In 2013, his first year as Artistic Director of the Locarno Film Festival, Carlo Chatrian was criticized primarily for two politically sensitive guests: right-wing Swiss politician Christoph Blocher, the subject of a documentary that screened in Piazza Grande, and Giovanni Senzani, a former member of the Red Brigades terrorist organization who appeared in Pippo Delbono’s competition entry Sangue.
Almost eleven years later, and now at the head of the Berlinale, Chatrian – alongside Executive Director Mariëtte Rissenbeek – found himself at the center of another political controversy, this time the (since rescinded) invitation to members of the German right-wing party AfD to attend the festival’s opening ceremony. A rare moment of media turmoil for the famously mild-mannered Italian programmer, whose career has been essentially uncontroversial.
In fact, the biggest shock in his tenure was when he announced he was stepping down after five years. The reason was perfectly understandable: the Berlinale wished to revert to a single director handling all aspects of festival management, an approach that didn’t suit Chatrian, but in the immediate aftermath of the announcement, speculation was rampant about possible ulterior motives within the German Ministry of Culture.
Inevitably, some hypothesized it was due to Chatrian’s nationality, despite the Berlinale’s history of being comfortable with non-German directors (in fact, the newly appointed Tricia Tuttle, who will take over in April, was born in the United States). Others suggested his vision for the festival was too arthouse-oriented, with not enough mainstream material, a cardinal sin in the context of an event that relies primarily on ticket sales to the general public.
The latter theory is particularly baffling because, while Chatrian is very much the image of the erudite European cinephile, with a special affinity for French cinema (his all-time favorite film is Alain Resnais’ Hiroshima mon amour), he’s always been attentive to the larger needs of the festival, both in Locarno and in Berlin, and the balancing act required for each year’s line-up.
True, he may not have programmed that many American blockbusters, but Dieter Kosslick often had the same issue with Oscar-nominated films that hadn’t opened in Germany yet. Big studio releases traveling to Berlin were largely dependent on a favorable release window, during or right after the event — which explains why the proverbial hot ticket of 2015 was Fifty Shades of Grey.
In that sense, 2023 may have been the ultimate mission statement, with a program that included what is sometimes dismissively referred to as “festival films” and a retrospective tied to the Honorary Golden Bear, which was given to Steven Spielberg, the co-creator of the summer blockbuster. Audiences gave their undivided attention, in equal measure, to challenging pieces of world cinema and to the likes of Jaws and Raiders of the Lost Ark, two films whose screenings were sold out even though they were both readily available on Netflix, Prime Video or Disney+.
The audience was, of course, also at the forefront when Chatrian and Rissenbeek made the decision to split the 2021 edition in two, so regular viewers could enjoy the movies in the theater once Covid restrictions lifted, while press and professionals used an online platform during the regular festival period. And making sure that films increase their chances of being seen is why the Berlinale has progressively cut down on sections that were just too cumbersome and reduced the amount of entries elsewhere, bringing the total down to around 300 titles, compared to the 400+ films of the Kosslick era.
The attendance statistics of the past four editions are further evidence of this. Considering there were fewer visitors from some territories due to world events, the data for 2020 and 2023 – when there were no Covid limitations – paint the picture of an event with stable viewership across all categories. And 2024 should be no different, with its typically eclectic mix, including a 14-hour documentary, a Netflix miniseries about Italian porn star Rocco Siffredi and a handful of works by Martin Scorsese, who is this year’s Honorary Golden Bear recipient. Once more, there’s something for everyone.
