Mikhalkov to set up academy
School to focus on art not commerce
Speaking at the opening of Serbian filmmaker Emir Kusturica’s new student-focused Kustendorf Film Festival at a mountain retreat four hours outside Belgrade, Mikhalkov said too many film school graduates swiftly lost artistic and humanitarian insight when they embarked on professional careers.
Contemporary films in Russia were like intellectual fastfood, “cheap, quick but lacking in taste,” said the director, whose latest film “12” — a remake of Sidney Lumet’s classic 1957 “12 Angry Men” but set in a Chechen school house — opened the festival Monday.
“I’d like to lay down the foundations for a new film academy in Russia. This is something I feel I could help with — not to explain to students techniques but to help encourage a deep desire to make films that matter,” Mikhalkov told guests and student filmmakers at the invitation-only week long event hosted at the Mechavnik ethnic tourist village Kusturica recently built at Mokra Gora.
The academy would be a joint venture between his Moscow production company Studio Tri-Te and Moscow’s VGIK film school, Mikhalkov told Daily Variety.
“It would be aimed at film professionals already out of film school who are keen to develop further. I’ll issue a nationwide call for professionals to submit their concept of, say, ‘Hamlet’ on DVD and take the best and work through those concepts over the course of a year with different approaches — Stanislavsky, Chekhov, psychological and other approaches. The idea would be to move beyond what young filmmakers learn at film school and beyond the commercial straitjackets they often find themselves in once they start working.”
Mikhalkov is one of a number of high profile guests Kusturica has gathered for the week long competitive film festival that features the work of 12 international film school students and graduates.
Intentionally an anti-commercial venture, the festival was formally opened Monday by Serbian prime minister Vojislav Kostunica with a ceremony that included the mock funeral of copies of Bruce Willis action hit “Die Hard” and its various sequels, symbolizing the festival’s dedication to art not commerce.
Festival guests include Romanian director Cristian Mungui — who will present his Cannes Palme d’Or winner “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days,” British director Michael Radford and French actress Audrey Tautou.
Introducing Mikhalkov at the festival’s opening press conference Tuesday, Kusturica underlined its intent when he remarked that it was “a relief to be introducing an author of cinema and not some commercial product.”
