What does Vietnamese cinema need to have top-notch works?

(To Quoc) - Vietnamese cinema has recently flourished with many films earning hundreds of billions in revenue, while also balancing entertainment and artistic elements, addressing humane, contemporary stories. However, to have great works, according to Associate Professor Dr. Do Lenh Hung Tu, Chairman of the Vietnam Cinema Association, the story of investment in cinema still needs attention.

The Hanoi International Film Festival with the slogan "Cinema: Creativity - Take Off" chaired by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in coordination with the Hanoi People's Committee took place from November 7-11 with seminars, film screenings, Project Market, exchanges... contributing to promoting and developing Vietnamese cinema has come to an end. On the sidelines of the 7th Hanoi International Film Festival, Associate Professor Dr. Do Lenh Hung Tu - Chairman of the Vietnam Cinema Association shared with us the story of the aspiration to have a top-notch film work, so that Vietnamese cinema can be creative and take off.

Vietnamese cinema has recently flourished with many films earning hundreds of billions in revenue, while also balancing entertainment and artistic elements, telling humane, contemporary stories.

+ Dear Associate Professor, Dr. Do Lenh Hung Tu, recently, Vietnamese cinema has made its mark with light entertainment films, made quite carefully, or more correctly, entertainment filmmakers have also begun to respect artistic elements. In your opinion, is this a good trend that should be encouraged for Vietnamese cinema to balance entertainment and artistic elements?

- This is a good trend. Because in my opinion, creativity has no boundaries, it has no boundaries even for creators because the next creation tries not to repeat the previous creation no matter how successful it is. Besides, the issue of identity, if you go to the end of identity, you will reach the heart of humanity. Therefore, the more films, the more ways of telling, the more authors participating, the more different types of films, the more conditions there are for the audience to have choices.

For example, Indian cinema, they produce 1000 films a year, they show their domestic market is enough to recover capital without having to sell to foreign countries. Therefore, with such a large market, making so many films, the audience has the right to choose, the audience can watch this film, not watch that film. And liking or disliking is very normal, it is natural and the law of elimination, the film has many audiences, it proves that it has reached the hearts of the majority of viewers. And it also depends on many other factors such as technical factors, acting, the names of the artists participating in the film and an important factor is the media factor. Strong media, penetrating in many ways not only on television, newspapers, film posters but also through word of mouth of viewers, it creates a fever, the fever of the majority like that is very important. Especially on the digital platform now, there are many means of communication from zalo, facebook... It is completely relevant to today's times.

+ There is no shortage of commercial but artistic films in the world, and the truth proves that films that attract audiences, in addition to entertainment, must be of high quality. In your opinion, what should Vietnamese cinema do to produce high-quality works?

- In reality, world cinema also has two streams: art films aimed at film festivals and awards, and commercial films aimed at audiences and capital recovery. Previously, people working in cinema all thought so, but in reality, the viewpoint also needs to change. Commerce also needs art, art also needs commerce.

As we can see, the movie Titanic directed by James Cameron, is aimed at commerce but the movie is truly artistic and won many Oscars, becoming one of the movies that live forever. And now, after nearly 30 years of the movie's release, watching the movie again, we still see the very elaborate, very artistic but very audience-oriented staging. The problem is, even if in a movie we convey a very "terrible" message, if there is no audience, it will still fail. Besides, now, there are really many movies that have won awards at international film festivals but when shown, there is no audience. This problem depends on many factors, media factors, audience tastes, and factors of the time the movie was released.

As we know, in cinemas, they have different screening rooms and screening times. If the revenue rate of that film is low, they will withdraw that film to replace it with another film, according to their business goals. Therefore, a good and artistic film but only exists in the cinema system for 2-3 days does not say anything and will not hope to have high revenue.

Therefore, when the State decides to invest in a film, the State will always pay attention to the content issue and for a long time, the State's sponsorship and ordering issues have often been directed towards films with humanistic values, historical and revolutionary traditions. That is the State's criterion because the private sector does not invest in production in that field, so the State does that very well. However, the State is also starting to think about the fact that such films also need viewers. But currently, there is still a problem with the story of public investment and private investment, which is when a film is sponsored for production, it needs to be invested in distributing it, advertising it, that is synchronous sponsorship.

If we only invest in one stage of production, accept it, show it for a few shows and then store it in storage, it is only an initial investment. In the later stages, the cinemas will be under private management, only a few cinemas will be under state management, so the way for films ordered by the state will be difficult to reach normal cinemas, because there is no mechanism to "share" according to the ratio. That is the bottleneck of the mechanism that needs to be resolved so as not to be wasted.

"Vietnam organizing 3 or 5 film festivals is not a lot, but the problem is how to organize them to have the most effectiveness" - Associate Professor, Dr. Do Lenh Hung Tu shared.

+ Recently, Vietnam has started to have a few more Film Festivals such as: Ho Chi Minh City International Film Festival, Da Nang Asian Film Festival, while other countries in the world have many Film Festivals, Vietnam only has 2-3 Film Festivals but has been criticized for having too many Film Festivals. In your opinion, how do Film Festivals benefit the film industry?

- The revised Cinema Law, effective from January 1, 2023, clearly stipulates that all collectives, individuals, and legal entities have the right to organize film festivals. In our opinion, this is a very good progressive point of the Cinema Law. It does not prohibit the organization of film festivals, but the problem lies in the conditions of the organizer, whether the film festival organizer has the funds to do it or not. Because it is also related to the scale of the organization, the organization budget, the value of the award, the composition of the jury, etc. Therefore, if there is a lot of funding, a film festival can be organized on an expanded scale, if there is little funding, it will be done carelessly and not in accordance with the set expectations.

Recently, Vietnam has organized several film festivals such as: Vietnam Film Festival, Asian Film Festival - Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh City International Film Festival, Hanoi International Film Festival... In my opinion, the more film festivals are organized, the more favorable it will be for cinema. This is an opportunity for filmmakers to exchange and learn from each other. Besides, film festivals are like a "festival" of the industry to create conditions for cinema activities, including film festival activities, to develop. And if the scale of organization is good, foreign film crews can be invited to come so that people know more about Vietnamese cinema. In the series of activities of the film festival, there are not only film screenings, film judging and awarding, but also film project markets, seminars to open up many related things, almost coordinating into a series of activities to promote exchange and develop cinema. In my opinion, even if Vietnam organizes 3 or 5 film festivals, it is not a lot, but the problem is how to organize them to have the most effectiveness.

+ As you said, the movie Titanic is both commercial and artistic, so it attracts audiences, while Vietnamese cinema still lacks similar works. In your opinion, what is the reason why Vietnamese cinema has not had works that are both artistic and attractive to audiences recently?

- In Vietnam, we do not lack talented artists, good scripts, but the problem is capital and output. That is why we still see an investment of 20-30 billion for a film, and think that is a large investment for a film compared to the conditions of Vietnam, but compared to the world, that investment is still very modest.

So in my opinion, the most important thing is the capital for investment, so that artists can bring their works to reality. In that, there is selection, from the first film the director will gain experience for the next film, just like that a director can make 5-10 films, and many directors make 5-10 films, then we will have hundreds of films, thousands of films, and in the end, so that we have many choices. That way, in my opinion, there will be a top work. Although the word top is still very abstract, there is no specific qualitative or quantitative definition, it is just our concept. But as we see, there are films by young directors with 500-600 billion, but many people say that is not the top, it is just high revenue, many viewers. No one can determine what the top is. We are also really happy when many movies come to theaters, occupy many days of screening, audiences watch more movies, talk about those movies more… This is also a good thing for Vietnamese cinema.

+ Thank you Associate Professor, Dr. Do Lenh Hung Tu!

Source: https://toquoc.vn/dien-anh-viet-can-gi-de-co-tac-pham-dinh-cao-20241111174523235.htm