Roma Festa blasts off like a space shot
Overheard at the reception desk of one of Rome's most luxurious Via Veneto hotels where the clerk on duty failed to recognize a tall gentleman with a bald pate, white mutton chops, a scraggly white beard and a discernible Scottish accent: CLERK: "May I have your name please? GUEST: Connery -- SEAN Connery ... I'm here to receive a prize and I have a license to KILL. Now get me a martini -- a very DRY martini ... and be quick about it! -- Needless to say, the hapless desk clerk in question is now working in the laundry room and Sir Sean is the toast of the town with everybody, from top politicos to other movie stars vying for his attention and the honor of his company. The official black festival bag bears a likeness of Connery from his much younger James Bond-007 days holding a Luger at the ready, while the caption beneath reads "Non scherzo mai nelle cose di Lavoro" ... translation: "I never fool around when it comes to work".
With a magnificent setting on the Auditorium Della Musica grounds in a leafy northern suburb of Rome and an amazing guest list designed to gratify even the most jaded red carpet stargazers, the new Rome Film Festival (Nota Bene: They're calling it a "Festa", not a "Festival -- the word "festa means "party") -- is off to a flying start exceeding the most optimistic of expectations. The Auditorium setting itself, with spacious event halls, ordinarily the home of large scale musical events and philharmonic concerts during the year, is now decked out with so many fairground type cinematic attractions, temporary souvenir shops and large bookstore, numerous cinema exhibits, restaurants and snack bars, that the atmosphere here is more like a World's Fair of Cinema rather than just another film festival -- a giant nine day party involving the entire city of Rome -- and, lets not forget star opera and philharmonic conductor Riccardo Muti, who, not long ago relieved of his duties as top stick at La Scala in Milan, showed up here to conduct a sold-out concert based on famous movie themes.
For openers --the day before the festival even opened -- the local papers announced the debarcation at Rome's Leonardo Da Vinci Airport of her Ladyship, Nicole Kidman, his Lordship, SIR Sean Connery, and a pair of New Yorkers with Italian Names, Martin Scorcese and Leonardo Di Caprio, with many many photographs of the afore-mentioned all over the front pages of the dailies and the entertainment sections inside. When the current Festa was first announced some months ago the big scoop which turned many heads, was that they had managed to sign up Nicole Kidman, arguably, at this point the most admired screen actress in the world today, to inaugurate the proceedings by presenting her latest film "Fur", in person. The fact that "Fur" is not a particularly outstanding motion picture and was greeted here by the first-night audience with lukewarm assessments along the lines of; "well, it was okay, but", or, "Hmm -- so-so" -- is completely beside the point. The main thing is that Nicole chose Rome over Venice, which is where "Fur" probably would have been preemed had this Roman Candle not arisen to shake the boat --er, make that "the gondola". What the blandishments were to lure the alluring Aussie beauty to this particular venue is anybody's guess, but it may just be that a new film festival in Rome --the Eternal City, Fellini's Dolce Vita City -- was in itself attraction enough.
The pictures of her arriving at the airport were really funny -- blond locks mostly covered by a monstrous floppy cap, and wearing oversize sun goggles, as if this "disguise" would fool the famous Roman paparazzi. On stage the next day, presenting the film, she was dressed in an elegant white gown and played the leading lady to the hilt providing the opening night audience with a solid shot of glamour, and so what if the flick was only so-so.
This was incidentally in the 2,800 seat Santa Cecelia Hall while the opening ceremony itself crowned by the Marcus Aurelius award to Mr. Connery for his life's work as an actor, took place in the neighboring Sinopoli Hall which also seats close to 2,000. The third hall in the complex is called "Petrassi" and, being smaller, is normally used for chamber concerts. All are state-of-the-art venues with excellent acoustics and grand vistas to the stage. Most big festivals, if they are lucky, have one really big hall for gala screenings. Rome has two and a half.
The high beige brick walls of the vast foyer leading up to the Sala Sinopoli screening hall are adorned with one of the most interesting photo exhibits I have ever seen -- large large B/W blowups of photos of various superstars of the 50s and sixties arriving at Rome airport. In those days it was probably to go before the cameras at Cinecittà. This was the pre-jet age of
propellor aircraft such as the four engined Lockheed Constellations, parts of which are seen in some of the pix. Among the personalities pictured arriving in Rome and Carrying Their Own Bags (!) are Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner (1950), Jimmy Stewart and Charlton Heston (1958), a nearly unrecognizable Paul Newman with beard and shades, (1961), a still relatively slim Marlon Brando (1967), a young Sean Connery brandishing a black handlebar moustache, (1968), a trim Anthony Quinn in a tweed suit, John Wayne arriving with, of all people, Sophia Loren, Louis Armstrong, and so on, and so forth ... the kind of room where one could spend hours inspecting these incredible off the wall shots from the golden yesteryear of world cinema. This exhibit has the intriguing name of "CIAK-IN" a play on the words "Check-in" and "ciak", with is the Italian version of the sound that movie clap-boards make when slapped together to mark a take.
Speaking of Sophia Loren, a big question in some circles is, how come the once first lady of the Italian cinema, still active to a certain extent -- How come La Loren is nowhere in sight when just about everybody who is or ever was anybody in Italian film is most visibly here? Was she simply overlooked when it came to making up the guest lists ... or, is there some other more subtle reason? Well, according to one nosey Italian writer (-- but, who knows how trustworthy such gossip is? --), Sofia actually was sent an invitation, but only at the last minute as a kind of afterthought, which didn't sit right with the great Italian screen diva, so she "made other plans". According to this source (a distant cousin of Louella Parsons?) a telephone call to the Roman residence of Sophia's sister, Maria Scicolone, revealed that the actress is actually IN ROME at this moment, cooling it at her sister's pad while pointedly refraining from putting in any kind of appearance at the Auditorium grounds. This "insider" report goes on to intimate that she invited old friend Sean Connery over for coffee, and the
Great Scott naturally accepted, but had to cancel at the last minute when he got held up at a dinner party given by the mayor of Rome. Poor Sophia, sitting there and gritting her teeth.
On the second night of the fest the astounding appearance of Italian Force-of-Nature, actress Monica Bellucci, on the red carpet for the premiere of "N - Napoleon And Me" caused such a sensation that it completely blew away the memory of Nicole Kidman out there the night before. For anyone not yet aware of just who Monica Bellucci is, this statuesque actress is currently Italy's most impressive export item and is constructed along the lines of an Anita Ekberg, vintage "Dolce Vita" -- only more beautiful in a brunette edition. Poured into a bright red off-the-shoulder décolleté gown which displayed her sumptuous proportions to the eye-filling max, Monica was accompanied onto the carpet by a platoon of gentlemen dressed in Napoleonic headgear, and her arrival unleashed an explosion of screaming by fans and oglers surging up against the restraining barriers reminiscent of the Call of the Wild or the Riot in Cell Block 11 -- plus a prolonged outburst of camera flashbulbs that must have registered a seven on the intergalactic supernova scale. Ms. Bellucci is on view in two films here, the Naploeonic one starring Daniel Auteuil in the title role, and "The Stone Council", a French drama set in Asia where she plays a French scientist who adopts a young Thai boy. Her co-stars in "Council" are Catherine Deneuve and top German star Moritz Bleibtreu.
The only damper so far has been the death of the famous Italian director Gillo Pontecorvo, whose passing occurred right on opening night. His wife was in the audience and had to be called away in the midst of the celebration. Pontecorvo was born in Pisa on November 19, 1919 and would have 87 next month. He was the last survivor of the postwar Italian Neo-Realism generation and is best known for "The Battle of Algiers" (1966) which showed the dirtiness of the Algerian War of Independence from both the French and Arab sides, and was called by director Mario Monticelli "a film which has not aged one minute" and is as timely today as it was forty years ago.
In somma -- in a word --The new Rome Film Fest has taken off like a bat out of Hell, is already in orbit, and is undoubtedly conjuring up the Worst Nightmares imaginable for the festival organizers of The Lido up north. Looking through the program for the coming days, however, I really do not think that this dazzling pace can last the route, but there is no telling who will yet show up unannounced, and Harrison Ford has been engaged to do the honors on closing night, October 21. So, even if there is some slackening in the parade of stars during the week, there's no way this cinema celebration can be a fizzle-out at the end.
Alex Deleon, Auditorium, Rome
October 14 - 15
