Locarno Finds Its Edge

6:00 AM PDT 7/24/2012 by Eric J. Lyman

In his first three years as artistic director, Olivier Pere has kept one of the world's oldest film events from slipping into irrelevance. With this year's edition he has made it his own.

The centerprise of the Locarno Film Festival has always been the Piazza Grande, the sprawling central square of the picturesque lakeside city nestled in the shadow of the Swiss Alps. For 10 days every summer, the plaza is filled with as many as 8,800 seats, and Europe's largest movie screen is erected at its eastern end.