SUBMISSION 50
Memorandum submitted by UK Film-Makers
It's seldom that Britain's film-makers come
together to sign anything, but we write on a matter of real importance
which we hope your Committee will consider.
Our subjects are these: Tyneside cinema, Broadway
in Nottingham, National Film Theatre in London, Curzon in Soho,
Watershed in Bristol, Glasgow Film Theatre, Edinburgh Filmhouse
and Cameo, Manchester Cornerhouse, Cambridge Arts Cinema and the
Ritzy in Brixton etc. . . .
These are the cinemas which made many of our
careers. They built audiences for our films when our names were
not well known. Their programmers and educationalists ran seasons
which expanded interest in the kind of off-centre work we do.
And not only us, of course. Without these independent, specialised
screens film-makers like Martin Scorsese, the Coen Brothers and
Lars von Trier might never have made the transition to the multiplexes.
They do more than build reputations, though.
Every one of us had formative experiences in independent specialised
cinemas. Seeing A bout de souffle, Persona, Eight and
a half, The Battle of Algiers, Come and See or Yellow Earth
in these places fed our own imaginations and widened our horizons
about movies. We can't emphasise this enough. British film would
be less creative if film-makers didn't get to see the best from
our peers around the world. Just imagine how bland and one-dimensional
our music industry would be if it wasn't so willing to openly
embrace the non-Western musical influences that permeate it.
We raise these points now because the directors
and programmers of these cinemas are saying that, for the first
time in memory, some of them are risking closure, redundancies
or curtailment of services. At a time when major retrospectives
of Bergman and Visconti are being mounted in Britain, the cinemas
which were born out of such film-makers in the 50s and 60s are
financially weaker than they have ever been.
We hoped the Film Council would be their proud
and passionate advocate. It has rightly supported the development
and production of new films, with notable success. But where is
its passion for the Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff, Cinema City
in Norwich, Dukes in Lancaster or the Plaza in Crosby?
Last year, there seemed to be a move. After
a lengthy research process, the Film Council announced a substantial
capital fund to support the development of specialised exhibition
and distribution. Great! But specialised exhibitors tell us that
Film Council officers have indicated to them that little of this
money will be available to continue the development of specialised
independent cinemas across the UK. Instead, they say that Film
Council officers and advisers are talking up the benefits of using
public resources to encourage screenings of the `Arthouse Top
Twenty' and new British films in corporate multiplexes across
the UK.
Can this be a serious policy? Use public funds
to encourage commercial cinemas to show the most lucrative of
specialised films, like Y Tu Mama Tambien, Almodovar films,
and the like? What investment would the multiplexes be required
to make in return? And what about the specialised cinemas that
depend on the returns from these arthouse hits to support their
more innovative work? Such cinemas have always taken pride in
generating sufficient box office income to ensure that their subsidy
needs were minimal in comparison to the performing arts.
There is another problem. A serious case can
be made that the Film Council undervalues specialised cinemas
outside London. The National Film Theatre receives substantial
public support, but its invaluable work would be enhanced if it
was given a funding uplift. In Birmingham and Leeds or many market
towns it is harder to enjoy the same access to films beyond the
mainstream. And the experts who run these are being ever forced
to devote a disproportionate amount of their time to funding problems
and PR issues.
At this time of review we ask the Film Council
to match its good work in production with a clear and visionary
commitment to independent specialised cinema. York Picture House,
Glasgow Film Theatre, Dundee Contemporary Arts and the ICA in
London are our industry's "Research and Development"
division. They are its internationalists, its boundary pushers.
Without them, we simply wouldn't have taken some of the risks
we have. We wouldn't have been properly exposed to the history
of cinema. We wouldn't have acquired international terms of film
reference.
We request that the Select Committee seeks clarification
from the Film Council on these matters, and we thank you for doing
so.
Signed
Directors
Bernardo Bertolucci
(The Last Emperor, Last Tango in Paris, The Conformist,
The Sheltering Sky)
Mike Leigh
(Topsy Turvy, All or Nothing, Naked, Life is Sweet,
Abigail's Party)
Michael Winterbottom
(24 Hour Party People, Wonderland, Welcome to
Sarajevo, Jude)
Stephen Daldry
(Billy Elliot, The Hours)
Antonia Bird
(Priest, Face, Ravenous)
Gurinder Chadha
(Bhaji on the Beach, Bend it Like Beckham)
Alex Cox
(Repo Man, Sid and Nancy, Straight to Hell)
Kevin Macdonald
(One Day in September)
Damien O'Donnell
(Heartlands, East is East)
Bille Eltringham
(This is Not a Love Song, The Darkest Light)
Ben Hopkins
(The Nine Lives of Thomas Katz, Simon Magus)
Terry Gilliam
(Time Bandits, Brazil, The Fisher King, Fear and
Loathing in Las Vegas)
Clio Barnard
(The Lambeth March)
Saul Metzstein
(Late Night Shopping)
Les Blair
(Jump the Gun, Bad Behaviour, Filipina Dream Girls)
Andrew Kotting
(This Filthy Earth, Gallivant)
Stephen Frears
(My Beautiful Laundrette, Prick Up Your Ears,
Dangerous Liaisons, The Grifters, Dirty Pretty Things)
Marc Evans
(House of America, Resurrection Man, My little
Eye)
Actors
Kerry Fox
(An Angel at My Table, Shallow Grave, The Darkest
Light, Intimacy)
Ewen Bremner
(Trainspotting, Black Hawk Down, Julien Donkey-Boy)
Billy Boyd
(The Lord of the Rings, The Lord of the Rings—The
Two Towers)
Tilda Swinton
(Caravaggio, The Last of England, The Deep End,
Adaptation)
Writers
Simon Beaufoy
(The Full Monty, The Darkest Light, This is Not
a Love Song)
Frank Cottrell Boyce
(Welcome to Sarajevo, Hilary and Jackie, 24 Hour
Party People)
Michael Eaton
(Shipman, Fellow Traveller)
Irvine Welsh
(The Acid House, Trainspotting)
Paul Laverty
(Carla's Song, My Name is Joe, Sweet Sixteen)
Producers
Jeremy Thomas
(Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, Bad Timing, The
Last Emperor, Naked Lunch, Crash, Sexy Beast)
Kate Ogborn
(Under the Skin, This is Not a Love Song)
Simon Channing Williams
(High Hopes, Naked, Topsy Turvy, Nicholas Nickelby)
Christopher Monger
(Just Like a Woman, The Englishman Who Went up
a Hill and Came Down a Mountain)
Hercules Bellville
(Sexy Beast, Blood and Wine, The Tenant)
Bertrand Faivre
(The Warrior, Ratcatcher)
Elizabeth Karlsen
(Little Voice, Purely Belter, The Crying Game)
Jon Finn
(Billy Elliot, My Little Eye)
Andrew Eaton
(Jude, Wonderland, 24 Hour Party People)
Sales Agents
Fiona Mitchell
(All About My Mother, Girlfight, Wild at Heart)
Cinematographers
Seamus Mcgarvey
(The Hours, High Fidelity, Enigma, The War Zone,
The Winter Guest)
Critics
Mark Cousins
(BBC Scene by Scene, Moviedrome, The Faber Book
of Documentary, Prospect)
Jonathon Romney
(The Guardian, The Independent)
Jason Solomons
(The Observer)
Christopher Cook
(The Listener, The Guardian, BBC, The Dilys Powell
Reader)
Gilbert Adair
(Flickers, Love and Death on Long Island, Hollywood's
Vietnam, Movies, Sunday Times)
5 March 2003
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