Walter Salles, award-winning Brazilian director, screenwriter, and producer; Berlinale Golden Bear and Golden Globe-winner for Central do Brasil (1998) will be honored with the Marc’Aurelio Award for Lifetime Achievement at the 9th Rome Film Festival taking place October 16 to 25, 2014. Director of one of the most beloved films in recent years, The Motorcycle Diaries, awarded in Cannes and Oscar®-winner for Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures. On the occasion of the award ceremony, Walter Salles will present the world premiere screening of his new film Jia Zhangke, un gars de Fenyang. Salles considers Jia Zhangke “the most important contemporary filmmaker”. Marie-Pierre Duhamel and Marco Müller will moderate the on stage conversation with Walter Salles and Jia Zhangke.
“Jia Zhangke reminds us that film is still a place that can help us improve our understanding of the world that surrounds us”, Walter Salles stated. “He has become the most important film director of his generation for an increasing number of cinephiles. By way of his films, cinema can still be the quintessential ground for discovery and revelation. According to Jia Zhangke, film is a means of recording mutating memory while keeping track of something that won’t be there any longer. His films portray ordinary people that he defines as ‘power non-holders’. In the last scene of Sanxia Haoren (Still Life), a man is walking on a tightrope between two buildings scheduled to be demolished. Man in an unstable balance, obliged to relate to something bigger than himself, may well be the character in common among Jia Zhangke’s films. In moments like this, you become aware that his films are made of stuff transcending specific physical or human geography. His characters come from the Shanxi region. But the existential problems of his films don’t have borders. They involve all of us.”
Walter Salles, director, writer and producer, was born on the 12th April 1956. After A grande arte (High Art) and two splendid films codirected with Daniela Thomas, won international acclaim in 1998 for Central do Brasil (Central Station), winner of the Golden Bear at the Berlinale and two Oscar® nominations. He next directed Abril despedaçado (Behind the Sun, 2001) and Diarios de motocicleta (The Motorcycle Diaries, 2004). In 2005 he made his Hollywood debut with the horror film Dark Water. His 2008 film Linha de passe earned Sandra Corveloni the Best Actress award at Cannes. He directed On the Road in 2012, a very successful adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s book deemed “unfilmable”. As an executive producer he’s currently working on La patota directed by Santiago Mitre and Celestina by José Rivera, featuring Bill Pullman.
FILMOGRAPHY
1991 A grande arte (High Art) | 1996 Terra estrangeira (Foreign Land) | 1998 Central do Brasil (Central Station) | 1998 O primeiro dia (Midnight) | 2001 Abril despedaçado (Behind the Sun) | 2004 Diarios de motocicleta (The Motorcycle Diaries) | 2005 Dark Water | 2008 Linha de Passe | 2012 On the Road
JIA ZHANGKE, UN GARS DE FENYANG / A GUY FROM FENYANG: JIA ZHANGKE
by Walter Salles, Brazil, France, 2014, 100’
With this film Jia Zhangke goes back to the location of all his films. He explores the genesis of his projects. He meets his leading actors, main collaborators, friends and “non-actors” who are the focus of his work. This is an affectionate portrait of Jia Zhangke’s memory that also originates a peculiar outlook on the role of cinema. The version presented in Rome is a work in progress.
image via Flickr