A Symphony of Languages

Day 2 - Thursday, 3 August

Despite the constant drizzle or downpour during the entire day, the festival was in full swing with the first press conferences getting underway. Attending press conferences at the Locarno Festival is a decisive step towards linguistic polyphony. Even though French is the official language of the fest, German, Italian and English merrily chip in. Imagine a continuous hotchpotch of the 4 languages, add some Chinese, Spanish and Russian, and you might get an echo of the jury press conference, with its puzzled faces, light headaches and Marco Muller's fluent Chinese by Zang Yuan's side.

With everybody wondering about the correct method to ask questions and the eventuality of not understanding the answers, the press conference was as hazy as the weather over the Piazza Grande, yet Shirin Neshat's beautiful statement matched the solemn tone of the previous day's opening cocktail in stressing the importance and raison d'être of the Locarno festival: A diversity and richness addressing several generations of viewers. Naum Klejman added to the merry atmosphere in his endeavour to reflect on a juror's task in English, Russian and German. The only thing that lacked to this wonderful panorama of human languages was Shinji Aoyama's Japanese. His arrival will certainly contribute to make the end of the festival deliberations reach a new peak in the field of linguistic experimentation.

The rain finally halted early evening, but the Piazza Grande screenings were already cancelled. When rained-out, the press and industry professionals are invited to view the film(s) in the Cinema Rex (500 seats) and the general public at the multi-purpose Fevi Auditorium (3,200 seats). It was the Official Competition film Little Cheung that took audiences on a trip to Hong Kong before being handed over to China. The film's director, Fruit Chan was in Locarno with Little Cheung himself, who baffled the press with his naturally devilish youthful attitude, the very one that probably allowed him to sing naked under the rain in a very touching scene of the film. The official screenings are not the only ones vying for attention in Locarno, as the off-festival is alive and well. As the industry professionals left the Cinema Rex, they were showered in flyers, accosted by screaming and presented with the trailer of Neutre by Xavier Ruiz on a makeshift screen installed in the cobblestone alley at the theatre exit. These off-festival promoters were as aggressive as their war picture.

Rumor has it that the world premiere in the Official Competition of Azzurro by Denis Rabaglia (Switzerland/Italy), starring Paolo Villaggio, Jean-Luc Bideau and Marie-Christine Barrault, may not be screening after all. Apparently, the technicians were never paid and are refusing to hand over the reels until they see the color of the money. Another story circulating, comes from a couple of journalists who missed the train that should have taken them to the Lugano airport and hailed a limousine instead. The chauffeur handled the situation like a Le Mans race car driver pro, taking the winding turns at 100km/h. The duo regretted every minute of the ride as they dizzyingly climbed out of what is usually considered a comfort mobile. Next time, try the official festival Smart Car.

Tomorrow's nightly Piazza Grande screening is a double-feature. Michael Almereyda's Hamlet (Official Competition) starring Ethan Hawke in a modern adaptation set in Manhattan will be followed by the debut feature The Closer You Get from Scottish director Aileen Ritchie, who has mainly worked for the television and theatre.