Italy and China, two ancient lands far away from one another, have historic ties going back centuries. It is generally believed that Marco Polo, a Venetian, was the first Westerner to explore China and chronicle his journey. In more recent times, Italian filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci brought China to Italian screens with his spectacular 1987 feature film, The Last Emperor, which won nine Oscars, including Best Picture; three BAFTA awards; four Golden Globes; nine David di Donatello awards and a Grammy.
Fresh from a successful trip to China, Roberto Stabile is now determined to revive those ties, although he admits that given the inherent peculiarities in their respective domestic markets, coproductions with China are not always easy.
“In 2016 we opened an audiovisual desk at the Italian Trade Agency’s office in China,” Stabile said in a conversation with The Film Verdict. In Italian agencies around the world he has opened many such desks, mostly known by its Italian acronym ICE.
“We opened one wherever it made sense to have an audiovisual desk,” he continued, adding that in each place he trained someone locally to become the part-time go-to person for the local audiovisual industry, as well as for anyone from the Italian AV industry who needed to contact the local industry. “In China and Los Angeles, however,” he made clear, “I have someone who does just that, full time.”
The Italians are moving on three fronts in China: looking for coproductions with the Chinese; helping the Chinese showcase their films in Italy; distributing Italian films in China.
“Wherever possible, I organized Focus Italia events where our producers could get to know their Chinese counterparts, exchange ideas and projects, and figure out how to coproduce films together. Italy was one of the first countries to sign a coproduction agreement with China. The most beautiful film that Italy and China have made together was Bertolucci’s film, but that was forty years ago, and back then we didn’t even have a signed agreement! I think it was the most beautiful film that a Western country has ever coproduced with China.”
To help foster coproductions, every year the Italians invite Chinese producers and institutional delegations to the Venice filmfest where they can meet Italian producers and discuss potential projects. So far, however, because of the cultural differences that exist between the Italians and the Chinese, these meetings haven’t led to any important projects.
“A big project hasn’t surfaced yet because, although we have a lot in common, we also have some monumental cultural differences. In the cinematic field in particular, the Chinese trend toward exaggeration. They like to step out of the normal storyline with special effects that are not just the Hollywood kind, but also in the story itself.”
One such example is a film – The Lost Legion – that the Italians and Chinese were trying to coproduce. It is the story of a Roman legion that according to a local legend reaches a small town in the north of China while exploring the East, and then disappears. Stabile especially wanted this project because he thought it was the perfect story for a coproduction between the two countries.
“They say that in this small town the local population is different even in its DNA. They are not like the other Chinese. They say that these people descended from the ancient Romans who arrived in this very beautiful place with its very beautiful women and decided not to return to Rome and settle there instead. This was one of our most beautiful projects and we worked hard to make it happen, but it didn’t happen because the Chinese didn’t think this fascinating story was interesting enough by itself to sell well in their market. The wanted something more. They wanted to introduce into the story the Martians who kidnapped the Romans soldiers! In Italy this would have been considered a ridiculous addition to the legend, but the Chinese insisted that they needed that extra twist to be sellable to their market. So, in the end the project was pulled.”
As for the distribution of Italian films in China, here too Italian filmmakers have been faced with some hurdles, but they have been handling it very creatively: When they realized that Perfetti Sconosciuti had turned into an online phenomenon because “millions upon millions” of Chinese had downloaded pirated copies of it, instead of fighting the trend they decided to turn the copyright violation to their benefit by bringing the film’s director, Paolo Genovese, to China on a promotional campaign. They even helped the Chinese remake the film. Then they released the original film in theaters across China, followed by showings of other Italian productions. “But unfortunately, our best box office results came from older films from 20, 30, and 40 years ago, such as La Vita è Bella or La Leggenda del Pianista,” said Stabile. “They were a lot more successful than the newer films.”
There is still a lot to be done. In August, Italian Screens will showcase the new Italian cinema, first in Beijing, then all across China. “We will advertise the incentives – up to $54,000 – that the Italian government offers for both theatrical and online distribution,” said Stabile.
No less important is the third front on which the Italians have been working: locations. Italy, of course, needs no introductions for its wealth of unparalleled historical cities, towns, and villages with an abundance of archeological sites, monuments, palaces, castles, piazzas, and more, that even nations as old China admire.
“Many Chinese producers have already come to Italy to shoot their films, but we want to increase those numbers. We want more of them here. We want them to come not just to shoot their movies but also to use Italy for all of their audiovisual operations.”
To make it easier for Chinese productions to come to Italy, Stabile has asked all Italian diplomatic missions around China to simplify the visa application process. “We’ve asked them to establish a sort of green line for Chinese productions and their staff. So we are not just offering financial incentives and connecting them with our Film Commission, but we are also helping them get the visas they need. We started doing this in 2016, but then the pandemic slowed everything down.” Stabile believes that in the coming years “there will be many Chinese productions in Italy.”
But what exactly is the attraction of Italy, so far away geographically, for the Chinese? The Film Verdict asked.
“First of all, the savings we offer with tax credits and incentives from various Italian regions. My Chinese colleagues tell me that it is very advantageous for them to shoot in Italy. They usually go to Malaysia and Thailand, but they’ve gotten a little tired of those locations and exhausted that theme, so they are looking for something a little different. They are also very attracted to our monuments, and if there are savings to be had as well, then to them it’s a done deal.”
But, as mentioned earlier, Italy and China coproduced some films even before their agreement, with The Last Emperor being the most important and successful. In fact, that experience was so significant that Bertolucci’s Chinese production assistant eventually went on to become the president of the China Film Production Corporation.
“For many years, he was the person with whom the NPA and Hollywood had to deal with when it came to quotas for theatrical releases in China. He supervised everything that had to do with coproductions. He retired a couple of years ago.”
“We are now working on expanding the audiovisual agreements because we also want to make series and documentaries. This year we will also organize a Focus on China event at the Venice Film Festival. We’ll host a delegation from China, screen some films, and bring together producers and institutional representatives in order to tighten our relationship with China.”
