Paolo Vasile, at the ESCAC graduation ceremony: “Guys, the game is over”
On January 20, the Paranimph of the Historical Building held the commencement of 88 students of the University School of Cinema and Visual Communication of Catalonia (ESCAC). ESCAC, an affiliated school of the University of Barcelona, has had some of the most prestigious professionals of the field, such as the film director Juan Antonio Bayona, probably the highest representative of the Spanish cinema at the present moment. His name was very present in this ceremony. The sponsor of this event was the Italian Paolo Vasile, Managing Director of Mediaset España and the one who gave Bayona the great career opportunity as producer of his three films: The Orphanage, The Impossible and A monster calls.
On January 20, the Paranimph of the Historical Building held the commencement of 88 students of the University School of Cinema and Visual Communication of Catalonia (ESCAC). ESCAC, an affiliated school of the University of Barcelona, has had some of the most prestigious professionals of the field, such as the film director Juan Antonio Bayona, probably the highest representative of the Spanish cinema at the present moment. His name was very present in this ceremony. The sponsor of this event was the Italian Paolo Vasile, Managing Director of Mediaset España and the one who gave Bayona the great career opportunity as producer of his three films: The Orphanage, The Impossible and A monster calls.
“Cinema is an act of love”
Vasile left his cold and distant image from television to give a deep speech which discovered his great love for cinema. The first allusion of his speech was about Bayona: “When I told him I was chosen as patron he suggested dressing up as Marlon Brando, with a cat (great reference to The Godfather) and told me to give you a big hug from him”. He said it was “an honour, unexpected” because he is more mentioned when talking about television than cinema, together with Telecinco Cinema, “although it is intense and successful in my opinion” he said. Then, his words were dedicated to the graduates “Guys, the game is over” he blurted, and then warned them that in cinema “studying it is not enough: it is an act of love”. Then he added “loving it is not enough, you have to know how to love and find the person you want to love. The most important is that it has to be a mutual love, otherwise it creates frustration”.
The splendid patron discovered the unknown for many: that he is the son of the world of cinema. “I didnʼt enter the world of cinema, I came out of it” he said. His father, the producer Turi Vasile, made more than 150 films. His earliest childhood memories bring him back to the café of Roman studies in Cinecittà “where gladiators, cowboys and astronauts drank coffee together until some stage assistant shouted ʻVirgins, take the stage!ʼ. It was the view of humanity”. Vasile said that he had learnt some rules from his father, especially two which had to be always respected: the first one, a film has to have one and only end. “And my father, loyal to this idea, what did he do? He died twenty days after my mother died, so that their film had only one end”, he movingly remembered. The other rule is that music cannot be more than the scene: “A film is a unicum” he convincingly said. “Regardless of the role you have in a movie, donʼt forget that the final product is the film. This is not a product made out of the work from each of you: this is losing your own identity in a bigger identity, the film”. And he explained: “This goes for big and small films, comedy and drama. It doesnʼt allow superficiality because the film is not deep. There is one way to make films, and that is to make them properly”.
He also showed his appreciation to the work carried out at ESCAC, “a school that, exceptionally, reproduces -in a loyal way- what the school of cinema used to be: the street, the workshop of the craftsman who made glasses with his own hands”. Vasile finished his speech sharing his wish to be the graduatesʼ sponsor: “I am at your disposal for any advice you might need. I feel I have this responsibility. Life wanted us to meet with this marvellous, inconsistent, inexistent and momentary thing: cinema. We must try to carry on with its legend” he concluded.
“Bayona wouldnʼt exist without Vasile”
The Managing Director of ESCAC, Sergi Casamitjana, glossed the figure of Paolo Vasile, focusing on his work as producer. He praised the work done by Vasile and Telecinco Cinema. “You students are in an excellence program in which you have to do your best. During all these years, Vasile and Telecinco Cinema have made such a work that made ESCAC and its students believe everything has a reason”. Regarding Juan Antonio Bayona, he emphatically said that “Bayona wouldnʼt exist without Vasile, who -with The Orphanage, saw they could make something big from the start”. Casamitjana said that, unlike the common work in Spanish cinema, small 2-3 million euro films, Bayonaʼs The Impossible and A monster calls were forty million euros. “Obviously, Bayona made an exceptional work, but it wouldnʼt have been possible without a film producer daring to do such thing, with faith, like Paolo Vasile and Telecinco Cinema”. A work to make the most of its excellence, shared with ESCAC, obviously.
Casamitjana dedicated his lasts words to the graduates: “Donʼt give up, donʼt think everything will be fast and easy”, he said, reminding them that Bayona himself spent five years before making a film. And he encouraged the graduate students to take Vasileʼs words: “You have a patron right here and I hope he received good projects”.
“The universities have to support training in cultural fields”
The event was closed by Amelia Díaz, Vice-Rector for Teaching, who claimed the need of support from the universities regarding the cultural fields, in a moment in which culture is a victim of some important authorities. “We believe cultural values are not secondary but they constitute essential factors for education and life”, she said. She defended the cinema as a “very important way of transfer of universal culture at the moment”. Also, she appreciated the work done by ESCAC to promote their training: “An additional effort that has effects on the student, the prestige of the school, and of course, the prestige of the university to which it is affiliated”. Amelia Díaz highlighted that the University of Barcelona is very proud of having all those who are part of the “ESCAC universe”. And certainly, she ended the ceremony with a sentence taken from the film Amarcord, by Federico Fellini: “cinema, if done well, gives small fragments of life you will never forget”. A great declaration of love for the cinema.