Making a truly fine movie is an unpredictable art form. Between the idea and the finished print so much can go wrong, and often does. None of that unpredictability can be controlled or ordered by a Congress or a Parliament, no matter how wise and far-seeing are its members, even as audiences cannot be commanded to see what Presidents and Prime Ministers decree. The solemn fact is that government officials must touch the creative process with a delicate hand, else they deaden its magic. The European Task Force on the future of the Information Society made the emphatic point that it is more prudent to follow a policy of de-regulation than more restrictive regulation.
Barriers are out of place in a world of creative ferment and expanding visual choices.
In the final end of it all, it is the audience of each country which will decide what to watch, not those in the government. It starts in the brain pan of a creative artist, and springs forth to search for life and endurance. I was invited one evening to watch a portion of a new Danish film, still incomplete, but with enough footage to grasp its meaning and its reach. In an improvised theater-setting in a darkened room in the producer's office, I watched, transfixed by what was unveiled on that makeshift screen. I was bearing personal witness to the expression of a rare creative talent.