THE COMFORT OF STRANGERS
Festival is over. We draw conclusions. The winner is Pietro Marcello's La Bocca del Lupo. Absolutely touched by receiving this award, he comes forth baffled and happy during the party after the ceremony. Gianni Amelio together with Emanuela Martini, presents the final evening. Gianni complains it's not like Cannes where secret and suspense are kept over the winners until the final soirée... here you actually knew everything already since the press conference. The most likeable in pursuit is Aaron Schneider, director of Get Low, who collects the prize ex-aequo best actor for Robert Duvall and Bill Murray. "The first thing I'll do when I get home will be to set the prize down on the table Robert on one side, and Bill on the other. I want to see them fight over it meanwhile I'll film: I'll make a documentary for next year here in Turin!". Amelio thanks all TFF staff, all offices, all the people who worked here and we must admit have made this edition one of the best, as says Ventavoli.
We met Damien Chazelle, director of Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench, winner ex-aequo of Special Jury Prize together with Sherry White's Crackie. Damien is very young, judging on looks even younger (class 1985). He's all happy and excited for his presentation: the hall is full of audience and he's enthusiastic there is as much as for Red shoes.
His movie is a love declaration to music. "I've always loved musical comedy, it's a genre I really appreciate, especially those Hollywood’s from the 30's and 40's and French from the 60's, Jacques Demy for example. I wanted a retro style musical, with the resources I had which weren't many: I didn't have much money nor people helping me. A 16mm camera is all I had. I'm a musician too, I play the drums, I wanted to talk about things I knew, do something personal, true, real, and all conveyed through an artificial genre as musical, something regarding the city I live in, Boston, with local musicians".
Guy alias Jason Palmer is a Jazz trumpet-player. "It was funny because initially I had written the part for a drummer, just like me. Therefore I went to a Jazz Club down in Boston to meet a drummer who played there and there I heard Jason Palmer too. Immediately I realized I wanted him in the movie, thus I swapped the drummer to make Jason the hero. I didn't know if he'd agree, I waited the end of the concert to ask him if he'd like to get involved. He'd never acted before, It was something new for him, however he wished to try, hence we began working together. Shooting lasted two years, we'd shoot for a while than stop... we saw seasons go by”.
The film focuses on detail, no wide angles, he stays fixed on the faces. “What I was interested in was, I can't exactly explain, were the small things in the faces, a quick movement of the eyes, of the mouths, what we do with fingers. While shooting I felt attracted by this sort of things. I kept on looking for detail, film is good for this, it has the ability to find trucs comme ça".
Damien leaves us telling us about a hiccup along the way. "I began shooting the most elaborate music scenes, it was hard to find all those people, all that money. I shot on film and sent it all to the lab. Two days later lab calls me up to say everything was destroyed by an accident. That was so sad since it was the first thing we'd done and I didn't know if I could handle shooting a whole movie like this. We had to do it all over, eventually this trouble lead us to remaking the scene even better, since now we knew what we were doing. Looking back I’m happy what had to happened, happened, however it wasn't at all an easy patch...".
We spoke with Calin Peter Netzer too, director of the Romanian Medalia de Onoare. "The film is about lack of communication in a family, seeing also as a by-product of Communism. This man believes, hopes, this medal can lead him to gather all the pieces of his life, forever or just for a moment. Also tonight, re-watching the movie in the theatre, since the ending remains unclosed, I asked myself whether or not he'd understood the movie. It's not a happy ending, the film is not only focused on his relationship with his son and wife, it's about all of Ion's life. During WWII he didn't know what he was doing, neither during Communism he did..."
The film pictures a confused and confusing bureaucracy. "Bureaucracy is a general issue in Romania, as under Communism, later in 1995, time the film is set in, and nowadays. Almost nothing has changed. Here's the issue on humiliation: Ion keeps searching humiliation. The same lady in the office asks him, when he comes back to her: 'Why didn't you stay there nice and quiet with your medal there?'". Calin smiles.
He goes on. "Sometimes we'd improvise. For example I had an idea while shooting the scene in which Ion tells the kids about his war adventures, on script it was a lot shorter, however Victor Rebengiuc, the actor playing Ion, began talking to the kids just like Ion would’ve done. I captured this improvisation because I liked it. Also the scene wit Ion in the mirror, before he goes to meet the president. It's kind of like a cliché, however we considered: why not? When he tries out his discourse for the president in the mirror, there some lines you might've not caught... The president, actually Iliescu, former president of Romania during the years the movie is set in, he was in the Communist party and made a law against house ownership. People living there had to be and must remain residents. I don't think who's not from Romania can understand when Ion, in front of the mirror, repeats 'The landowner association'... then he stops and corrects 'No, not landowners , residents!". He knew who to talk to...". He smiles one more time and says good bye.
Works have started for the twenty-eighth edition. Down one Festival another one to go.
Paola Fornara
