Turin Dispatch.

What were two Englishman, a Scot and an Irishman doing talking to a bunch of Italians about British movies in the Circolo dei Lettori (Circle of Readers), an ornate ante-room in the Graneri della Roccia Palace in Turin, a significant example of Piedmontese Baroque? Sitting rather awkwardly on the delicately-carved chairs and being stared at disapprovingly by marble bas-relief statues adorning the walls, were producer Kenith Trodd, directors Bill Forsyth and Pat O'Connor and ex-Python Michael Palin.

This was the impressive setting for a press conference held during the prestigious Turin Film Festival* which was presenting 37 features and five short films made in the UK, mostly in the 1980s, during the imperious rule of Margaret Thatcher. This retrospective of films, curated by Emanuela Martini, was called, rather grandiloquently, the British Renaissance, and the four guests, who played a significant part in that era, seemed pleasantly surprised to find themselves referred to as "Renaissance Men."

"I wasn't aware of the definition 'British Renaissance.' I discovered it while looking through the Festival's programme," Bill Forsyth remarked rather disarmingly. "Personally, in that precise historical moment, I wasn't aware of the fact that I belonged to a movement," said Kenith Trodd. "Hearing about it now almost flatters me, but back then we had no idea."

Whether they were part of a movement or not, they all agreed with Michael Palin that "there was an extraordinary sense of creative freedom; we knew we needed to do something as an alternative to the political climate in which we lived... There's a factor that brings together all the directors of the 80s: a deep hatred towards Mrs Thatcher." According to Pat O'Connor, "Everyone despised her: she had drastically cut the budget dedicated to the cinema, aside from having created severe problems that made us all plunge into anger and frustration as if we had been struck by a catastrophe. This pushed us to make movies, which later turned out rather interesting."

In fact, although the films obviously differed in subject and style, there emerged, after the lean period of British cinema in the 70s, a new invigorating activity, small and middle-scale productions, a cinema made of social and cultural clashes, very national yet paradoxically international, a cinema that reignited the attention of film critics and the public worldwide. And the public's enthusiasm for the British films of that era has not waned, if one can judge from the reaction of the young audiences in Turin.

Included in the retrospective were four TV plays by Dennis Potter - Brimstone and Treacle (1976), Pennies From Heaven (1978), Dreamchild (1985) and The Singing Detective (1986) - which proved an exciting revelation to the foreign audiences. However, almost every European film fan seems pretty cognizant of Monty Python, and the screening of Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, introduced by Palin, was packed to the rafters. (I keep meeting Germans and Scandinavians who seem to know every episode of the TV series by heart.)

Also shown was the rarely-seen Terence Davies Trilogy, his three short debut films which already deal with the director's constant obsessions - family, religion and sexuality - fully developed in his subsequent work such as in his latest, imposing but rather portentous, Of Time and the City, shown in Turin outside competition. What the non-British public make of references to Alma Cogan, Round the Horne and Hovis, is anybody's guess.

There seemed no problem getting the Britishness of Derek Jarman's Jubilee, Bruce Robinson's Withnail and I or Stephen Frears's My Beautiful Launderette. Frears once commented on the time of the "British Renaissance": "We were making anti-Thatcher movies, paid for by Mrs Thatcher. I remember thinking, that, in a certain way, we were true models of Thatcherism. We would be working hard in scarcities and economies, and we would transform ourselves into export products. But she never liked us; what she wanted were variety shows and game shows."

According to Palin, "Making a movie like The Meaning of Life wouldn't be possible today. A lot has changed: the spirit, the contents, the perspectives, the filmmakers' and the viewers' desires. There really isn't anything that could be developed in such a way, because no-one's interested in it anymore. Of course, a good laugh is always needed, even though the industry is full of idiots today." The pattern of the Italian Renaissance being followed by a period of decadence, has been repeated in British cinema.

*The 26th Turin Film Festival kicked off its second year under the direction of Nanni Moretti, perhaps the most well-known of all festival directors. He was also extremely accessible and visible throughout the festival, giving press conferences and introducing all the films in competition. And he got all the films to start on time! Whether coincidental or not, many of the competition films carried the theme of loss within a family, echoing The Son's Room, Moretti's 2001 Palme d'Or winner. Being mostly first films by young directors - a long-term policy of the festival - the quality was variable. However, of the 15 films in competition, there were only five that could be considered really mediocre. The Fipresci jury, of which I was a part, chose Tony Manero by Pablo Larrain (Chile-Brazil, 2008), because of its "powerful, darkly comic and obliquely political portrayal of life in a repressive police state, represented by a psychopathic wannabee disco-dancer, who is dissected by an unrelenting use of a handheld camera." More interesting were the excellent comprehensive retrospectives of Jean-Pierre Melville (though frustrating for non-French or non-Italian speakers, because the majority had no English subtitles), Roman Polanski (who was present) and the most innovative, British Renaissance. Turin, of course, is a cinema city, with its celebrated, though confusing, film museum at its center.

- Ronald Bergan

Posted by dwhudson at December 5, 2008 12:15 PM