A LETTER FROM ABROAD 

Dear friends,

In March 2008, I came to Sri Lanka on the invitation of the Cultural Department of the Embassy of France to conduct a four day workshop focused on cinema critics. A few months later, Mr. Jude Ratnam proposed me to write an article for the first review of Sri Lankan cinema. It is a great joy, for anyone who believes in the virtues of exercising criticism to experience the advent of such a review on cinema critique.

The French Cinema critique review in which I publish my articles “Les cahiers du cinema” will celebrate its 60^thanniversary in 2011. She is an old lady who has faced many storms and glamorous moments in her lifetime and has made a major impact on cinema itself. It is in this review that great film makers such as Godard,Rohmer, Rivette or Truffaut made their first appearances and it is also on these pages that this unique modern form of cinema critique was invented. This activity is in a way useless but also vital at the sametime, an old French passion because in France as François Truffaut said, “everyone has two professions, one being their own profession and the other being a cinema critique”.

When I arrived in Colombo ,overwhelmed by the heat of a permanent summer, surprised by sounds, smells, the hustle and bustle, one way roads everywhere, I had a fear:will we understand each other? Other than the local language, the English language that I torture quite often and this Sri Lankan accent which I feared with its variations and pronunciation, I was hoping that we could find the correct distance to talk to each other, that the roles would not be  distributed in advance : I will talk, you will listen kind of situation. I counted on the universality of Art in general and of the Art of Cinema in particular to break the barriers in order to feel the “Cultural difference” while building a common space for discussion at the same time. The Spontaneity, Kindness and Enthusiasm of the participants of the workshop were amply sufficient to build the base for such a dialog. During four days, we discussed aboutfilms but more generally on the value of cinema critique as our discussions were shared to a great extent between the “Why?” aspect as much as the “How?” aspect.

I would not be able to measure the usefulness of this workshop – even if the creation of a Cinema critique review following the workshop proves that the participants took some benefit out of it. From my point of view it enabled me to strengthen certain convictions regarding the critique and reinforced my belief in the virtues of this exercise (critique). Coming from a country where cinema critique plays an important role in the relationship between the spectators and the films and also baring in mind that at that particular moment I was in a country such as Sri Lanka, where it is the opposite situation having only a few links with the films apart from personal experiences, what people felt watching the movie and therefore I think that there is a great necessity to fill that gap, for the sake of the spectators as well as that of the films. This is why I think that it’s vital to have a cinema review in this country now. It is vital for the spectators who through this would develop a culture of the Critique and being very optimistic one can think that with their increasing numbers and energy they would ultimately make it possible for a wider variety of films to be screened in Sri Lanka .They would also in a certain way set the same trend amongst the Sri Lankan filmmakers. Why? Because the critique helps to be constantly on the watch and to be alert. If they know that their Sri Lankan spectators are in a quest through a review, debates, screenings, a more accurate view, a constructive way of thinking, critique, then they will be compelled to raise the level of their films to match the expectation of the viewers. The critique, is a way to say to the film industry as a whole: we are here, we are watching, we are listening, we are thinking, don’t think we welcome your films without decoding and understanding them, make sure that you would not disappoint us. The critique is therefore vital for the films themselves. You just have to look, as a Sri Lankan example how much Vimukthi Jayasundara appreciates the critiques he receives and how important they are for this brilliant young filmmaker. If there was no one to comment on his films and to make the effort of sharing their opinions on the film, he would then be condemned to silence. May the youth of Vimukthi Jayasundara be symbolic of the state of mind of this review: young, conquering, it is certain that this young generation of filmmakers, students or simply amateurs have their own role to play because the future belongs to them and it starts today, Now! and not tomorrow.

Political deduction: from their level which is relative, from their futility which is certain, the critique is also in its own way a democratic learning process. It is the exercise of debate in action, of the plurality of convictions, of listening to others. It is to successfully link each other, to make a comment, many requests that demands great effort to understand: the film it self, of course (to ask your self what he says to us, explicitly and implicitly), but also his own experience, that has to be acknowledged and questioned, and finally what could be a different experience and a different opinion to your own – a precondition to take the comments, and to offer them to the readers.  There could not be a valid critique rhetoric which deliberately ignores one of these elements. It cannot be without lucidity, without hindsight. Hindsight is a luxury, a privilege but its value is not monetary: it is gained through exercise, practice, the desire to look and to understand, to also argue, to confront your own vision with that of the others in a spirit of harmony. It is gained simply by watching many films, being interested in other ways of thinking, radically different from yours, by exchanges between everyone. The technological mutations of cinema gives the opportunity to more and more people to have access to cinema. One has to take advantage of this unique opportunity because one has to always, be able to argue, wherever it could be, on political issues as one would argue regarding a movie. Correction: Luxury is not the luxury or a privilege,it’s a right, and everyone has the right to claim it. A cinema reviewis a beautiful first step on the road to this rightful claim. To those who write and to those who read this review, I wish them courage and joy.

Friendly regards,

Jean- Philippe Tessé

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