Saturday, 18/11/2000

The director of the Thessaloniki Film Festival, Michel Demopoulos, and the New Horizons director Dimitri Eipides, presented one of the most important film makers of European cinema, the Portuguese producer Paulo Branco who has an enormous contribution in the evolution of film production in Europe with over 100 feature films during the past 20 years.

Paulo Branco is responsible for Manoel de Oliveira΄s last fifteen films and has collaborated with directors such as Joao Monteiro, Wim Wenders, and Allen Tuner. He began in the 70s' as a distributor and businessman of the field, selecting creative and not commercial directors. He has been able to produce 10-12 films per year reaching his height at the latest Cannes Festival where 3 of his films participated in the International Competition Section.

"I don't like to look back to my past, just the present and future", he said. The relationships that he has with people he admires, such as Manoel de Oliveira, are very important to him. He considers his films commercial and he likes the fact that they continue to be shown throughout the world.

He finds it difficult to understand what the audience wants and reveals that he as well doesn't know. An audience molded by television does not intereste him and he believes that cinema is destroyed by an attitude that promotes the idea that creativity should appeal to the audience's preferences. He prefers to make films that he can see over and over again. In addition, as a producer he prefers to have the freedom of choosing to shoot a film without depending on its financial support from television or government institutions. He always trusts the directors he works with but according to him, it is not always possible for a producer not to intervene in the creative process of the film.

He prefers to continue working in Europe where he has the freedom to do what he wishes, whereas in the USA conditions are different.

He supervises theaters, sells, distributes, produces and covers the whole process of filmmaking. "The only way for someone to survive as a producer is to believe that nobody else can do it better", he added.

He sees every film as a child that should be cared for and made the best of. He claims that cinema should be financially supported in Europe because this is the way economy works but believes that the State shouldn't be the sole support because that would be insufficient. He senses that the United States' control of the market leaves European producers with few choices. The good thing about Europe, he said, is that it is not a single culture but a polymorphic one but the problem lies in the fact that many directors try to imitate American cinema. Nevertheless, Paulo Branco believes that European polymorphism isn't taken advantage of, as television stations in every country show mostly American films.

He pointed out that the situation in Europe will dramatically change when television begins to show more European films. The market is completely twisted, entirely controlled and not independent. He considers it a grave mistake for European cinema to imitate its American counterpart, which is supported by directors such as Scorsese, Copola and to a degree Spielberg.