21-23 August 2014
4th Arvo Pärt Centre Film Evenings
The fourth Arvo Pärt Centre film evenings took place from 21 to 23 August – this time all the screenings were held in the stylish comfort of “Sõprus” cinema in the old town (Vana-Posti 8).
Compared to previous years, this year’s programme was guaranteed to be the most relevant, since the selection consisted exclusively of truly outstanding films from 2013 that are nevertheless all distributed and screened independently. Their standing is best reflected by impressive statistics: the films attracted almost 37,000 viewers at Estonian screenings and all three have been financial successes internationally. These figures prove that cinema is a powerful medium, which actually helps bring classical music to large audiences when used well in such good films.
The fact that it is possible to combine a programme consisting of three recent hit films, all featuring Arvo Pärt’s music, illustrates the current breakthrough in the work of the composer reaching even wider audiences. And that is exactly thanks to such popular films, which have larger audiences than could ever fit into the numerous concert halls Pärt’s music is performed in on a daily basis. Of course, this is an inextricably intertwined cultural process, which obviously has passed a certain critical limit – the snowball effect is under way, building upon itself and becoming ever greater. More and more entries about CDs or pieces of music on the internet can be found claiming that this particular piece of music was found thanks to the film where it was first heard. At the same time, the works of our own composer are also increasingly mentioned in the synopses of Estonian films. In a way, such a collaboration of different media is a positive sign of our times, and this is what has always inspired the Pärt Centre film evenings.
This year’s programme distanced itself from such terms as art house or quality film. All three films were successful, widely distributed films, which nevertheless should also satisfy more demanding and sophisticated cinema audiences.
The film evenings presented:
21.08 – “The Great Beauty” (La grande bellezza), dir Paolo Sorrentino
22.08 – “About Time”, dir Richard Curtis
23.08 – “The Place Beyond the Pines” , dir Derek Cianfrance
Such renowned directors as Paolo Sorrentino from Italy, Richard Curtis from the UK and Derek Cianfrance from the USA, have seen reason to use Pärt’s music in their films making it available to the people who may have never heard of ECM, tintinnabuli or Estonia. The Arvo Pärt Centre film evenings are keen to explore the process by which music and film is interwoven to present the work of the composer.
The films were screened in English, with Estonian and Russian subtitles. Tickets available from Piletilevi and at cinema Sõprus. Screenings began at 6 p.m.