maybe it has just started... This time "for real". Even tough is not a soap opera and even tough the main characters are not really that attractive and seductive as screen actors and actresses, the long discussed and over glamourized religious war between Venice Film Festival and Rome Film Festival seemed to have come to a truce. But, in the deep of their hearts and pockets, politicians; cultural operators and movie critics know very well that "in the end there can be only one." And that's not for political reasons, but because of the market and - mostly - because of the structure and needs of international theatricals distribution market.
The cold war between Rome and Venice - supposedly - had come to an end last December when the Mayor of Venice Massimo Cacciari and the Mayor of Rome Walter Veltroni met in front of Cultural Minister, and vice prime minister Francesco Rutelli to reach some sort of final agreement. Since all of them belong to the same political area, it seemed quite possible to find a balance among the two Festivals.
Weeks before the meeting somebody suggested that Rome Festival could have moved to spring or early summer, also with the idea to give to tourism some sort of new boost in that period, while October and fall - in general - are already crowded times and busy for roman touristic operators Of course it was not a followable idea: the competion with Cannes made spring  an impossible choice while early july was already booked  for the newborn RomaFictionFest, a five million euro twin of RomaFilmFest, directed by former head of Venice Felice Laudadio and devoted to Tv  fiction from all over the world and to the new phenomenon of cult tv series.
In the end Rome moved a week forward (20 - 30 october 2007), while Turin Film Festival of two weeks ahead (24 november - December 2, 2007). This non fighting agreement made minister Francesco Rutelli very happy: "We breathed an excellent atmosphere." He declared "From now on I trust that the work will be in the spirit of the strongest and open collaboration. Our challenge now is offer to an international audience three months of great Italian cultural proposition in the name of the Cinema." Less enthusiast was Major Massimo Cacciari who - also as Professor of Philosophy - seemed to identify some of political and cultural balance "There will always be a form of healthy contest between the two entities." He acknowledged "But it will be very rationalised and "in order"."
At the same time Cacciari said that the works for the new Palace of Cinema at Lido are still going on and that the new structure, in the end, will cost from 80 to 100 million Euros. And here lies one of the greatest practical differences between Rome and Venice. While 'La Mostra del cinema di Venezia' has never really entered the economical heart of the industrial reality of richest Triveneto area ( Veneto, Friuli Venezia Giulia and Trentino Alto Adige), the so-called wealthy 'North East'. RomeFilmFestival immediately become very important for the industrials residing in italian Capital.
After some very economical successful experiments with the so-called "White night" with all shops, cinemas, bar, theatres open for one night in September, local entrepreneurs (even tough oriented toward Silvio Berlusconi's right positions) decided to follow the ideas of Mayor Veltroni in promoting the city trough the oxymora idea of 'cultural industry'. When former journalist and movie critic Walter Veltroni tought of a Film Festival in Rome, more than 5 million Euros from private investors rapidly piled up on his desk. In the end the budget of the Festival became around 13 million Euros with only 3 millions coming from the public funds on different title. That's also why Senator Goffredo Bettini left the presidency of Auditorium Parco Della Musica to become President of the newborn Foundation 'Cinema per Roma". "Festa del Cinema of Rome is a model for cultural industry" says Bettini "And it is autofinanced up to 80%. But in the near future - as Mayor Veltroni is asking us - the money from the public institutions must be reduced even more." This is not just because of a political model, but because Romano Prodi government was imposing new taxes and - otherwise - there would have been riots in the streets if financing had come only from government.
So while Venice Director Marco Muller struggled with Venetian hotel and restaurant manager to get a practical help and some sort of discounts, Rome Board of Directors had no problem whatsoever on booking hotels and restaurant at 'cheap prices'. The result? City of Rome tourism had a growth of 26% only in 2006 and everybody was happy.

After Sean Connery in 2006, always gorgeous even if she's in her seventies Sofia Loren was chosen to become the biggest Star of the Festival of Rome and in that occasion Mayor Veltroni declared: ""We are proud of having been capable of keeping together the quality of the offer and the love for the audiences, because moviemaking is based on the strength to show to great audiences beautiful things. In 2006 we didn't have any big problem even tough it's clear that in 2007 few things must be improved. Success has far exceeded our most optimistic expectations."
So with Mayor Veltroni happily thinking about his new Festival and - at the same time - helping friend President of Regione Lazio Piero Marrazzo giving a shot trough Laudadio's RomeFictionFest, dark clouds are gathering on the horizon of Lido.
Marco Muller mandate will finish at the end of 2007 and Director can't be reconfirmed unless a law of the state should be changed. Can Mayor Massimo Cacciari, who - actually - was never really a film enthusiast, lobby on the government to pass an act to keep the strongest defender of Venice Film Festival on his seat? Chances are few mostly because of the fact city of Venice has other problems (long contested Project Moses for stopping high water, for example) and because last December another front on the "War of the Festivals" broke out in Italy when celebrated director Nanni Moretti renounced to become head of Turin Film Festival. The refusal of Moretti was in response to President Gianni Rondolino menace to build another Film Festival in the City of Fiat if somebody would been allowed to change the cultural identity of Festival for the youth. 
Even tough - at this point - Venice seems doomed and Rome victorious, things - as always happen in the movie industry - are not like they seem. Even if Rome had so much success, not all that glitters is gold. All movies shown in Rome apart from The Departed that certainly didn't need Rome to succeed, dramatically flopped at Italian box office. The long awaited N - Napoleon by Paolo Virzì, a ten million Euros production from Italian company Cattleya, gathered less than one million Euros becoming the worst disaster involving the name of French emperor after - of course - the battle of Waterloo. Nicole Kidman's Fur and Richard Gere's The Hoax tanked at the box office, while nobody seemed really to care about the winners of the prices given by the ultra cinephile jury guided by the great Italian director Ettore Scola (Mayor Veltroni's uncle, by the way…). Even Giuseppe Tornatore's La sconosciuta failed to meet the expectations of Medusa, Silvio Berlusconi's production company who became one of the great sponsors of Rome event by providing five movies. "We must learn to use the possibilities offered by Rome Film Festival." Declared Riccardo Tozzi, president of Cattleya and of the Union of Italian Producers "We must understand to find a way to rationally release movie in theatres after the summer." While Italians "think", Americans "wait": Universal - Paramount, Buena Vista, Sony, Warner Brothers didn't give any important movie to the Festival and didn't invested very much, while Fox chose to screen there Borat (after Toronto and without Sacha Baron Cohen attending…) and small independent movie Mira Nair's The Namesake. The presence and the immediate release of so many Italian movies altogether was considered a big mess from many exhibitors and a disaster from some Studio representatives. While Via Veneto "Business Street" was a success for international operators, on the other hand the tumultuous simultaneous release of so many movies, after a dry summer, stroke the Italian market that - at the end - this failed to reach the main target of 100 million tickets sold.

Rome's fault? Obviously not, but certainly flaw of a system still not ready to exploit the great promotion of an international event and "A-level" Festival.
At the same time, only few weeks before Venice showcased many big and medium successes because of its credibility and of the trust of American majors that - even tough are tired of paying so much money for launching a movie at the higly expensive Lido Hotels and facilities - are confident in Marco Muller and his team's choices. In the last years Oscar editions were - in a way - in great part 'previewed' in Venice with movies such as Brokeback Mountain (discarded from Cannes…) and The Constant Gardner or Good Night and Good Luck. Also this year Stephen Frears' The Queen seemed to greatly benefit from Venice Festival with the Coppa Volpi award for Helen Mirren performance. In reality Italian movies after Venice Festival, quite often even before Rome was conceived, slaughtered one the other, because with the lack of an Italian summer season (usually national movies stop to be distributed domestic immediately before Cannes…) the Italian theatrical market had benefit only of nine / ten months release period.
Fact is that the pond of movies where the two festival fish is the same and war is - in many ways - inevitable. Mostly because Rome can pay private planes for bigger stars, while Venice can't afford to. So, even tough Fur has gained at Italian box office much less than the legendary Nicole Kidman private plane from Australia who even the ancient roman forum have heard it costed around 500.000 Euros, everybody knows that the second edition is always tougher than the first one, because it must meet higher expectations. In the end, the ongoing war, between Rome and Venice won't be decided in Italy nor even in Europe. If Hollywood Studios will all agree to support a less expensive - from their point of view - event, Venice will always survive but in form of mere showcase of art movies. The same that struggle so hard nowadays to find a place in theatres and on the shelves of Dvd multistores.
At the same time if Rome won't be able to sustain the incoming steer attack of agents and talents all claiming exclusive treatments for them and their clients and friends, the fruit of the vision of Mayor Veltroni can become in the future something less ambitious when his 'creator' probably will be designed as next Italian prime minister for Left coalition. Of course there's a 'third way' possible: a pacific and cooperative coexistence of the two Festivals for the next years to come. But this is never happened all over the world  and - in spite of Mr.Rutelli's wishes - might not happen in Italy too…