L'Italo-Americano

italoamericano-digital-9-15-2016

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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2016 www.italoamericano.org L'Italo-Americano 5 LOS ANGELES ITALIAN COMMUNITY SAN JOSE ITALIAN COMMUNITY "What I have to do with a movie centered on the Vietnam War?" Francis stressed how it was not going to be a war movie. He encouraged me to read Conrad's b o o k , t o u n d e r s t a n d t h e r e a l essence of his project. That is the conflict which always hap- p e n s w h e n a c u l t u r e t r i e s t o superimpose on another. It was a universal concept, which I felt invested in. I tried to visualize the metaphor of the two different societies clashing against one another, by employ- ing artificial color and light gradually moving on top of nat- ural colors and natural light. Francis toured with me sev- e r a l t e c h c o m p a n i e s i n L o s A n g e l e s , g i v i n g m e c a r t e blanche to choose the equipment I felt most comfortable with. I told him that the technology used for 1900, would have been a p p r o p r i a t e f o r A p o c a l y p s e Now. I was also acquainted with the Italian crew of technicians. Coppola let me keep that same people and equipment. W o r k i n g o n A p o c a l y p s e N o w , h a p p e n e d t o b e a l i f e changing experience for both Francis and myself. After six months of pre-production, one year and a half of production and two years of post-produc- tion, we became more mature individuals. To the point that, upon com- pletion of the shooting, I felt the impellent need to take a break in o r d e r t o i n v e s t i g a t e t h e t r u e nature of light, as well as the philosophy, symbolism and dra- maturgy of colors. After this year of exploration, it began a new chapter of my life, dealing with the meaning of colors. In 1982, you were awarded with your second Oscar for t h e c i n e m a t o g r a p h y i n Warren Beatty's, Reds. How was the experience of working with Beatty? Warren Beatty was planning to make a movie about the fig- ure of journalist, John Reed, w h o e x p e r i e n c e d a n d w r o t e Continued from page 4 a b o u t b o t h t h e M e x i c a n R e v o l u t i o n a n d t h e R u s s i a n Revolution. Warren had seen my previous works, including 1900, which shared the same epic tone. It was not an easy experience at first, given that I had never worked before, alongside some- body who simultaneously acted and directed. He shared the con- ventional way of making movies in Hollywood. He believed that the camera ought to follow the movements of the actors, rather than be a character itself. That was the exact opposite conception of Coppola, who had endued the camera with its own life. Since Warren was used to look at a scene from the inside, he had difficulties to absorb this concept. Therefore, I worked to get acclimatized to his way of making movies. We enriched each other with o u r d i f f e r e n t p e r s p e c t i v e s . Working with him, was a funda- mental learning experience. After my collaboration with Beatty, I delved into deepening the Greek philosophical theories on the relation between matter and energy. Only when the four elements of Earth, Fire, Water and Air balanced each other, energy was able to flow. O v e r m y c a r e e r , I t r a n s i - tioned from darkness, half-light and light, passing through the seven colors of the spectrum, to the rapport between matter and energy. In 1988, you received your third Best Cinematography Oscar for Bertolucci's, The Last Emperor. It stands out the contrast of light between the prison scenes and the initial sequences at the court. Please elaborate on that. Bertolucci was coming out from a difficult period. 1900 - not well received abroad - La luna, as well as Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man - the only one I didn't work on, since I was busy w o r k i n g o n C o p p o l a ' s , O n e from the heart – weren't very successful. Bernardo had lost much of his confidence, while I had right t h e n t h e c h a n c e t o m a k e t h e most of the North American tra- dition of making movies, com- bined with my early formation in Italy. The Last Emperor is about a child taken away of his mom's a r m s , t o b e r a i s e d i n t h e Forbidden City, like a prisoner i n h i s o w n c i t y . N a t i o n a l i s t China forced him to take a jour- ney within himself, a sort of psychoanalysis. My idea was to associate a different tonality of color with each step of the emperor's life, backwards as he remembers the events. As Newton taught us, "white is all of our life, while its single moments are the colors of the spectrum." Similarly, at the end of the movie, as the emperor receives the diploma from his mentor, the white snow in the courtyard highlights the moment of epiphany in which the protago- nist realizes the meaning of his life. T his year's Italian Family Festa was at San Jose's History Park. For those of you in the area wanting to visit a n i n t e r e s t i n g v e n u e , t h e History Park needs to be on your to do list. It is located in Kelly Park which also houses a Children's Zoo, and Japanese American Friendship Garden. A t t h e e n d o f t h e p a r k i s a n amazing living history park, with historic homes brought in, and each home housing an eth- nic museum. In the heart of the park is a third size replica of the famed San Jose Light Tower, a n d h o t e l a n d f o r I t a l i a n A m e r i c a n s , a r e p l i c a o f t h e Bank of Italy. The Park is laid out like an old fashion commu- nity village from the time when Santa Clara County was known a s t h e V a l l e y o f H e a r t ' s Delight. In keeping with that thought, the Villaggio Cultural followed t h r o u g h w i t h t h e t h e m e o f "Growing our Heritage", with t h e f o l l o w i n g l e c t u r e s a n d e v e n t s : O n S A T U R D A Y AUGUST 27TH There was a World Premier o f t h e D o c u m e n t a r y F i l m , "POMODORO" by local film- maker Michael LoVaglia. The film is a tribute to 3 generations of his family and a glimpse into a vanishing culinary art in the Italian American Community, t h e m a k i n g a n d c a n n i n g o f homemade tomato sauces. At one time whole families would pitch in during the harvest sea- son to make sauce for yearly use. It is a process, tradition, and culinary art that was repli- cated throughout the valley and b e y o n d w h e r e e v e r I t a l i a n Americans settled. Michael has d o c u m e n t e d n o t o n l y t h e process but the feeling and a sense of community these culi- nary process entailed. This was followed by The I t a l i a n A m e r i c a n G a r d e n s P r o j e c t w i t h M a r y M i n n e t t i . This is a national organization founded in 2010, at Pittsburgh P e n n s y l v a n i a . M a r y i s t h e director of the project and she presented on the goals of the project, a tribute to our heritage, and attempts to document and preserve heirloom varieties of plants that were hand down to t h e g e n e r a t i o n s a n d b r o u g h t over from villages throughout Italy in the 19th century. Some of the seeds are collectors item on both sides of the Atlantic, and for those home gardeners a not to be missed experience. T h e r e w i l l a l s o b e a s p e c i a l e x h i b i t i n t h e C u l t u r a l T e n t a b o u t t h e p r o j e c t . W e a r e indeed, "growing our Italian Heritage". If you are growing or cultivating seeds from Italy, why not share with the Project! And for the bambini, CUCI- NA BAMBINI, and its staff run the amazingly popular school, and they will gear their presen- tation to youth and the young at heart, and those parents who want to encourage their children in the culinary arts. We will learn about the school, experi- ence a simple lesson in making panini and allow for some dis- c u s s i o n t i m e a b o u t w o r k i n g with your child in the "cucina". A fun event followed with D e m y s t i f y i n g P i z z a ! Y e s i t s c o m e t o t h a t , t h e r e i s Neapolitan, Sicilian, New York, C h i c a g o a n d e v e n H a w a i i a n style Pizza. We all grew up with Pizza, but it was a simple process. At least I thought so. In today's gastronomical world there are about 25 to 30 differ- ent styles of pizza. To help us sort out this gastronomical may- hem is no other than Al Vallorz of Tony and Alba's Pizzeria. They also do the Pizza for our Italian Festa. He has documents about 20 distinct styles of Pizza making and shared some help- fully culinary guidelines. O n S U N D A Y A U G U S T 28TH B u i l d i n g o n o u r t h e m e o f Growing our Heritage we had a p r o g r a m o n G r o w i n g y o u r Italian Garden and Q/A clinic, with gardeners from the Emma Pruesh Park urban gardeners, and KKUP radio hosts, Jim M a l e y , S h a r o n M c C r a y a n d park friends. The workshop reviewed various varieties of vegetables found in a typical Italian American home garden, how to grow them, planning for Fall plantings. We also included a program called "Connecting the dots", a very special presentation on a J o u r n e y o f D i s c o v e r y , b y Madeline Damiano. Madeline turned back the pages of time and reconnects with her grand- parents family that stayed in Italy during the great migration. She will focus on the Avellino area between Campagna and Puglia and the small mountain t o w n o f A n z a n o d i P u g l i a . Madeline recently presented a stunning documentary of slides and memories at our June IAHF R e g i o n a l L u n c h . S h e w i l l explain how she and her sister gathered information to prepare for her journey of discovery and how they even found a place to stay in this hotel-less village that her fathers family called home. In proximity to the Stage, sponsored by Safeway, was a c u l t u r a l t e n t w h i c h h o u s e d Regional Maps, Coats of Arms and tracing family origins, a Family tributes to a long time volunteer Norma Mestice and her Families. Also at the event was a hands on group of Italian Lace Makes, Exhibits on The Trabia Sicily Connection, The N a t i o n a l I t a l i a n A m e r i c a n G a r d e n P r o j e c t , A m e e t t h e a u t h o r A n n a F i o r i n a H e s s , "Born in Internment" Italians in Scotland during the war, A special video produced by our own IAHF Italian Language Students about learning Italian and information about our lan- g u a g e p r o g r a m w a s s h o w n , a l o n g w i t h E x p l o r i n g t h e Arbaresh Connection, Italy's Albanian's Heritage from the 14th Century. There was also a s p e c i a l e x h i b i t o n I t a l y a n d World War One and a copy of the 1907 paper regarding the Italian American Response to the San Francisco Earthquake of 1907. The Patrons of Italian Culture had undertaken a spe- cial project to digitalize the doc- ument and our goal now is to have parts of it translated. All of this was in addition to great entertainment , delicious foods and engaging arts and craft booths highlighting Italian and Italian American creativity. You could have easily spent two days at the the event to take in a cultural experience that would satisfy your Italian Soul! Sadly, however, on the eve of the Festa a tragic earthquake hit Italy. We were able to immediately switch focus to include a relief fund drive, and collect monies that were then forwarded to NIAF for a national response to the victims of the tragedy. The I A H F i s c u r r e n t l y p l a n n i n g additional fund raisers for the earthquake relief efforts. KEN BORELLI Another Successful Italian Family Festa in San Jose History Park

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