“Stars for cinemas? An excellent idea if the viewer decides too”

2023-06-25 17:44:37

The idea is to assign each cinema a certain number of ‘stars’, just as is done with restaurants or hotels, adjusting the ticket price to the stars obtained on the basis of a series of criteria. A proposal put forward by various subjects in the world of cinema (not least the director Matteo Garrone) and which, in conversation with time.news, the Undersecretary for Culture Lucia Borgonzoni shows that she appreciates and supports by specifying its contours. “It’s a bit like when you go to a hotel or a restaurant, there are stars that are given by a commission with certain standards – explains Borgonzoni, interviewed at the Filming Italy Sardegna Festival underway in Santa Margherita di Pula (Ca) – which can be that of the type of screen or audio. But I would also add the criterion of the viewer, which is always central: so a room can be small, but it can make you experience a great emotion because those who manage it are very good. So combining the two things, I am in total agreement”. As for the price, “of course we will have to talk to the distributors”, she points out.

Borgonzoni then comments on the ministry’s initiative to fix the ‘political’ price of 3.50 euros for all films over the course of the summer, explaining in depth the rationale for the decision. “The rest of the ticket price – the Undersecretary for Culture articulates – is provided by the ministry, because it’s not that Italian films are worth less than the others. We want to bring people back to the theater so we believe in it and invest ourselves. In fact, we believe that cinemas are important because they are social principals and, often, also the only cultural ones of certain territories”. And then, “the experience of seeing a film in a theatre, getting excited, laughing, crying with a stranger, trying the experience of storytelling with loved ones is a unique thing”, she adds. “Platforms are fine, but cinema is a unique experience”.

So now the ball passes to Italian directors, who have the task of making quality films by putting their best creative genius into play. “Our directors really have a lot of creativity – says the undersecretary – as long as they bring it into play”. And he reveals: “I was recently in Los Angeles and I saw that they talk about our cinema, our directors and actors and also our workers. Because let’s remember that behind a film there is a world, of which we may know the actor or director, but without whose workers we wouldn’t have that magic we see at the end”. (from the correspondent Ilaria Floris)