Tuesday 9 February 2010

Adieu Eric Rohmer

The March copy of Sight&Sound arrived at my door a few days ago. I was in a rush and I just put it in my bag. Later in the tube, I opened it and on the cover I read:

'Remembering Kathleen Byron,
David Carradine, John Hughes,
Eric Rohmer and Robin Wood'

I was aware of the death of most of them but Eric Rohmer. I wrote my final dissertation for my BA about him. I spent 11 months of my life watching his films again and again. Reading about him and his works. All the essays and books he wrote as Eric Rohmer or under a different name (Gilbert Cordier) have been on my desk. I sank into his love for literature and I shared it with him. Since then I felt kind of special for being a member of his small but lucky audience.

While writing my thesis (between October 2007 and September 2008) I was stupidly checking almost on a daily basis if he was still alive. It can sound weird and disrespectful but I was aware he was 88 at the time. He edited Cahiers du cinema from 1957 to 1963 and he was older than his famous colleagues.. then I went to the cinema for the premiere of Les Amours d' Astrée et de Céladon and I felt he was fine and as great as always with his unique style. So I stopped checking about him so often. That is why, when I read about his death on an English magazine 6 days ago, I was shocked. I felt like I forgot his films, forgot about his talent. He inspired me immensely while I was writing my thesis. Studying how he adapted Chretien de Troyes' Parsifal for the silver screen in his Perceval Le Gallois, I could appreciate wholly his sensitivity and sophistication. I am now willing to see all his movies again. That's my personal celebration of Eric Rohmer. Born in 1920 it woud have been 90 the next 4th of April. That's a big loss for cinema but life runs in cycles and hopefully we have lot of material to celebrate him and some acolytes around the world. One of the most assiduous is surely the Korean Hong Sang-soo.

If you are interested in his work that's the list of the movies he directed. The titles are links to the page on IMBD related to the movie and they're chronologically listed (from the most recent to the oldest one). I marked * my favourites.
Triple agent (2004)
Conte d'été (1996) *
Le rayon vert (1986) *
Bois ton café (1986) (V)
Le beau mariage (1982) (as Éric Rohmer)
Louis Lumière (1968) (TV)
Mallarmé (1968) (TV)
Paris vu par... (1965) (segment "Place de l'Étoile")
Don Quichotte (1965) (TV)
"Cinéastes de notre temps" (2 episodes, 1965)
- Carl Th. Dreyer (1965) TV episode
- Le celluloid et la marbre (1965) TV episode
Bérénice (1954)

He wrote the script of many of his films and also performed as actor in a bunch of movies directed by others.

I invite you all to celebrate him and his remarkable films.
You won't regret it.


Adieu Eric Rohmer.


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Friday 5 February 2010

Vampire Bites

I was completely addicted to TB and tried to find an 'academic' justification..

I am totally aware that the recent 'vampire mania' is not something sudden and unexpected. There are wise marketing moves behind it. Still, it is out there and one can try as hardly as he/she wants to ignore it but it is massive and evident.

I already wrote about True Blood for an university assignment and I might have the chance to post it in the future (need to be marked before). What I wrote in this paper is that True Blood is an umpteenth example of original programming from HBO (the same that realised Sex&the City, The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, The Wire among many others) that had the chance (just a coincidence?!) to have a really good timing. Even if (and partly because of) it is dealing with the vampire-human love-story 'genre' that is having a boom in this period, it could make the difference for HBO. Also it is much more than another vampire-human love-story: vampires are indeed in the series but they are more a metaphor for deeper issues than the embodiment of the impossible lover or the enemies as in the Twilight saga and in other present or past vampires series such as Buffy or The Vampire Diaries.

The potential success of this series is particularly linked to the 'vampires mania' boomed in the last two years all around the world. The main cause is the series of four Twilight book by Stephenie Mayer and the adaptation of two of them for the big screen (other two are announced). The remarkable sales of the books were even overtaken by the films' great success. Moreover, the actors playing the protagonists in the movies are now incredibly famous and a large number of fans are asking for more vampire books, movies and series. True Blood could actually tempt them, appealing to an alternative wider audience for HBO. However, the mere fact of 'having vampires who love humans and vice-versa' is only a characteristic of the series which can potentially attract the 'niche' educated audience 'devoted' to HBO alternative programming as well. The creator of True Blood, Alan Ball, directed the critically acclaimed movie American Beauty and already created and produced Six Feet Under for HBO. This dark drama was one of the perfect examples of HBO original programming.

HBO television, after the vast success of Sex and the City and The Sopranos, has found it difficult to match that response. The competition of other channels which copied its original programming is certainly one of the main causes, together with the shifts in the television market. Surely, finding a new hit is not the main problem but True Blood has the potential to make a difference. Thanks to the recent popularity of the 'vampire-human love-story' theme, it can appeal to a wider number of viewers than the members of the HBO 'niche' audience. The latter, however, would be satisfied in finding in True Blood the usual aesthetic attention and the use of sex, violence and profanity neutralised by the smart writing, typical of the other HBO series. Finally, HBO has a challenge to capture viewers because of the rise of competition and having established itself as quality 'not television'. True Blood is 'good timing' thanks to its threat to reinvigorate HBO: it is not just another standard vampire tear-jerker, but an old-fashioned HBO-like treatment of a ragingly popular genre. In fact, the Manichaean world depicted in many vampires series and films (the Twilight saga on top of the others) is far from the complex world of True Blood were vampires and humans live together questioning issues as sex, racism, violence, religion and fanaticism in the deep South of the US.

Finally, I've now finished to watch the series 2 of True Blood and I was a bit disappointed. It is fair to admit that the expectations after the awesome series 1 were probably too high. The overdose of magic, mystery and, above all, all the parallel stories related to minor characters make the program heavy from time to time. At the same time, I watched the first episode of the first series of The Vampire Diaries. The similarities with the Twilight saga are evident..
One of most important comparisons is in the world portrayed by them: True Blood focussed on working adults and the settings are usually bars, houses or wild external locations. The Twilight saga or The Vampires Diaries are about high school students and everything is linked to youth. The sense of raw reality depicted in True Blood is far from the Twilight aesthetic, strongly linked to a dream-like unrealistic dimension, much closer to happy-ending fables about eternal love than the real world. The exceptional but sort of standardised beauty of the actors interpreting Twilight, The Twilight Saga : New Moon and The Vampire Diaries is another cause of this sense of unreality. In True Blood the casting has been particularly clever: the actors are more charming than beautiful and that makes them realistic. Moreover, the world of True Blood is static; there is no shift from a world to another as in the Twilight saga because vampires and humans exist together and interact. There is no secrecy about their existence. They have political representatives, right battles to fight and a synthetic blood beverage from Japan called True Blood that freed them for their necessity of real blood. They are no more acting as animals, there is no need to kill to survive. Finally, they are on the same level as humans.

The most canny and provoking feature of True Blood is the lack of a clear distinction between the monsters (evil and wrong) and us (good and right). Being all part of the same world of sinners and lost souls, nobody is saved and everybody is contributing to the misfortune of somebody else.
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Wednesday 3 February 2010

Federico Fellini and my/his hometown: Rimini



Hi everybody

I never blogged before and above all I've never really liked the idea of the blog itself... but here I am!
Searching material for my dissertation I felt I wanted to share some of the things I enjoy with other people. My closest friends are unfortunately geographically far from me. I've amazing pals in London as well.. but the people you grew up with (at least, some of them..) make things easier (and hardest in bad times to be honest!). No explanations, no lies, they know you better. Well, miss it.
Surely a white page of a blog is not the answer but, well, who cares.


That's the story..

I deeply totally truly love my hometown: Rimini. There are many reasons, but mostly it is because it is my town. And Fellini's. Honestly I don't know if I love Rimini because of Fellini, or Fellini because of Rimini. Or simply I adore both so much that all this love became unbearable..
I decided to leave this much loved city very young mostly because of a guy, let's call him N (no reference to the N&N Infinite Playlist, I swear!). He has always been THE ONE for me (he didn't agree with me at the time though.. and he doesn't now either..). So I decided to leave, being too weak to live in the same city of my 'unrequited love'.

Successively.. too stupid to go further. I signed a 1 year contract as teaching assistant in the North of France at the age of 19. Everything was set but a week before leaving I decided to rather move to Bologna and apply at university. The fact is.. the said 'unrequited love' moved to Bologna the week before, and I knew it. I totally lied to myself telling that I went there because I wanted 'an education'. Well, I had one: he still did not give a shit about me! At all. After a couple of months he went back to Rimini leaving university for good. I was stuck in Bologna for at least three more years: I had to finish my BA. Hopefully I loved what I was studying, enjoyed the city of Bologna and met the most amazing friends ever. People hardily understood me before. Above all, my deep interest for arts, music, cinema and knowledge in general. I considered university my job (plus tutoring back in Rimini during weekends) and I worked hard. I was so so busy. My studies and my hobbies overlapped. I was tired but content most of the times. N was always in my mind.. I never gave up. Always hoping, always trying. I had great holidays, happiness and lots of quality time with friends. All that did not lessen my feelings for him. The grief slowly became bittersweet memories.. I tried again. I thought that he grew up. That he could finally love. Apparently he always could.. he never fall for me though.

Then came London. An awesome life full of arts, booze and new friends from around the world. Graduation back in Italy. Parties. Fun. I am still here after 18 months and I still love this city so much. I'm never bored and I feel alive. Also he's always there.. I start to believe that this is never gonna change.

So here we are, I left my loved hometown behind me running away with a broken heart.. and I'm living a life I never would have dreamed of. I still miss Rimini sometimes but I miss more London when I leave it. I decided to celebrated my hometown and to use my previous knowledge about Italian cinema for my studies.
At the moment I'm writing my MA final dissertation on Fellini's Rimini and how it has been recreated in his movies. I was re-reading the book Amarcord - Portrait of a Town by Federico Fellini and Tonino Guerra and I discovered a little poem that apparently inspired the film.
It' s beautiful.. enjoy



A M' ARCORD

Al so, al so, al so,
Che un om a zinquent' ann
L' ha sempra al meni puloidi
E me a li lev do, tri volti a de.

Ma l'e sultent s'a m vaid al
mani sporchi
Che me a m' arcord
Ad quand ch' a s' era burdell.


I REMEMBER

I know, I know, I know,
That when a man is fifty
His hands are always clean.
I wash mine several time a day.

But when I see
my hands are dirty,
It's then that I remember
My boyhood days.



The meaning of this poem is simple and honest. Surely it can be universally understood but the first version, written in my dialect, makes it MINE.
I miss him. I miss him and I miss my Rimini so bad right now.. but a good movie and a chat with my friends will cheer me up soon..

Live your life and be happy.

Luck is just a legend.. work hard, love more and learn!


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