Marco Bellocchio’s Cinema Masterclass

Marco Bellocchio is to give the Cinema Masterclass at the coming 63^th Festival de Cannes. Upon accepting the invitation, he declared :

“I believe that a lesson on film-making is useful only if it is practical: working on the set, filming, directing the troupe and the actors, giving orders, “Do this”, “Do that”… There is no democracy or equality on the set; there has to be rigour, interest, affection and respect. I don’t believe in those directors who think they have the right to slap or insult a beautiful girl to make her cry on command. (There’s a story about a late-neorealist director who struck a very young actress on the legs with a riding crop to get her to cry while he filmed her close up). But, since I can only talk here, I think that the most precious thing a director can teach anyone wanting to work in the business (which is a very complicated one, and I’m always amazed that so many young people want to try their hand at it) is how to work with actors and actresses. Because it’s not the same thing directing an actor or an actress, when it comes to convincing them to “seduce” (and the “seduction” of an actress, only artistically speaking of course, is very different from the “seduction” of an actor) or to be “seduced”, which doesn’t necessarily mean being fragile or passive. Anyone can teach technique, but the ability to get another person to interpret a character you have imagined is a gift, although it can be learned in part by a director who isn’t afraid of risking failure.
You can never be certain of a good result in human relationships.”

Throughout his career, Marco Bellocchio presented ten films in official Selection at the Festival de Cannes, from Leap into the Void (1980) who won two Best Actor Award to Vincere (2009), regarded by international critics as one of best films of the year.

Following in the footsteps of Martin Scorsese, Stephen Frears and also Nanni Moretti, Wong Kar Wai and Sydney Pollack, he will talk with Michel Ciment about his practice of filmmaking, his experience of the set, the difficulties of his work and how it can be transmitted.

They’ll welcome the journalists and film fans Wednesday, May 19, Buñuel Theatre at 17:00.