An honorary event for the work of the award winning writer and president of the International Jury Michael Ondaatje took place at the Thessaloniki Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Saturday, November 22nd.
TIFF director, Despina Mouzaki, greeted the audience and described Mr. Ondaatje as an enchanter of words, adding that: “Michael Ondaatje captures in his words the essence of human nature. With his books he has explored sentimental and intellectual routes in a way that stimulate the reader. We are offered the rare opportunity to listen to Michael Ondaatje himself, while he reads some of the words that have fascinated so many of us”.
Writer and book critic Vassilis Rouvalis was co-ordinating the event. “Michael Ondaatje, although an internationally acclaimed writer, keeps on writing his novels unaffected from the hype, focusing all the while on human nature. His thought and writing are deeply political. He mixes time, memory, recollection and truth and places them within a historical context, which then comes to the foreground and takes on a leading role”.
Canadian Ambassador in Greece, Renata E. Wielgosz, congratulated TIFF for this initiative and added: “Michael Ondaatje’s contribution to literature is an immense one. His work has been translated into dozens of different languages. We are looking forward to enjoying his next work”.
Athanassia Tsatsakou, vice-rector of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and President of the Macedonian Cultural Company “Art”, mentioned that Michael Ondaatje’s work does away with the divisions between novel genres. “His writing is full of counterpoints, his prose takes on a poetic dimension. His prose is a game of colors, sounds and meanings”.
After reading extracts from his latest, award-winning book Divisadero, the writer talked about his work and the film version of his book The English Patient. “It was poetry that taught me to reveal to the reader only 70% of the things I have to say and suggest the rest. This is what I do with my novels too. I try to be laconic, to hint on things that will come up later on. Each book of mine is a sort of research. Of course, there’s always something new I want to say, but I always want to be learning something new too through the writing process”.
In relation to the English Patient, Michael Ondaatje noted that when adapting a novel for film, a director has to focus on only one of the book’s stories, the most basic and simple one. “I was present during the shooting of the film and learned a lot about how a script is written. In a book you can take leaps between different worlds, whereas in film you can’t do that because the viewer will be confused. I would have liked it though if Kip’s story had been a bit more highlighted”.
About his decision to write the book Conversations: Walter Murch and The Art of Editing Film, he said: “I realised very early on, that editing is really important for a film, just like redaction is for a book – if it’s done right you multiply the value of what you have written. I love the editing process. During editing, just like in ballet and music, you co-ordinate every movement to improve the result”.
