TRIBUTE - 41ª MOSTRA

AGNÈS VARDA | AI WEIWEI | ALAIN TANNER | PAULO JOSÉ | PAUL VECCHIALI

PAUL VECCHIALI - LEON CAKOFF PRIZE

Paul Vecchiali has one of the most heterogeneous careers amongst the French filmmakers that became famous in the 1960’s. Even though cinema is successively organized in defined aesthetic movements and groups, Vecchialli has always distanced himself from this quality, creating his own path and establishing his own interests in film construction. With a consolidated career of over 50 years and more than 50 different films, his work represents more than formal statement, but also an affirmation of cinema as a passionate and instinctive act.

Vecchiali was born in 1930, in Ajaccio, in the region of Corsica, France, and grew up in Toulon. The French cinema production of the 1930’s was his first contact with movies, especially with artists that were often criticized and discarded at the time, such as Rene Clement, Marcel Pagnol and Jean Grémillon. This particular interest was extremely relevant to the creation of the L’encinéclopédie, written by Vechialli, which revisits the cinema production of the period, filling a critical and historical gap of French cinema.

Not only that, Vecchiali uses this influence to make a modern reconstruction of the drama that once inspired him. Because of that, love has always been a theme in his films, in different forms: disillusions, obsessions and disagreements, and all its nuances. Renouncing naturalism and cinematographic trends, Vecchiali established a formal and almost anti-style, that varies in each of his works, creating a sophisticated and distinct aesthetic in every film, depending on what he wants to show, and denying the homogeneity that historically marks cinema.

His professional life started in 1961, with the film Les Petit Drames, but the acknowledgment of his work would only come in the 1970’s, with films such as The Strangler (1970), Women Women (1974), Don’t Change Hands (1975) and Drugstore Romance (1979), his best known works. During this time he also collaborated for magazines, like the renowned Cahiers du Cinema, and produced the first films directed by Chantal Akerman and Jean Eustache.

Vecchiali’s great interest in producing films is noted after the creation of Diagonale, a production company and film collective founded by the artist in 1976. At this place, filmmakers would work in a collaborative dynamic environment, sharing the same technical team and actors.

Diagonale produced films of important names of the post-Nouvelle Vague French cinema, such as Jean-Claude Biette, Jean-Claude Guiguet and Noel Simsolo. Diagonale closed its doors in the 1980’s, moment when Vecchiali directed At the Top of the Stairs (1983), Rosa la Rose, Fille Publique (1985), the company’s biggest production in France, Once More (1988), one of the first films ever in the country to approach AIDS and homosexuality, and Le Café des Jules (1989).

From this moment on, Vecchiali’s career became more and more limited to France, reaching other countries with less strength. During the 1990’s he produced only two films and began directing for television, and by the 2000’s his work became more incessant and prolific, especially with the beginning of the digital age.

By this time, a retrospective organized by the Cinématheque Française prompted a rediscovery of the artist, taking Vecchiali’s work back to festivals and distributing them to other countries, especially his new films White Nights on the Pier (2014, 38th Mostra), adapted from Dostoyevsky, C’est L’amour (2015, 39th Mostra) and The Dunce (2016, 40th Mostra).

The 41st Mostra is proud to give the Leon Cakoff Prize to Paul Vecchiali, for his unique career and distinguished contribution to cinema history. The Festival will exhibit eight of his most significant works, Vecchiali’s newest feature Les 7 Déserteurs (2017), the short Trois Mots en Passant (2015), and a documentary about its creation, Revoir la Martine (2016), by Pascal Catheland.

According to Paul Vecchiali, making cinema is not only a profession, but also a responsibility and a commitment and for this reason it should be treated with passion. A passion that is easily identified in his films and characters.

43ª MOSTRA INTERNACIONAL DE CINEMA

43ª MOSTRA INTERNACIONAL DE CINEMA