Many times we have asked ourselves why each art … As everyone knows, cinema has evolved technically over the decades, without a doubt, but – in my view – not so much semantically. The fact of acquiring new technologies, unquestionably broadens the cinematographic spectrum by offering the possibility of making any kind of history, no matter how unreal or dreamy it may be, but the excess of these technologies was replacing – perhaps due to the myriad of possibilities – that human touch; mechanizing movements and even changing more significant planes by a fully stabilized moving image.
As already mentioned in that letter “More human than human”, the 7th art was losing that unique essence that characterizes all artistic representation: devices replacing people -historically it is something known- and as in that historic revolution, it is true that the speed of production increases considerably, but I would never dare to compare an object made in series by a machine, with another manually performed one by one, which in parallel of the terminations, has another value: originality, effort and part of the soul from the creator in it, that object is unique in the world.
I think that in the cinema, massive, this has happened and it is my objective, humbly, to try to return to humanize this art that we love, making it at least from my films. To paraphrase “V di Vendetta”: Every film is a symbol, the fact of doing it is also a symbol. Although a symbol itself is nothing instead with the support of enough people, a symbol can change the world. This art in some regions is seen as mere entertainment … it is painful to see such a thing, it is comparable to having a caged bird only to contemplate it, when while it is locked -justly- you will not be able to admire all its splendour, at the same time you would be doing it hurt. Any enthusiast who sees it would observe a sad image, thinking discouraged that that’s all that bird can give. Let’s not let them “cage” like that to the cinema, it can give a lot more than that. Cinema is the closest thing to magic in this world. It is a tool to unite people, of all cultures, in a single story, on a single screen, and share that vision whose universal language is capable of creating emotions, feelings, laughter, tears, reflections. We are talking about something that transcends the mundane, do not confuse it with mere entertainment, although it is one of its many characteristics, do not confuse the part with the whole.
A film is a message, but not only that, that message is steeped in the essence of its director, makes it unique, his vision, his times, his rhythms. Fellini said it: “All art is autobiographical”, each filmmaker leaves a part of himself in each film, after a whole career, when contemplating all his filmography .. the artist can be seen in the background, through those images, his ideas, his will, his philosophy … his being.
*Repost on the Buenos Aires International Film Festival (Bue.IFF) * https://www.bueiff.com/2019/05/cinema-by-roberto-i-ercolalo/
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