VENICE FILM festival, the oldest and one of the most glamorous cinema festivals in the world, has been overshadowed this year by allegations of nepotism and elitism among the jury, with Silvio Berlusconi’s government threatening to intervene and pick next year’s judges.
In a magazine interview published yesterday, the Italian culture minister launched a stinging attack on American film director Quentin Tarantino, who led this year’s jury, calling him “the expression of an elitist, relativist and snobbish culture”. Sandro Bondi also slammed the judges’ choice of winners, which included no Italian films, and said he would take part in the selection of next year’s jury, “since [the festival] is financed by the state”. The Italian government contributes €7 million to the festival’s €12 million budget.
Bondi told the Italian magazine Panoramathat Tarantino "pays no attention to the sentiment and the tastes of the people and of traditions, which are now considered unsophisticated and outdated. And that vision influences his critical judgment of films, including foreign films."
Tarantino is not often on the receiving end of accusations of elitism. But it is not the first time his role in the festival has come in for criticism: this week the director was accused of nepotism after presenting several awards to friends. Sofia Coppola, his former girlfriend, won the festival's top prize for her film Somewhere, while the Spanish director Alex de la Iglesia, a longtime friend of Tarantino, was awarded best director and best screenplay for his movie, A Sad Trumpet Ballad.
The jury also gave a lifetime achievement prize to Tarantino's mentor Monte Hellman, prompting Italian daily Corriere della Serato accuse the Pulp Fictiondirector of "the most obvious conflict of interest possible".
Mr Bondi did not spare the festival’s director Marco Muller, claiming he was excluding “talent and innovation” from the awards.
Matteo Orfini, a culture spokesman for the opposition Democratic party, said: “Why doesn’t Bondi join the jury himself or even become a director, taking the opportunity to resign and leave the ministry in better hands?”
Mr Bondi (51), appointed culture minister by Mr Berlusconi in 2008, is a former communist who in 1994 made a dramatic switch to support the prime minister, going as far as saying he would go to jail for him.– (Guardian service)