Kodak Honors Ex-Columbia Chief : Producer Puttnam Pulls Punches at Luncheon, Director Joffe Doesn’t

No one from the Coca-Cola Co., or its two Hollywood film studios came to Eastman Kodak’s Second Century awards luncheon honoring producer David Puttnam Tuesday at the Beverly Hills Hotel, but perhaps they should have been. Coca-cola had a strong symbolic presence.

British director Roland Joffe, who directed “The Killing Fields” and “The Mission” for Puttnam, had the film-industry audience roaring with laughter telling a thinly veiled fable about a heroic figure--El Ingles (The Englishman), an obvious allusion to Puttnam’s British citizenship--who rode into Hollywood to save the creative community only to be sabotaged by a Seventh Cavalry that turned out to be the Coca-Cola Co.

Joffe’s story included the broad outline of Puttnam’s short tenure as chairman of Columbia Pictures, a 15-month period in which Puttnam rankled the Hollywood establishment with his blunt, public criticism of the industry.

Puttnam was chosen for the Second Century award--which goes to film makers and executives who are most active in encouraging new talent--before he announced his resignation as chairman of Columbia Pictures last September. Last year, the award was shared by producer-director Steven Spielberg and Burt Reynolds for his work at his theater in Florida.

Gilbert Cates, a director and member of the film-industry panel that selected Puttnam for the Second Century award, said there was no thought of rethinking their choice, even though Puttnam called to give them that opportunity.

“I can think of no one in this business who has made a bigger impact on young people, or given more encouragement to the creative community, than David,” Cates said. “We may go a long time before we find another candidate as suited.”

In Puttnam’s prepared speech (“I have found that I get into a lot less trouble that way,” Puttnam said), the 46-year-old film maker skirted the conflicts that marked his adminstration at Columbia, but he made several pointed remarks about the responsiblity of Hollywood’s creative community to fight “bottom-line mentality” that permeates the business.

“The medium is too powerful and too important an influence on the way we live to be left solely to the tyranny of the box office, or reduced to the sum of the lowest common denominator of public taste,” Puttnam said.

“Movies are powerful . . . They can help to create a healthy, informed, concerned and inquisitive society or . . . a negative, apathetic, ignorant one.

“There are two personal madnesses that young film makers must guard against. One is the belief that they can do everything. And the other is the belief that they can do nothing.. . . The latter is plainly irresponsible.”

Among those who shared the dais with Puttnam was director Jonathan Sanger, who was able to get Eastman Kodak’s Discovery Program off the ground after Puttnam threw the weight of Columbia behind it a year ago. Discovery Program allows young film makers to demonstrate their ability with sponosored short films. Sanger said that five films have been completed in the Discovery Program and that the young directors of those films have already been offered a total of 20 feature-film assignments.

Many of the top executives in Hollywood attended Tuesday’s luncheon. Among them, Terry Semel and Robert Daly, of Warner Bros., for whom Puttnam had made “Chariots of Fire,” “The Mission” and other films before joining Columbia. Others included Universal president Thomas Pollock, Paramount production president Gary Lucchesi, United Artists president Anthony Thomopolous, and New World chairman Robert Rehme.

Missing from the crowd of about 300 were Dawn Steel, Puttnam’s successor at Columbia; David Matalan, head of Columbia’s Tri-Star Pictures, and Victor Kaufman, chairman of the new Coca-Cola Entertainment Co.--Columbia Pictures Entertainment.

Clearly, the highlight of the luncheon was Joffe’s 10-minute speech, told as if it were just one more ripping yarn being pitched to a studio.

Joffe told of El Ingles who came to a mythical place to settle a battle between Los Creativos and the armies of El Vested Interest. Between El Vested Interest and Los Creativos was the real villain of the story, El Packagero (a reference to the talent agencies that Puttnam railed against), who demanded from El Ingles: “Whose side are you on?” El Ingles declared himself for Los Creativos. At one point in the story, it was made clear that El Ingles would be backed up by a Seventh Cavalry that was based in Atlanta (home base of Coca-Cola).

El Ingles, armed only with a banana, said he was going to fight the evil forces with his imagination. This delighted Los Creativos, but when the bullets began flying, and the Seventh Cavalry showed up, its guns were also aimed at El Ingles.

The symbolism of Joffe’s fable became less subtle as the audience responded with hoots and laughter at almost every image. Eventually, Joffe was talking about popping Coke bottles and a defeated El Ingles being drenched by the soft drink.

The punchline of the story was that even in defeat, El Ingles maintained that he was still on the side of Los Creativos.

“That is why we love you,” Joffe said. “That is why we honor you today.”