Brussels, 15/11/2002 (Agence Europe) - As announced by Commissioner Viviane Reding at the film festival in Viareggio in September, Europe will celebrate its cinema tradition with Cined@ys which will be held for the first time and under the sponsorship of the director, Pedro Almodovar, from 15 to 24 November (see EUROPE of 19 September, p.18). This Week of Cinema marks the renewal of the European cinematographic creation, with films that circulate best, international successes and a young generation of talented directors, as well as national systems for helping cinema to which "Commissioner Monti and myself have given more legal security", Viviane Reding said during a joint press conference with producers Volker Schlöndorf, Luc Dardenne and Frédéric Fonteyne ("Une Liaison Pornographique" - EU media prize 2001). During the Cined@ays, in 24 countries of Europe and 200 towns, the cinemas and the European Cinemas network are organising a special programme, with projections of films often accompanied by comments from those in the film industry, mainly intended for young people who "must be made more aware of the cinematographic heritage of Europe and who should be made to want to discover the cinema of their neighbours", Ms Reding said. We also recall that the traditional Netd@ys Europe, which connects 30,000 schools via the Internet, are this year devoted to the cinema and to image education.
Viviane Reding said she wanted to surround herself with people who are talented in cinema. She said many more people today should be encouraged to go to the cinema, and that this is the aim of Cined@ys, which will celebrate the growing success of European cinema in Europe and throughout the world. She recognised that American films remain dominant on our markets for the good reason that they invest a tremendous amount in promotion and advertising, everywhere at the same time. Ms Reding nonetheless specified that she has never campaigned against American cinema, but always in favour of European cinema.
Welcoming this initiative, Volker Schlöndorf felt it was "fantastic to allow European films to be discovered in schools, as they are part of our cultural heritage". He said the classics must be discovered as they are part of our lives "like music or the paintings of Van Gogh". In his view, "unless we fight against American colonisation, we shall lose our own images, our own vision of the world". He went on to state: "What we reject is the fact that our consciousness is being monopolised. What we need is to cultivate cultural diversity within Europe". Citing the director of the library in Algiers, Frédéric Fonteyn declared that "if a young child sees a beautiful film, he will never be a terrorist. I believe that the function of culture and cinema is to make us human". Luc Dardenne considers that "culture is what allows one human being to educate another - it is a question of transmission". In his view, also, "the art of the cinema is part of our culture like books. Pictures are sister to words, scenes and sequences sister to phrases. Today, it is important because we are swimming in an ocean of stereotype televisual images, and the cinemas are treasure islands in this ocean".
A note from the Commission spokesperson stresses that: - in 2000, 604 new long films were produced in the EU (170 in France, 100 in Italy, 100 in Spain, 75 in Germany) compared to 760 in the United States. The average budget of a film in the EU is EUR 5 million as opposed to 50 million in the United States.