Niv Fichman, producer of "The Red Violin," made a one-day flying visit to Shanghai. The director of Toronto Film Festival was here on Wednesday to promote Canadian movies during the ongoing fifth Shanghai International Film festival.
"The Red Violin" was a great hit at the 4th Shanghai International Film Festival two years ago, but what is more significant of the movie is its pioneering role as a co-operation product. "The Red Violin" is said to be a model for film co-operation between Western film industry and China, Fichman says.
Fichman is talking with Shanghai Film Studio about "Blindness," a film based on a Nobel Prize-winning novel, he told Shanghai Daily in an exclusive interview just before he headed off to the airport. He wants to shoot the movie in Shanghai "because I think the city has a foot in the past and a foot in the future. The craftsmanship of the film crews here is excellent, that's the reason I wanted to come back. I hope that this film can be a co-production, and thus make it easier to enter the Chinese movie market." Set in the near future, the film is about a time when everyone will be blind. That's the backdrop, but it's a story about the great love between a doctor and his wife.
Fichman says SIFF needs more work because it should be a great film festival since "Shanghai is a great city, perhaps the greatest city in the world, this century.
What SIFF lacks is professional organizing skills, Fichman says.
(Eastday.com 06/15/2001)
