标题: 关于费里尼的记录片的几篇报导 [打印本页] 作者: 蒂 时间: 2007-8-4 13:07 标题: 关于费里尼的记录片的几篇报导 He, Fellini; Documentary revisits the life and art of the cinematic womanizer
5Weinkauf, Gregory
Everyone in his right mind loves Donald Sutherland. The spry 67-year-old boasts one of the mostrespectable acting résumés this side of Christopher Lee, so when he turns up in the documentary Fellini: I\'m a Born Liar, he speaks with authority. Looking a bit dazed but generally enthusiastic, hewaxes on about auteur filmmaker Federico Fellini and their trying experiences making Fellini\'s Casanova (1976, long unavailable in this country). Sutherland\'s mixed emotions (calling Fellini "a martinet, a tyrant") in the documentary are intriguing, but speaking recently at a Q&A, the actor added a rather startling and revelatory new grace note. "He made me feel very beautiful, and I would do anything for him," Sutherland said of Fellini. "It was a love relationship; it was, literally. And I was infatuated with him. I was head over heels in love with him. And the filmmaking became the sexual relationship, became the sexual intercourse in between the two of us. And when that was taken away, there was an awkwardness that I couldn\'t overcome."
Apparently that\'s how it goes with visionaries, and this 2001 film by documentarian Damian Pettigrew helps explain how a squat little madman could transform a lofty 6-foot-4 Canuck into a heartsick girl. It reveals Fellini through his own copious words, through some of his visions and through the sentiments of those who knew him, including lesser-known figures on these shores such as Italo Calvino, screenwriter Tullio Pinelli and cameraman Giuseppe Rotuno. What emerges is what is already known--Fellini was a compulsive artist obsessed with women--but the portrait allows for some unique angles. One comes away from it acutely aware of a man who spent his life grappling with the very concept of women, whom he deemed collectively to be "the unknown planet."
Bursting with disturbingly tight close-ups of Fellini from Pettigrew\'s 10 hours of interviews conducted mere months before the maestro died in 1993, this project literally puts you in the man\'s face, and vice versa. Distinct from some artists who become more obscure as they roll along, Fellini here just keeps crystallizing his primary points: that being available is the key to his work ("I don\'t think the word\'improvisation\' has any place in the creative process"); that spontaneity is "the secret of life."
He also comes clean about needing to control women--and possibly his crew, one member of which declaims, "You surrender yourself, bound hand and foot, to someone who\'s out to destroy you!" Fellini himself simply says of his tug-of-war process, "I need an enemy." Whatever the method, the man developed one of the most unique voices in cinema\'s first century, and here we visit him on the
sets of both Amarcord and Satyricon. These clips aren\'t outrageously exciting but should immediately arouse fanatics, who also may enjoy Pettigrew\'s long dolly shots across vistas from some of Fellini\'s films, which have changed somewhat over the course of time.
Short segments of 8 1/2 and La Dolce Vita also come into play, but cineastes may find themselves most delighted by the appearance of a scene cut from Casanova, featuring Sutherland and a black man kissing in a gondola. Inherent "controversy" aside, I was most amused that Sutherland\'s prosthetic nose (and chin) predates Nicole Kidman\'s award-winning plastic schnoz by more than a quarter-century. There isn\'t much here to learn about Fellini\'s wife, Giulietta Masina, who shows up only briefly to flash her charming smile in stock footage. The same goes for Marcello Mastroianni,Fellini\'s top leading man. But those who do speak in new interviews, including Sutherland, just about
steal the show.
Not surprisingly, Roberto Benigni (who appeared in Fellini\'s last film, La Voce Della Luna) jiggles around like he just swapped his blood for caffeine. Only somewhat intelligible, his primary insight is that "the camera resembles life!" Thank you, Pinocchio. Most fun of all is Terence Stamp, who had already worked with luminaries such as Ken Loach, Joseph Losey, John Schlesinger and William Wyler by the time he arrived on Fellini\'s set for the "Toby Dammit" segment of the Edgar Allan Poe collection, Histoires Extraordinaires. Sitting calmly in what appears to be a cold room in a sedate English flat, Stamp goes nutty when recalling taking his first direction from Fellini--who obviously wasn\'t planning on giving him any. When asked, Fellini cut loose with hedonistic descriptions of the wild "horgy" Stamp\'s character was to have attended the night before, and the actor\'s recounting is a scream. That said, this project is not the last word on Fellini, nor does it replace the director\'s bizarre self-portraits in Intervista or the TV special A Director\'s Notebook. It even irritates a bit, as none of the speakers is identified until the end. That said, though, fans will love it, and the uninitiated may find in it cause to start picking up a few more Criterion DVDs.
Article copyright Dallas Observer LP.
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That\'s Italian; Fellini documentary engages in spite of its imperfections
Polt, Renata
Few people\'s names have been made into adjectives by the addition of the suffix esque. Rubens, of course, is one (and, by the way, it\'s Rubensesque, not Rubenesque). Kafka is another. And so is Fellini.
Felliniesque: what a world of magic, grotesquerie, humor and sometimes pain the word suggests! Few 20th-century filmmakers have been as universally loved as Federico Fellini, who died 10 years ago. It\'s fitting, then, that a new documentary, Fellini: I\'m a Born Liar, directed by Canadian filmmaker Damian Pettigrew, should appear now. The picture has serious flaws, but Fellini devotees will want to see it anyway.
Pettigrew was able to score 10 hours of interviews with Fellini. Seated in front of a shiny gray curtain,the Italian director talks eagerly about his childhood, his films, memory, imagination, the joy of creation, his relations with actors and much more. (The film is mostly in Italian, with English subtitles.)He\'s eminently quotable (the film\'s subtitle is a quote), and I was busy jotting down notes: "Memory ... links us to things we don\'t even remember having lived." "My profession reminds me constantly that I\'m a magician." "For the first weeks [in making a film], I\'m directing the film; later, the film directs me." "For me, the things that are the most real are the ones I invented."
These sections are interspersed with interviews with actors (Donald Sutherland, Terence Stamp, Roberto Benigni) and friends and associates, scenes from the films and contemporary footage of some of the films\' locations: the beach at Rimini (Fellini\'s hometown), Rome\'s central railroad station and
other locations. The problem here is that none of the interviewees, films or locations is identified, though at the end of the movie, we do get to know who the interviewees are. Sutherland, who starred in Casanovar; Stamp, who played in Toby Dammit; and Benigni (I forget which film he played in) are easily recognizable. Some viewers may recognize novelist Italo Calvino or cameraman Giuseppe Rotunno; but who knows Fellini\'s pals Titta Benzi or Rinaldo Geleng?
The same applies to the films. Though it\'s been years since I saw La Dolce Vita and 8½, they\'re unforgettable. Who could miss the gorgeous Marcello Mastroianni? I\'m less familiar with such later films as City of Women and And the Ship Sails On and have never seen Toby Dammit, and I suspect the same goes for other viewers. Would a little identifying tag line hurt?
Among the film\'s highlights are the scenes of Fellini working--giving precise, inch-by-inch directions to the actors in a threesome sex scene, for instance. I also loved the scene of Donald Sutherland being made up--prosthetic nose and chin, new hairline and eyebrows--for his role in Casanova. Fellini was a
perfectionist, Sutherland explains, demanding a $700 shirt for a scene that was eventually cut.
Two major characters are missing from Fellini: I\'m a Born Liar: Fellini\'s wife and frequent star, Giulietta Masina, and the composer most associated with him, Nino Rota. Though Masina is mentioned and appears in scenes from a couple of the films and in other brief shots, her role in Fellini\'s work and life are barely discussed. As for Rota, we hear his unmistakable music as the film opens, and periodically throughout, but again, there\'s no discussion. Did Damian Pettigrew neglect to ask about these key players? Or did he edit them out? Whichever--it\'s a pity.
Fellini: I\'m a Born Liar plays May 2-9 only at San Francisco\'s Opera Plaza and Berkeley\'s Shattuck Cinemas.
Article copyright Pacific Sun Publishing Co., Inc
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The Unknown Planet
A new documentary revisits the life and art of cinematic womanizer Fellini
Weinkauf, Gregory
Everyone in their right mind loves Donald Sutherland. The spry 67-year-old boasts one of the most respectable acting résumés this side of Christopher Lee, so when he turns up in the documentary
Fellini: I\'m a Born Liar, he speaks with authority. Looking a bit dazed but generally enthusiastic, he waxes on about auteur filmmaker Federico Fellini and their trying experiences making Fellini\'s Casanova (1976, long unavailable in this country). Sutherland\'s mixed emotions (calling Fellini "a martinet, a tyrant") in the documentary are intriguing, but speaking recently at a Q&A, the actor added a rather startling and revelatory new grace note. "He made me feel very beautiful, and I would do anything for him," Sutherland said of Fellini. "It was a love relationship, it was literally. And I was infatuated with him, I was head over heels in love with him. And the filmmaking became the sexual relationship, became the sexual intercourse in between the two of us. And when that was taken away, there was an awkwardness that I couldn\'t overcome." Fellini, you bastard!
Apparently that\'s how it goes with visionaries, and this 2001 film by documentarian Damian Pettigrew helps explain how a squat little madman could transform a lofty 6\'4" Canuck into a heartsick girl. It reveals Fellini through his own copious words, through some of his visions and through the sentiments of those who knew him, including figures less well-known on these shores such as Italo Calvino, screenwriter Tullio Pinelli and cameraman Giuseppe Rotunno. What emerges is what is already known -- Fellini was a compulsive artist obsessed with women -- but the portrait allows for some unique angles. One comes away from it acutely aware of a man who spent his life grappling with the very concept of women, whom he deemed collectively to be "the unknown planet."
Bursting with disturbingly tight close-ups of Fellini from Pettigrew\'s ten hours of interviews conducted mere months before the maestro died in 1993, this project literally puts you in the man\'s face, and vice-versa. Distinct from some artists who become more obscure as they roll along, Fellini here just keeps crystallizing his primary points: that being available is the key to his work ("I don\'t think the word \'improvisation\' has any place in the creative process"); that spontaneity is "the secret of life." He also comes clean about needing to control women -- and possibly his crew, one member of which declaims, "You surrender yourself, bound hand and foot, to someone who\'s out to destroy you!"
Fellini himself simply says of his tug-of-war process, "I need an enemy." Whatever the method, the man developed one of the most unique voices in cinema\'s first century, and here we visit him on the sets of both Amarcord and Satyricon. These clips aren\'t outrageously exciting, but should immediately arouse fanatics, who may also enjoy Pettigrew\'s long dolly shots across vistas from some of Fellini\'s films, which have changed somewhat over the course of time. Short segments of 8 1/2 and La Dolce
Vita also come into play, but cineastes may find themselves most delighted by the appearance of a scene cut from Casanova, featuring Sutherland and a black man kissing in a gondola. Inherent "controversy" aside, I was most amused that Sutherland\'s prosthetic nose (and chin) predate Nicole Kidman\'s award-winning plastic schnoz by over a quarter-century.
There isn\'t much here to learn about Fellini\'s wife, Giulietta Masina, who shows up only briefly to flash her charming smile in stock footage. The same goes for Marcello Mastroianni, Fellini\'s top leading man. But those who do speak in new interviews, including Sutherland, just about steal the show. Not surprisingly, Roberto Benigni (who appeared in Fellini\'s last film, La Voce Della Luna) jiggles around like he just swapped his blood for caffeine. Only somewhat intelligible (not that I can throw down in Italian), his primary insight is that, "the camera resembles life!" Thank you, Pinocchio.
Most fun of all is Terence Stamp, who had already worked with luminaries such as Ken Loach, Joseph Losey, John Schlesinger and William Wyler by the time he arrived on Fellini\'s set for the "Toby Dammit" segment of the Edgar Allen Poe collection, Histoires Extraordinaires. Sitting calmly in what appears to be a cold room in a sedate English flat, Stamp goes nutty when recalling taking his first direction from Fellini -- who obviously wasn\'t planning on giving him any. When asked, Fellini cut
loose with hedonistic descriptions of the wild "horgy" Stamp\'s character was to have attended the
night before, and the actor\'s recounting is a scream. That said, this project is not the last word on
Fellini, nor does it replace the director\'s bizarre self-portraits in Intervista or the TV special A
Director\'s Notebook. It even irritates a bit, as none of the speakers are identified until the end. That
said, though, fans will love it, and the uninitiated may find in it cause to start picking up a few more
Criterion DVDs.