Lexicon

Their first collaboration dates back to 1983. The two men co-produced Anno Domini, a series on the fall of the Roman Empire. In 1989, Tarak Ben Ammar becomes the associate of Silvio Berlusconi to found Quinta Communications. In 1994, he receives a business banker mandate from Berlusconi to re-launch his company, Fininvest. In 1995, he helps Mediaset to enter the stock market and, in 1996, becomes a member of its executive board... President of the Italian Council in 2001, Berlusconi nominates his friend advisor for North African and Middle-Eastern countries. "People have already put Berlusconi and Murdoch in a box, if Tarak Ben Ammar is with them, he is one of them. One should hope that I can change them, that I have an influence on them... I have tried to educate them in the ways of oriental sensitivity."

"It is all part of a Latin balance: I have not gone to the UK, Germany or Spain to succeed, but in Italy. It is a Mediterranean country that is more open than France. The Italian directors were the origin of my success. Then, I worked with Berlusconi."

Tarak Ben Ammar plays an important role in the Italian audiovisual and financial business. He helped Vincent Bolloré to become a major shareholder in Mediobanca, which consolidated the presidency of Antoine Bernheim in the major insurance company Generali. He is also director at Mediobanca since 2003.

"I am a citizen of the world. I felt this very early due to the fact that I had lived abroad. Travel and languages were the source of my success. I am worried about what the western world and Europe is doing to protect their borders from immigration. All the humanist culture represented by the right to travel, with the possibility of learning languages, traditions, is going to disappear. A wall has been built in Europe, a sort of decolonization in the opposite direction. The young Europeans will be able to travel but not the others. How can you expect there to be a mixing of cultures between peoples? This security and protectionist side of the European economy prevents a whole generation of young persons from discovering and learning. One of the reasons for my connections with Rupert Murdoch is that he also behaves like a citizen of the world. He has the curiosity to understand the Chinese, the Italians, the English..."

"It was an important meeting. He is of the same generation as Coppola, Lucas, Spielberg, these directors that, in the 1970s, represented the new cinema. I was fascinated by the fact that, having directed Hollywood films in the big machine, he kept his curiosity, going to all the festivals. I offered him the possibility of shooting an entire film in Paris, with French technicians, and the whole of the postproduction chain. He played the game. I was able to see, once again, that film is a universal language."

"Europe – and in my business I consider myself to be a European producer – must learn how to make major international entertainment films without feeling inferior to the Americans, as we have the necessary talent and technicians. And Tunisia can offer this possibility to Europe to produce major entertainment films."

In February 2008, at the Berlin Festival, Tarak Ben Ammar officially unveiled his new Europe-wide (but also in Canada with Alliance) film distribution strategy, in partnership with the bank Goldman Sachs. "Our aim: to be an independent European distribution platform, offering the same qualities as the American majors but with a different approach in terms of decision taking processes. We can be an alternative to the majors, without necessarily competing with them." An approach that is exactly in line with that initiated by the association Émotion in 2000.

Also read "The Tarak Ben Ammar empire"

In 1994, Tarak Ben Ammar receives a business banker mandate from Silvio Berlusconi to re-start his company, Fininvest. In 1995, he helps Mediaset to enter the stock market and, in 1996, becomes a member of its executive board. Furthermore, he is a member of the executive board of Mediobanca, one of the largest Italian banks, of which Vincent Bolloré and his associates holds 10%...

"With Bolloré, I was the first man from the South to enter the executive board of such a large bank. I have just been nominated member of the executive board of Telecom Italia. I was not really a business banker. I do not have the competencies, or the experience, or the legitimacy. My strength was the fact of having been the friend of those people, their confidence. They trusted me, they knew that I was not motivated by the commission. I was not a financial person from the outset, but a film person. I learned about finances as I went along."

"Publicly, on television, in the French current affairs program '7 sur 7', Jean-Luc Godard criticized me, as a Tunisian, for having produced La Traviata, but opera, Beethoven, Mozart, belongs to everyone. My film-making approach consists, precisely, of breaking down the frontiers of religions, of misunderstanding, of racism thanks to the distribution of cultural works. According to Godard, I should make Tunisian films. It came from a generous sentiment on his part for North-African film-making, but it was really the idea of each to his own. I looked for him in Cannes to tell him that he was an idiot! He recognized his error and apologized."

"One morning, I received a phone call from François Mitterrand. I was in a state of shock. He was in Tunisia on an official visit, at the Palace, and he declared: 'My brother-in-law Roger tells me that you are a very interesting man and that you studios are worth a visit. Don’t tell anybody, but I will come at nine o’clock tomorrow morning.' Obviously, I had to inform security. He had an official calendar. He didn’t want to follow it. I got shouted at by the protocol department. He came from nine o’clock in the morning to three o’clock in the afternoon. He talked with the actors. We were shooting a film on ancient Rome, he was very inspired. One and a half months later, the Élysée called me: they wanted to decorate me with the Légion d'Honneur. I asked myself if I deserved it. In general, one does not receive the Légion d'Honneur at the age of 33. I was a little uncomfortable. I didn’t know what it meant in terms of merit. Obviously, I was very flattered. I rarely wear it."

Whilst 'obstinately' holding on to his independence, Tarak Ben Ammar is a man of influence, who advises numerous personalities in the domains of the audiovisual and financing, who he puts into contact, for which he serves as an intermediate and with which he occasionally does business: Silvio Berlusconi, the businessman and president of the Italian Council, the Australian mogul Rupert Murdoch, the German press boss Leo Kirch, the Saudi Arabian prince Al Waleed, Jean-Marie Messier, at the time head of Vivendi, Patrick Le Lay, then president and general manager of TF1, Vincent Bolloré, Pierre Lescure, Jean-René Fourtou...

"Murdoch, Berlusconi, Kirch and Al Waleed knew that I would never betray any of them as I was friends with all three. Indeed, they did not ask me to act in a way that would go against my conscience. They are reputed to be sharks, but Hollywood is much worse than those people. It is possible to do business honestly, where both parties come out winners. This balance certainly comes from my diplomat brother. It is in their contact that I grew up. They inspired me then helped me. I like the word 'independent'. This stems from the fact that I grew up at the time of the independence. Bourguiba negotiated it. It is possible to be independent and still be friends, without oppression or submission."

In 1996, Tarak Ben Ammar became Michael Jackson’s manager, at the request of the artist, and produced his world tour (58 concerts) within the frame of Kingdom Entertainment, created with the Saudi Arabian prince Al Waleed. The artist played, in particular, Tunis, at the El Menzah stadium, on a stage of 300 m² in front of a crowd of 60,000. A concert in Egypt was cancelled for security reasons, and another cancelled in Morocco because of the absence of agreement on the rights... The profits from the Tunisian concert went to a solidarity fund for the needy.

"The sole preoccupation of Michael Jackson is to create all day long. He is a child. He was badly advised for part of his life. I have nothing against the mystery of the star, which is an important part of the dream, but this should not erase the human aspect. I made all possible enquiries, consulted files and saw that he had been a victim of blackmail, which is something that can happen to a star of his size."

"At the age of 20, I was moved by the famous phrase of John Fitzgerald Kennedy: 'Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.' True success is not financial. For me, a man has only truly succeeded if he has helped, through his work or ideas, his community or country to progress."

For the American magazines Time and Fortune Magazine, Tarak Ben Ammar is the only equivalent to Dino de Laurentiis to have emerged from the Arab world without petrodollars.

"To this day, I still cannot believe that we have become friends and associates, while I watched his films as a kid. I had the chance of meeting people much older than myself. They passed on their personal and professional experience. They saw my desire, my enthusiasm and looked after me, helped me. Rossellini, Zeffirelli, Dino de Laurentiis... A school like that is priceless."

"I have no doubt, I would never have followed this career without speaking fluently English and Italian. I pay homage to my father who had the courage to take me out of the French school at the age of 9. He said to himself: 'one of my children must speak English', and he put me in the American school. I stayed as a boarder. Without that, I would never have done Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Americans were very afraid of travelling to an Arab country. I had to reassure people by being 'western' myself. I spoke English without accent."

Neptune is the name of a boat built from scratch – the copy of a 17^th century galleon – for the film Pirates by Roman Polanski. A veritable flat-bottomed studio on which four months of filming took place. The architect Pierre Guffroy (Oscar for decoration for Tess) headed the work.

"It is very important. I gave 5,000 Tunisian families a living for four years. I agreed to produce Pirates, but on the condition that the boat was built in my country. Being rich means sharing economically. When you earn money and then spend it, it goes in the pockets of others anyway. I produced a feature-length film for $ 30 million, of which $ 8 million for the boat, principally as salaries. Despite the film’s failure, there is a moral in money. The Menzel Bourguiba ship yard, which I saved, is still working today on European boats."

The Neptune was later opened to the public. The galleon was anchored in Cannes, in 1986, then in Marseille and Barcelona, before being definitively moored in Genoa. It attracts 4 million visitors, representing € 14 million in income: much better than the film!

Henri Verneuil (Tarak Ben Ammar produced his film Mayrig):
"Everyone knows that I am Armenian and that I am proud to be an Oriental. Indeed, it is as an Oriental that I perceive love, friendship, family relations... This is why I am here. When Tarak Ben Ammar read the story, his only thought was then to find the funding for the film, and the funding was significant. This enthusiasm, this energy, this passion are all part of his Oriental nature. Now that the project has been completed, everyone wants the film, but in the beginning, it is his heartbeat that was in unison with mine. He felt it, he was passionate about my story as much as I was."

"There is nothing more beautiful than patriotism, because it allows young people to love their country, values, institutions, history and culture. I find that the French are not sufficiently pro-French. Careful! I don’t mean chauvinist or racist. I am Tunisian and proud of it, but my morality is not exactly a Tunisian morality. I am also a citizen of the world." "I was born in the medina. I lived the first ten years of my life in the souk. My grandmother stayed there until her death and my sister still lives there. My grandmother was illiterate, she didn’t know anything about films. When I returned to see her after Paris and Hollywood, she believed that her grandson worked in television. I have always been in contact with the people: workers, extras... I could not have been successful in Tunisia if we hadn’t formed a team. We grew up together."

"Quinta: number five. Berlusconi, with La Cinq, was going bankrupt. And here in the Arab world, when you say five, five out of five, it is a good luck charm, it is the hand of Fatima."

Created in 1989 with Silvio Berlusconi, Quinta Communications is now Quinta Group, and is made up of Quinta Communications, Quinta Industries and Quinta Distribution.www.quintaindustries.com

Also read "The Tarak Ben Ammar empire"

"I deeply believe in all religions as I find them all to be morally great. When I produced Jesus of Nazareth, I felt like a Catholic. My religion, Islam, is a marvelous religion, but which is misunderstood. It is the most recent of the three religions. It is both more modern and more difficult. For example, there is no clergy. When you communicate with God, you do so directly. Islam is not, in any case, a religion of killers or terrorists. In the Koran, it is written that if you commit suicide, you will eternally commit suicide in hell. The Muslim kamikaze has been misled."

"I decide to invest in a film when I want to see it. It may seem a little simplistic but, when I read a script, I say to myself: 'If I am ready to pay € 9 to go and see this film then it means that I can invest the amount needed to produce it.' I am the first to go and see my films, with the same enthusiasm as when I was 15. I am ready to spend any amount to produce a film like From Here to Eternity by Fred Zinnemann. I have seen it seven times."

"When I was in exile, from 1985 to 1987, I understood that television was the real financial backer of the seventh art. Canal + was created in 1984. Berlusconi’s empire started in 1982-1983. I approached television as the film industry cannot live without television and vice-versa. They are intimately linked. Then, I met Murdoch and Kirch, always with the goal of learning about television and obtaining financing for producing films."

In July 1985, Tarak Ben Ammar sues Universal as a result of the company’s withdrawal from the film Pirates.

"To defend your rights in the United States, you have to be rich. Americans cannot be trusted to keep their word. They behave just like a rich country with respect to a poor country. They sign contracts, break them, slow down the legal procedures to discourage plaintiffs. It is a bitter experience as this country was for me that of morality. I placed my company in danger to honor my commitments and produce this film."

On 8 July 1991, after six years of procedures and costs of $ 6 million, Tarak Ben Ammar wins his case. The court grants him 100% of the requested compensation, close to $ 16 million. An historic decision for an independent, who furthermore is neither an American or a westerner, against a major, and also because of the amount granted for breaking an unsigned contract. The decision will serve as jurisprudence.

"Europe is in the process of building a wall. In our youth, we all have the possibility of going to Rome, by train, by car, hitchhiking... Today, young North-Africans, Africans – 65% of the population below 25 – can no longer travel. There is the famous visa wall. We have recreated a ghetto. Young persons travel through television, but they absolutely cannot travel to learn, to open the mind. It is a real problem for the next century. Freedom of travel, movement, was the cradle of civilization, from ancient times through to the Renaissance. Humanity opened up because of cultural interactions. How can we expect there to be no wars?"

In 2005, Tarak Ben Ammar became a partner of the Weinstein brothers through a € 30 million investment, who want to create a major in the US (their production company Miramax now being at the hands of Disney).

"It may seem strange that two Jews from the Bronx – who have found success in the US and are independent film geniuses – decide to call upon a Franco-Tunisian to help Goldman Sachs provide financing and European networks to found their new company. Yet another proof that cinema is universal!"

Tarak Ben Ammar admits that "he doesn’t have any words starting with X in his life."

Tarak Ben Ammar produced Deux heures moins le quart avant Jésus-Christ directed by Jean Yanne and released in 1982. "We can see just how the writing, the talent and the humor of Jean Yanne are alive. Furthermore, spending time with Coluche over one year was a great moment of happiness for me."

Tarak Ben Ammar has produced three films directed by Franco Zeffirelli: Jesus of Nazareth (1977), La Traviata (1982) and Toscanini (1988).

"Zeffirelli introduced me to the world of opera, I must say not without some difficulty. As soon as I saw an opera on the television, I switched channels to find a western! He took me to the Scala. Why were these guys shouting instead of speaking? Why were they fat and ugly? What’s more, you had to follow the little book on you knees as, at the time, electronic subtitles didn’t exist."

We both planned to adapt Aida for the screen, for Maria Callas, in collaboration with the orchestra conductor Leonard Bernstein. The diva had already acted under Zeffirelli’s direction on stage. The project, not judged sufficiently profitable, was abandoned.