Antonioni: Documents and Testimonials Page #3

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Yes, thank you. I don't know...

OTELLO FAVA make up artist Did you work on The Outcry?

Yes, The Outcry. That's ten years ago.

Since then I stopped wearing a tie.

Besides the Oscar,

I believe Antonioni deserves an award for his style.

Every time I would wear a tie on set, he would say:

"What are you doing!" and would storm out scandalized

because I was always wearing the wrong one.

-Did I say something stupid? -You spoke very well.

-I felt it was wrong.... -When?

During the last question "therefore there was no misunderstanding

between me and the director." I would cut the "therefore."

Am I on? Right...

Fellini and Antonioni collaborated

on the screenplay of The White Sheik, Fellini's first feature.

Fellini talks about Antonioni from the set of Juliet of the Spirits.

FEDERICO FELLINI director I hope I won't be blinded by the deep esteem

and friendship I have for him.

I mean, I hope they won't interfere from judging his work objectively.

The side of Antonioni I like best is his consistency,

his coherence that is to say;

he is an author that has always remained faithful

to his film typology,

having his way against the always restrictive impositions dictated

by the production schedule,

but also imposing himself, I repeat,

with an integrity toward his principles

that I would define moving at times.

And finally imposing his way of making cinema

to an audience that for years had refused to listen and to accept it.

And in my opinion this is the ultimate proof.

I believe that many of our young filmmakers

should learn a lesson in dignity from his unshakable character

and his integrity toward a certain style of filmmaking.

Tireless worker, he never shies from experimenting,

Iooking for new faces,

for atmosphere, and music...

Or a simpler rhythm, like this one...

now let's see how this can go with the remainder of the pianissimo,

do you think you can do it...

Elvira can you show us the second reel?

...for instance, this is the first Marilyn,

the other one looks more post-war:

she could be an existentialist, for instance...

when you say "Les feuilles mortes"...

In this case here, one has to make it up...

a sort of a gypsy, this way...

Antonioni refuses to use a traditional soundtrack.

He believes that music in a movie

should deprive itself of its autonomy as an art form

and play the role of an element shaping itself

in the form of a global sensory impression;

the ideal would be creating through noises

a formidable soundtrack and to call an orchestra conductor to adjust it.

GlOVANNl FUSCO musician The Outcry 's track has only one piano,

and the theme is also one with several variations.

Would you like me to play it?

You have been working with him for many years.

What are Antonioni's musical tastes?

Eh... he's quite difficult, that is to say refined.

He told me he studied the violin.

Really?

Eh... he says of himself he could have been a musician,

he's always said it.

Who do you think is Antonioni's favorite musician?

Classical music, melodrama, Verdi, Rossini?

No, he really does not like melodrama

or Verdi or Rossini, nothing.

A musician close to his sensibility?

-Schoenberg. -Schoenberg.

Pierrot Lunaire.

The choice of the instrument seems to be

an important one in Antonioni's movies.

Yes, it is important. Because he always tries to exclude

the usual American-style exploding soundtracks,

you know what I mean?

He prefers few instruments,

because he is a little like his stories, emotions are intimate, right?

I believe that in one of his movies

he has even chosen one only instrument.

Yes, you're right. In his first one Story of a Love Affair,

a saxophone, then in The Outcry one piano only.

But in the introduction there are three or four instruments.

The Outcry is a linear work

that expands like the river Po

whose course is navigated by the protagonists.

Here Antonioni's worker wants to estrange himself from his milieu

and he's consumed by his passion in loneliness;

what is analyzed here is not a certain side of society anymore,

but existence itself, where love, no matter which kind of love,

unveils us to reveal our own inner nakedness, our own misery,

our own helplessness, our nothingness.

This movie that Antonioni had nurtured within himself for years

revealed him as one of ltaly's greatest filmmakers.

While looking for a voice-over for Dorian Gray,

Antonioni discovered Monica Vitti.

Undoubtedly this is one of the most perfect matches

between a director and his interpreter in the history of cinema.

"l chose Monica Vitti" he said

"because no other actress inspires me the way Monica does;

besides, she brings me good luck;

before we met no actress was exactly what I was looking for."

And so L'Avventura was shot.

This drama of human loneliness is played within the volcanic solitude

of the island of Panarea, off the coast of Sicily.

L'Avventura announces a new and audacious conception

of dramatic composition.

A strange dance where the characters' movements

on the island mix with the rhythm of the waves,

tirelessly eroding those naked rocks.

The shooting of L'Avventura took several months,

both because of the difficulties encountered

in shooting the exteriors and the financial problems

that went so far as to cause the production company's bankruptcy,

Ieaving the whole project without money,

out of touch with the rest of the world,

trapped on the small island in the dead of winter.

Antonioni had to take charge of the whole project,

facing disappointment, strikes, and creditors,

while waiting for a new company to take charge of the production

so as to bring the project to completion.

MONICA VITTI actress That's Vulcano. Lisca Bianca.

Right, the tornado! It was so frightening

and it was coming our way and I was so very afraid.

So, what could we do? There was this man with us

who was a sort of a magician,

he had the Word. He was given it that Christmas, in church;

good, yes, yes, yes, I believed him immediately.

I'd go up to him and tell him: use the Word, now.

We must cut this tornado 'cause if it comes any closer we're finished.

While I was shaking like a leaf, he went on a cliff's top

and started making these gestures, putting his leg up there,

Iike this, and traced a cross toward the tornado.

And him, he was calmly shooting the tornado.

As soon as the man traced the cross, the tornado dissolved.

I swear, it dissolved.

Michelangelo, who kept shooting, started insulting everybody.

I wanted to fire that guy.

Right, he wanted to fire that guy and send everybody home.

"Why did you do that? I wanted to shoot the tornado!"

"While it was sweeping us all up?"

"lt doesn't matter, we should have kept going."

That guy was employed to keep an eye on the sea,

whether it was changing or if it was getting rough.

It was amazing because every time the sea

was getting rough he would let us know;

quick, quick, come along, we must leave the island

or get to Panarea as quickly as possible.

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