Film Industry Updates from Across Europe.

ITALY

Italy has been unable to top the success of Benigni's Life is Beautiful

After the optimism of 1999 following the success of Roberto Benigni's Life is Beautiful, Italian cinema appears to have hit a brick wall. According to the figures released earlier this year by the Italian Entertainment Agency AGIS, the box-office share of Italian films fell to 14.4% in the first seven months of the 1999/2000 season (from 28.5% in the same period last year) with a loss of some 7.5 million spectators. Of the 45 Italian films released since 1 August 1999, 36 made less than L 1.5 billion ($700,000). Up until March, just two titles made more than L10 billion ($46 million) in comparison with 5 titles in the same period of the 1998/1999 season. And even then, their grosses were disappointing with their director's past box-office receipts.

The current sense of gloom has been further exacerbated by the fact that not a single Italian title has made it into competition at Cannes, an exclusion that provoked a wave of indignation against Gilles Jacob and much self-criticism at home. But while Italian cinema has long had a hard time abroad, it usually carries favor at home and it is its current lack of local success which is causing concern. "There's a lack of good scripts, experienced directors and professional actors capable of interpreting a role. We' ve got into the habit of using TV personalities and comedians to drive our films to the detriment of good directing and good actors. We make these cabaret-style films which work once or twice until the audience gets bored of the concept," says Silvio Soldini, director of Bread and Tulips.

Meanwhile, young directors complain that it is almost impossible to get low-budget, first-time projects off the ground in the current climate. Private investment is close to nonexistent and raising money through the state film funds is a drawn out process mired in bureaucracy that can take years to complete. It's not all doom and gloom, however. Studio Canal announced in April it was upping investment in Italian cinema through its Italian pay-TV operator Tele + to L 90 billion ($41 million) in 2000-2001 from L 60 billion ($27 million) in 1998-1999. Private sector capital is also starting to trickle into the sector and producer powerhouse Rita Rusic recently launched her new film production outfit Movieweb.

GERMANY

German film industry giants are fast turning into global players.

German partners are all the rage in Hollywood. Spyglass Entertainment, New Market Capital, Initial Entertainment Group, Wildwood Enterprises, Lions Gate, Daybreak, and the newly formed Escape Artists all have them. Their new spouses go by the names of Kinowelt, Epsilon, Helkon, Splendid, Constantin, Advanced Tele-Munchen and Intertainement. And they all have one thing in common. They are rich from stock exchange coin and driven by the desire to control and own product -- or better still, the companies that produce it.

5 German films to look out for (release due within the next 18 months):

1. Mostly Martha (working title) The love story of a 35-year old woman who discovers there's more to life than her job as a chef in a fancy restaurant.

2. Commercial Men Lars Kraume's comedy drama is set in the world of advertising, where youthful enthusiasm and sharp cynicism collide.

3. Pissed and Proud The latest offering from Tom Tykwer's production house is a drama about 16-year-old West Berliner who meets East Berlin punk rocker, Captain. The Stasi threaten to destroy their love.

4. Was Tun, Wenn's Brennt? Ann Wild's film is about old friendships, getting older, and the constant presence of the past in our lives.

5. Bis Zum Letzten Mann (working title) Swiss-born Carl Schenkel's action flick centres on terrorists who kidnap an energy company official. Starring Thomas Kretschmann.

NORWAY

Does the "Norwave" continue?

Three years ago, with a massive representation at Cannes, Norway launched a wave of new talent. Is there still something to splash about, any reason to break open the bubbly?

In 1997, Norwegian directors Pal Sletaune and Erik Skjoldbjaerg both entered the Critics' Week at Cannes, and with Budbringeren (Junk Mail) and Insomnia, respectively, they were the front messengers of a Norwave, which was how critics described their fresh approach to filming. Budgringeren was sold to more than 40 territories, and Insomnia picked up for a US remake. But today -- is there anything left but ripples?

"Admittedly, there has not been much on show in Cannes," says managing director productions international relations Jan Erik Holst, of the Norwegian Film Institute. "But after the effort here, we went on to have three films in the Berlinale, another two in Sundance, and there is a whole group of young directors with new projects."

Sletaune is shooting for his next film, Bent Hamer will shortly leave for the US to make US-Canadian Norwegian co-production of a Charles Bukowski story, and Marius Hols has two scripts in stock. In a closer perspective, there will be three local premieres at this year's Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund. Last year a white paper from Ernst % Young Management Consulting -- commissioned by the Norwegian Ministry of Culture -- concluded that in 1998 "public film support in Norway resulted in fewer productions, less admissions, and a smaller domestic market share than in the other Scandinavian countries."

To better exploit government funding, state subsidy for film production -- which has so far been distributed by the institute, the Audiovisual Production Fund, and the publicly owned production company Norsk Film A/S -- is likely to be chanelled into one new foundation, to be established in 2001. Already drained by the state reward for ticket sales in 1999 (100% matching the revenue for children's films, 55% for others the late allocation of film subsidy was the state allocation of film subsidy was further jeopardized by a parliament proposal to make a $2.5 million). But in the end the funding was simply moved to 2001, adding an extra $1 million.

SWEDEN

Swedish Film Institute tries to boost Swedish film at home and abroad.

No sooner had the former Norwegian culture minister taken over at the Swedish Film Institute on 1 January, 2000, than Swedish cinema was exposed to an international facelift. First an Oscar nomination for Colin Nutley's Under Solen (Under the Sun), then two and a half films in competition at Cannes -- Liv Ullman's Trolosa (Faithless), RoyAndersson's Sanger Fran Andra Vaingen (Songs from the Seond Floor), Lars von Triers Dancer in the Dark, the other a Swedish co-production and the same nation's first contenders for the Palme d'Or since Bo Widerberg's Joe Hill in 1971.

Living in Norway since 1956 and married to head of pubcaster Oddvar Bull Tuhus, Swedish-born Kleveland, the new Norwegian Culture Minister, may now be a professional bureaucrat with a degree in law, but she has a long past in the entertainment industry. Trained in classical guitar, she has toured the world; a member of the Balad Gang, and a celebrated television hostess, she was also president of the Musicians Union in Norway.

She entered the director's corner office of Stockholm's Film House to find the much anticipated agreement of cinema financing on her desk. This is the contract between the state and the film-TV industries, following the one-man-report by Swedish author-playwright PO Enquist, which emphasized the necessity of further public funding and stronger participation from broadcasters.The new contract releases an annual $50 million for production, distribution, exhibition, promotion, and education -- a 25% increase. Kleveland's appointment is expected to contribute to recharging the whole Swedish film milieu. "Neither I nor the Swedish Film Institute can guarantee that we can maintain or improve the quality of Swedish films. But we can contribute to developing the competence of the business, and to the marketing of its product. And we must look to updating the mechanical side, so that -- although we are strongly devoted to celluloid -- the digital revolution does not find us unprepared," she concludes.

SPAIN

A new golden age of Spanish cinema is in the works.

Along with other European nations, Spain may have been cold-shouldered this year in the Cannes sweepstakes -- but Spaniards aren't crying in their beer. The reason is, they're basking in the reflected glow of their own ebullient audiovisual market. This coupled with rising attendance at the box office and an unprecedented burgeoning of production coin has caused a mantle of euphoria to settle on the industry. Mega outfits with deep pockets - electrical power companies such as Telefonica - are scrambling to jump on the audiovisual bandwagon in what they perceive to be new cinematic El Dorado.

Some hefty financing groups, such as Sogecable (subsidy of newspaper group PRISA, and linked to Canal Plus Spain), have been involved in bankrolling domestic product for about 5 years, mostly with a view to stockpiling catalogues of features for television. But now the number of players getting toes wet in the audiovisual sector are multiplying the investors around the latest techie IPO on the NASDAQ.

The Spanish film renaissance is due firstly to the emergence of a new generation of filmmakers attune to what youth audiences crave: intrigue, terror, action, sex and local slang. The names of directors that now have their familiarity in multiplex lobbies are Juanma Bajo Ulloa, Alejandro Almenabar, Mariano Barroso, Agusti Villaronga, Jaume Balaguero, Imano Ribe, Jose Luis Cuerga and so on. And then there's Almodovar, in a class of his own.

The second fundamental change, linked to the first, is the emergence of a wide spectrum of financing, geared (needless to say) to racking up the production of more commercial films, whatever the genre. One would have to go back to the 1940s to find a time when Spanish production was on such a solid financial footing as it is now. The current higher budgets and international participation propose to translate into bigger sales in and out of Spain, which is what investors want to hear.

SCOTLAND

The Glasgow Film Fund to Raise Private Money.

The Glasgow Film Fund is to launch a private-sector partnership fund. Through Glasgow Film Finance Ltd, the fund aims to provide up to $2.4 million to invest in British-qualifying films over the next 12 months. The attraction for private investors is obvious -- under current UK tax law, they're allowed 100 tax write-offs.

GFF, now seven years old, put money into Dany Boyle's Shallow Grave and has recouped 240% on its investment. It has also supported such films as Gillies MacKinnon's Small Faces and Ken Loach's My Name is Joe. Its most recent project was Terence Davies House of Mirth.

In a separate move, The Glasgow Film Offie is to partner Film Four on Saul Metzstein's Late Night Shopping, shooting in Glasgow from 29 May. Other backers of the low-budget comedy include the Scottish Arts Council Lottery Fund. FilmFour will handle UK distribution and worldwide sales (except Germany).