For the first time, the Italian Film Cycle was in Buenos Aires, offering the most recent Italian feature films. The cycle was organized with the help of Instituto Luce Cinecittá, the Italian Embassy in Buenos Aires, the Italian Institute of Culture in Buenos Aires, the Italian Agency of Foreign Exchange and the National Institute of Cinema an Audiovisual Arts.
Paolo Zucca, the director of “The Referee”, talked to the Buenos Aires Film Commission’s staff about the experience of the co production and Buenos Aires itself.
First of all, welcome. Is it your first time in Buenos Aires? What do you think about the city?
Yes, it’s my first time here. I’ve seen a little of it: la Boca. We’ve been walking a little bit. It has something of Paris in it. We even went to a library that was once a theatre, the Gran Splendid. It’s a very beautiful city.
How did this project fit for a co production?
The film had a connection with the city because one of the characters goes to Argentina and goes back to Italy. Also, there is some tango in the movie´s soundtrack. But the real reason was that Amadeo, my producer, is a very close friend of Daniel Burman and when Amadeo called Daniel to know if he was interested, he jumped in.
Did you feel that the work between both countries was easy?
The production started in Italy and Argentina appeared almost at the end of it. We worked together in the post production and there was no trouble because we all spoke in English.
Which public policies do you find vital for the industry?
The idea that I have, and that is shared by many people in the movie business, is that the best legislation is the French one. In that legislation every commercialization window pays taxes that will help to conform a fund to produce a film later.
The national fund that we have nowadays is not that important but it helps. It works with a reference system in which if you won awards or made a good film, it is more value.
Besides funds, which other ways to encourage the activity can you think of?
Film Italia has a distribution help that is very useful. They support international distribution companies who deal with Italian films. It is a key part of the success of the movie, so I think it’s a very good thing to do.
