Photo: Francisco José Fargas García
“The U.S. government doesn’t care about the art of film,” David Lynch complained during a press conference at the 2013 Rizoma Fest in Madrid, Spain.
Compared to a country like France, “the attitude of the U.S. is embarrassing” according to Lynch. The American filmmaker stressed the importance of a country to support its arts and not let it be ruled exclusively by the market, as with Hollywood in the case of American cinema. A model which is threatening European cinema as well, he noted. Lynch repeated that much of the art form has moved to cable television, where more exciting things are happening. Breaking Bad and Mad Men being some of the director’s recent favorites.
The topic of government involvement in cinema was discussed due to a recent controversy in Spain after finance minister, Cristobal Montoro, claimed that the country’s movie industry is in financial problems due to the poor quality of its films and not because of increased taxes on movie tickets and cuts in government funding for domestic films.
Here’s a video showing parts of David Lynch’s speech at Rizoma Fest, including a hug with fellow filmmaker and friend, Pedro Almodóvar.
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