Massimo Lechi is a film and theatre critic from Italy, and he’s one of the jury members of the international fiction film competition in Alexandria short film festival in its 9th edition. Influencers today had an intellectual conversation with Massimo on the red carpet and asked him few questions about the cinema and film industry.
Influencers Today: From being a director and production assistant, to a writer, film critic and free lance lecturer for film and theatre history, what was the motive behind this change?
Massimo Lechi: Well, I believe it is life choices, since I was finishing my studies in Literature back then, so I was more comfortable to focus on something that has to do with writing. At the beginning I used to do both at the same time, but I was really young, maybe 18 or 19 years old, so it was a different me, and another life
Influencers Today: Now there’re Netflix, prime video and many platforms which produce movies to be screened exclusively, how do you think these platforms affected the cinema and film industry?
Massimo Lechi: For sure, these platforms are giving big directors like Martin Scorsese for example huge opportunities, to make movies which could only be produced by someone as big and powerful as Netflix. Maybe it affected attending movies at the cinemas a little bit, but I think it was a process which would have taken place anyways, Netflix and the rest of the platforms just speeded up a little bit something which was inevitable, which is the slow disappearance of cinema houses. People nowadays are watching movies on their cellphones, as it’s an easy and cheap opportunity given by technology and they are willing to grab it, but on the other side, movies like “Top gun: Maverick”, and “Avatar” have recently proved that the audience are still willing to go to the cinemas to watch that kind of big productions.
Influencers Today: At the beginning, film criticism used to be on the pages of newspaper and magazines, and now it turned to be on digital platforms and social media, do you think social media affected film criticism positively or passively? And why?
Massimo Lechi: I believe social media affected film criticism massively, as for decades, film criticism used to depend on publication, if you write for an important one, your work becomes highly regarded and you’re followed and people trust you, so the relationship between the writer and the reader was based on trust, now the social media and Webzines have changed this relation completely, as everyone nowadays has the opportunity to write his opinion and spread his word around on different platforms.
Now on social media, people have the opportunity even to debate with a film critic, maybe this made the relationship between the writer and the reader more balanced, but it’s not the same relation anymore, as it turned to be more of a conversation between people who watched the same movie, and we’re all audience.
Influencers Today: Why do you think short movies don’t have big audience as long ones?
Massimo Lechi: Well, they have big audience but mainly in festivals, and I think it’s the nature of the medium, as it’s impossible to distribute short films in cinemas on a large scale, but recently people in the film industry are paying more attention to short movies and now there are many short films festivals which are really big and important.
Influencers Today: What’s the first aspect you take into consideration when you criticize a movie?
Massimo Lechi: I don’t have a checklist which I follow when I criticize a movie, as I believe that every movie is a different story on its own, so I can’t criticize Italian comedy for example same as I criticize Egyptian comedy. Each movie comes from a different culture, and accordingly I apply in eachone different aspects of criticism.
InfluencersToday: Thank you Massimo for your interview, and for being such a flame of inspiration and guidance to artists.
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