By Marzia De Giuli
MILAN, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- China's movie industry has great development potentialities springing from its millenary culture, an Italian actor who was the jury president of the Horizon section at Venice Film Festival 2012 told Xinhua in an interview on Saturday.
Speaking shortly after a documentary by Chinese director Wang Bing, San Zimei (Three Sisters), which was awarded the best movie of the Horizon section, Pierfrancesco Favino said that China's millenary culture is able to go straight to the heart of people from all over the world.
The award-winning documentary, a French-Hongkongese co-production which depicts the harsh existence of a peasant family in a Chinese mountain village, was able to "move" the international jury thanks to the vivid life experience it offers, he said.
"We all went out of the theater with a great feeling that we had witnessed something important," the 43-year-old actor added.
The international jury chaired by Favino was composed by seven distinguished experts including the director of the Filmmuseum in Amsterdam Sandra den Hamer and the award-nominated writer-director Milcho Manchevski.
Favino, who has appeared in 35 films and television series since the early 1990s, said a fundamental criterion adopted by his jury was "to talk about the feeling that we had watching the movie."
It was not easy to decide among the high-quality productions in the round that included two other films made by Chinese directors. "But I think that in the end the movie that we have chosen was the one that represented our section at the best," the president said.
According to Favino, the Horizon award showed that Chinese movies were still represented in the 69th Venice Film Festival, after some disappointment had aroused over the fact that no Chinese films had entered the competition session.
Favino said he had been "impressed" with the passion of Chinese film makers. In fact, the profoundness of this country's millenary culture plays a fundamental role in shaping the communication strength of new creations, he added.
"I have a great opinion of Chinese directors, some of which are so incredibly talented. They have changed my way to watch movies," he pointed out.
"Unfortunately I have never been to China, and I must admit I do not know very much about that culture. But I was very surprised by the power of the images that I saw," he said.
The delicacy of Chinese language as well as the "exotic" taste of such a different culture played a fundamental role in bringing the Italian actor closer to Chinese movies.
And he found out that, despite the two countries being so distant from each other, some aspects of China share a common ground with Italy.
"I feel that we are not so far when we come to talking about emotions. It is difficult to explain, but I have a feeling that I am close to that world," he said.
Favino noted that acting in a Chinese movie would be a natural desire for every actor in the world, given the increasing prominence that China's movie industry is going to gain on the international scene.
"I am looking forward to visiting China soon. And I will not miss trying to learn a little bit of Mandarin," he said.
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