The European Film Award has certainly changed...changed sex, changed location, and now ,at 19, Europe's attempt to emulate the "Oscar" has finally come of age with a well-presented,dignified ceremony and a splashy but stylish party in Warsaw, not perhaps the most beautiful of Old Europe's capitals,but the first venue in Eastern -sorry, Central- Europe to host the event so far.And, contrary to those who may think that most of the Polish population has recently taken up residence in England, the locals proved efficient and charming organisers .A wealth of local film-making talent was amply in evidence ,from much-loved veterans like Andrzej Wajda,and Roman Polanski (receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award before jetting off to preside on the Jury in Marrakech),top actors such as Daniel Olbrychski,the lively Jerzy Stuhr,stately Krzystof Zanussi,lovely Katerzina Figura,and LA-based Jerzy Skolimowski ,who came from acting in David Cronenberg's new film in London.
The modern venue for the evening, the EXPO XXI congress centre, was cleverly redecorated by Oscar-winning set designer Alan Starski,with the hundreds of guests comfortably seated at dinner-tables, after a "champagne" reception ,(don t worry,it wasn't Polish champagne,but it wasn't French either)where everyone who is anyone in the European cinema came and went and networked in a dozen tongues.An exhibition of designs for Polanski's THE PIANIST (ironically made in Studio Babelsberg in Potsdam and not filmed at all in Warsaw) filled one area.Other corners temptingly accommodated sponsoring beverages, a Jaguar car was well displayed ( I almost expected Bond villain Mads Mikkelsen to jump into it and drive off when he did not receive the Best Actor prize) and when the lights dimmed attention focussed on the distant stage and extremely graceful presenters,Sophie Marceau,herself no stranger to Poland (her ex- Andrzej Zulawski- was a guest)and Maciej Stuhr, who handsomely acquitted himself in Polish,English,and a little French.They made a very good-natured team of comperes.
Admittedly, during the many collages of clips, one's own attention tended to wander to the various liquids thoughtfully provided on every table,most welcome probably being the gleaming,cubist bottles of Wyborowa,a local product said to have magical properties.I can vouch- with some confidence- that it would be no understatement to say that the vodka flowed like water,all night long.Indeed, hundreds of litres of it disappeared,as if by magic indeed.
Prelude to the actual ceremony earlier in the day,in another far-flung location,was a two- part Conference,capably moderated by London-based Scandophile Peter Cowie, discussing "Cinema of Tomorrow",with almost a dozen younger film-directors tackling the Ups and Downs in the World of Cinema, and after a lunch,which included a memorably tasty mushroom soup(more magic?) there was rather more animated discussion from panellists and audience on the topic,The Challenge of Making Films in a Digital Society.After a characteristically comical keynote speech by Nik Powell (now the Director of the UK's National Film and TV School) and some sage reflections by Wim Wenders, the concluding consensus seemed to be that in film technical innovations are not as necessary as good stories,movingly told.
In the awarded films, style and content seem to have come together amazingly well.Pedro Almodovar 's VOLVER respectably won The People's Choice,Best Director, Best Actress(Penelope Cruz en chair et en os made a fine acceptance), Best Composer,and shared Best Cinematographer(with Ken Loach's THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY),yet the top European Film was intriguingly the German STASI-drama DAS LEBEN DER ANDEREN, which also won best Screenwriter(its director, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck) and- justly- Best Actor for the brilliant Ulrich Muhe.
Everything seemed to go swimmingly well,and it did not snow- outside or in, at least as far as I could tell, after my seventh shot of potato-juice- and the only brief hitch came hours later, in the Sofitel Victoria, when the waiters tried to close the bar(at about a quarter to three), but thanks to the efforts of certain French Academy members,the vodka continued to flow, like Deleau.
PHILLIP BERGSON