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Downloaded from
YTS.MX

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Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

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I'll be right there.

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Piero was a real rocker.

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Vivarelli who?

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The one who wrote "24,000 Kisses"?

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Piero was a lot of fun

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handsome

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simpatico, funny

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erudite, a gentleman.

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He wanted a taste of everything.

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It was impossible to know
what he did.

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Once I asked him:

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- What’s your job?

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He was a film director,

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a music consultant,

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a journalist.

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I said: - That’s a lot of things!

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It’s not easy,

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to have been a right-winger,

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then a leftist.

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A fighter.

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A bit unlucky in his life,

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going from music to movies.

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A traveler.

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A precursor.

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Politically bizarre.

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For many years
Piero was considered,

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a minor director.

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Not even a king of B's.

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Just a B's.

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When we asked him
to come to Venice,

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to be paid homage to by the critics,

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and by Quentin Tarantino,

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we didn't extend his life, maybe.

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But his ego a bit certainly.

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Finally, here we are.

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B

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I guess B stands for good,

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or beautiful.

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My love for filmmaking
started very early.

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At the age of seven
I wanted to join the navy.

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Then I fell in love
with Shirley Temple,

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followed by Deanna Durbin.

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So I decided to make movies,

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because I wanted to marry them.

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But I didn’t marry them.

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I was studying in Milan.

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A friend, with whom
I would go dance,

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the boogie-woogie,

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one evening,

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brought him along
to pick me up at school.

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After we went to the movies
a couple of times,

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he said: - I want to marry you.

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We got married on January the 4th.

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You have no idea what
the church looked like.

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Guess who was playing the organ?

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Giorgio Gaslini.

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When I walked down the aisle
he played “Laura”.

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We got into a huge fight because,

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I in a long white gown.
He was in an overcoat.

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A gray one.

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He wouldn't budge.

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He was so unconventional.

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With Piero we never
got home before 4 am.

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One of the reasons why,

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aside from the women,

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is that it was a really wild life.

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Our apartment,

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in via San Valentino,
on a first floor,

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was known as the Live it up Club.

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Everybody stopped by at any hour.

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Everybody, at any hour.

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There were some fantastic people:

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Oriana Fallaci, Goffredo Parise.

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Oriana was a friend of Martinelli,

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a Tuscan journalist.

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She came to Rome
not knowing anybody.

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We would make fun of her because,

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all the interviewed denied
the things she published.

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Piero would treat her...

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Once he threw her on the ground,
and started stepping on her.

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He was so polemical. Mamma mia.

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He would never go to bed.

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At the time,

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we were on the crest of a wave.

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Piero was super important.

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My newspaper will take care
of all the publicity.

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It will be a memorable evening.

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You’ll see, don Leopoldo,
it will be alright.

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Thanks, you are beautiful.

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They feared him.

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In the pop music world,

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he was a big shot.

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No!

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Haven’t you read Viker?

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You’re young, but if you had,

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you would know that pop songs,

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have to return
to a bare bones essence.

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To a nudity.

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Strip tease?

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Yes, strip tease,
but of a moral nature.

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He was one,

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who would listen
to just a few notes,

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and make a judgment
that was on the money.

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He had, as they say, a good ear.

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He had this knack,

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for anticipating tastes,
trends and so on,

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but then he would get lost.

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He would fall madly in love
with a woman,

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for... like three days,
and run off,

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and let everything go.
Then he’d come back.

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At that time, he’d fallen,

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for a married woman.

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The one who,

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left her husband for him.

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When he went to Sanremo,

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with 24.000 kisses.

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I got there,

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and I caught him,

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in the hotel,

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with this lady.

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The next morning I was gone.

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Piero Vivarelli was
an anomalous director,

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among directors
of Italian genre movies.

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He was proud of being
a genre director.

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He wasn't ashamed of that.

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He claimed he didn’t do
just one genre,

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but many genres.

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When I started out,

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I wanted to attend a film school.

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I went to talk to Mario Soldati,

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and he said:

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- What do you need a film school for?

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Work with me as an unpaid assistant,

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and you'll learn more
than any film school.

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When Piero Vivarelli tackles
the musical movie genre,

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he turns it upside down.

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Non alone, it must be said.

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He does it with Lucio Fulci.

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Lucio Fulci was a genius.

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Yes, I have big ideas.

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We will organize something solid.

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Like a festival.

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Up until then musical movies,

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were based on either
the songs or the singers.

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With Fulci we said:

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- Why not make a rock’n roll movie?

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Not a mono-thematic movie,

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but one with all the
permutations of rock music,

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from Tony Dallara's melodic rock,

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to Adriano Celentano's rock.

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I met Celentano at a musical tour.

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When we made
“The Juke Box kids”

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we needed a rocker,
a pelvic thruster,

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I said:
- Let’s call Celentano.

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He didn’t have any song though.

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Celentano’s brother,

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had a rhytmic tune.

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I said: - How does it go?

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- Come back to Capri, mon amour.

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I said: - Come on,

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a rocker can't sing: "Come
back to Capri, mon amour".

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So on the spot,

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with Adriano who hummed along,

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and me writing the words,

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we came up with:"Your kiss is rock 'n roll".

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Piero played a big role
in the postwar period,

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during the postwar economic boom,

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within the
anthropological transformation,

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of Italian society.

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Especially in the
phenomenon known as,

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the "Invention of youths".

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For the first time youths
become a "market".

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Become consumers.

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Have an allowance.

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Can spend some money.

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Piero intercepts in Celentano,

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a sort of irresistible monkey man,

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between horrific and pure beauty,

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a total electrical spring.

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He glimpses in Celentano,

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this form of change,

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and he follows him,

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from 24,000 kisses to movies.

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Partly in tandem with Fulci.

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They are all movies about youths.

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One can see the first signs
of sexual liberation,

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of anti-Catholicism,

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which was Piero trademark.

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So you are saying that...

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Your eminence, come on,
in a country like ours?

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We just point out
the immorality of that sign.

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- I kiss, you kiss...

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Your eminence.

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The key topic is always,

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the anthropological opposition,

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of the new generation
against the old farts.

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You see Rita,

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there's always a war
between the old and the young.

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Now it’s my turn.

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I have to fight it on my own.

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And that’s ok.

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Or else what's the pleasure
in winning it.

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All this anticipates the movements,

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that will dominate 1967 and 1968.

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Anticipation is the common thread,

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in Piero’s life and career.

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I met Piero through common friends:
Franco Rossetti,

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and Alberto Giommarelli.
Both film students like me.

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From Siena like him.

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Then I was called by Franco Rossetti.

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He said: - Vivarelli is doing
a musical movie,

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and needs a good assistant.

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But I'm not a good assistant
nor do I want to do that stuff.

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So if you want you can do it.

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Who’s that?

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You don’t know him?
He’s an amazing guy.

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He's the president,

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for the moral
rectitude of entertainment.

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Disgusting.

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Who, the president?

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No, I mean the parameters.

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For us intellectuals,
fashion is a going back to...

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We’ll talk later.

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Piero was yearning to direct a movie,

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because he’d always been
an assistant to Lucio Fulci.

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My husband was a
famous singer, Teddy Reno.

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Let’s not talk about your father.
Let’s talk about you instead.

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In those days you didn’t have
the deluge of TV programs.

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Sanremo festival was huge
for he Italian song.

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People would run
to go see these films.

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The 50 million citizens
of our Belpaese,

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once the homeland of saints,
poets and seafarers,

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00:14:39,440 --> 00:14:40,920
can now be divided into two camps:

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25 million write,
or want to write, songs.

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The other 25 sing them,
or aspire to.

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So it’s not surprising that Sanremo,

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cradle of Italian song,
and pearl of the riviera,

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is our authentic moral capital.

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This is the homestead
of Italian pop songs.

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24 thousand kisses,

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was meant to be
the end song of my first film.

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We recorded it,

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then I thought:
-This is too good for this movie,

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let’s send it to Sanremo.

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And here's Adriano,
aka the pelvic thruster.

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Piero and I intersected in 1959,

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on a Fulci film:

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"The Juke Box kids".

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00:17:11,840 --> 00:17:14,080
I was one of the boys.

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00:17:15,080 --> 00:17:17,320
Fulci used to call me "Dracula".
I don't know why.

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00:17:17,880 --> 00:17:19,240
Dracula, follow me.

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Piero was assistant director,

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he wrote the script,

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and a few songs.

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The same year,

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we made "Howlers in the dock".

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00:17:31,280 --> 00:17:33,840
In one film I had Chet Baker,

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who was totally stoned.

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He played the American.

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He hardly said anything,
he was always sleeping.

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00:17:42,400 --> 00:17:43,800
Chet Baker the American,

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sleeps night and day.

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00:17:45,640 --> 00:17:47,120
But he’s a great jazz musician.

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Since he slept everywhere,

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I remember once a tragic instance.

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00:17:52,240 --> 00:17:54,040
He had a scene under a couch.

269
00:17:54,360 --> 00:17:57,760
We shot the scene.
Then we wrapped,

270
00:17:58,520 --> 00:17:59,160
we go home.

271
00:17:59,840 --> 00:18:02,680
Once at the studio gate,

272
00:18:03,520 --> 00:18:06,000
Chet’s manager asks:

273
00:18:06,240 --> 00:18:08,480
- Where’s Chet?
- What do you mean, where’s Chet?

274
00:18:09,760 --> 00:18:11,160
Chet had fallen asleep,

275
00:18:11,280 --> 00:18:13,200
and was still on the set
with his trumpet.

276
00:18:19,560 --> 00:18:22,360
Once, in an elevator scene,

277
00:18:23,200 --> 00:18:25,720
he started off well,
then would arrive asleep.

278
00:18:25,800 --> 00:18:27,880
He would always arrive asleep.

279
00:18:30,080 --> 00:18:31,720
Towards the end of the film,

280
00:18:31,840 --> 00:18:34,000
we were the whole gang,

281
00:18:34,120 --> 00:18:36,400
on our Vespas,
going to a park.

282
00:18:37,240 --> 00:18:39,800
Chet was lying next to a tree.

283
00:18:40,440 --> 00:18:43,200
He played and sang “Arrivederci".

284
00:18:43,920 --> 00:18:45,320
It was so beautiful.

285
00:19:30,520 --> 00:19:32,280
Music, movies and myself,

286
00:19:32,440 --> 00:19:36,320
have always been intertwined.

287
00:19:38,040 --> 00:19:40,080
I’ve always loved music.

288
00:19:40,960 --> 00:19:43,200
As a child,

289
00:19:43,440 --> 00:19:45,000
I would listen to jazz records.

290
00:20:07,560 --> 00:20:08,680
In “I kiss, you kiss”,

291
00:20:08,800 --> 00:20:11,240
Vivarelli goes beyond Fulci.

292
00:20:11,560 --> 00:20:14,320
When Mina’s sings,

293
00:20:14,520 --> 00:20:15,840
“Il cielo in una stanza”,

294
00:20:16,560 --> 00:20:20,320
inside a minimalist set:

295
00:20:20,520 --> 00:20:22,600
white trees on a black background,

296
00:20:22,840 --> 00:20:24,440
It effectively anticipates,

297
00:20:25,000 --> 00:20:27,520
the video clip culture,

298
00:20:27,880 --> 00:20:31,080
that would have arrived
only years later.

299
00:20:36,000 --> 00:20:37,760
I remember for
“Il cielo in una stanza”,

300
00:20:37,880 --> 00:20:40,600
we had Mina on a camera track,

301
00:20:40,840 --> 00:20:44,400
amidst these fake silver trees,

302
00:20:44,680 --> 00:20:47,640
inside the theater.

303
00:20:47,840 --> 00:20:49,600
She sang while sitting down.

304
00:20:49,800 --> 00:20:52,640
She was like
in a cloud of naked trees.

305
00:20:52,760 --> 00:20:54,200
It was beautiful.

306
00:20:54,440 --> 00:20:55,800
Piero had the idea.

307
00:21:05,920 --> 00:21:07,760
Piero was a restless guy.

308
00:21:08,440 --> 00:21:10,520
And being a restless guy,

309
00:21:11,240 --> 00:21:13,800
he was always experimenting,

310
00:21:13,960 --> 00:21:15,400
with new pathways.

311
00:21:15,840 --> 00:21:18,280
His most interesting work to be,

312
00:21:18,680 --> 00:21:19,840
“East Zone, West Zone”.

313
00:21:21,400 --> 00:21:23,120
Our story begins,

314
00:21:23,160 --> 00:21:26,800
when between the two zones
there was still free transit.

315
00:21:27,080 --> 00:21:29,520
Although our characters
are fictional,

316
00:21:29,800 --> 00:21:34,200
the situations are true
to what takes place in the...

317
00:21:35,480 --> 00:21:37,920
“East Zone, West Zone”

318
00:21:38,800 --> 00:21:40,680
I love "East Zone, West Zone”
for two reasons:

319
00:21:40,840 --> 00:21:43,600
because it’s about the Berlin wall,

320
00:21:43,800 --> 00:21:45,800
and I'm proud,

321
00:21:46,080 --> 00:21:47,840
that the movie was forbidden,

322
00:21:48,040 --> 00:21:49,800
in both East and West Germany.

323
00:21:50,240 --> 00:21:51,840
Piero's cinema at this point,

324
00:21:52,120 --> 00:21:54,880
is more socially conscious.

325
00:21:55,520 --> 00:21:58,800
He wants to show that he is not
just a provocateur,

326
00:21:59,000 --> 00:22:01,560
pursuing the latest trends,

327
00:22:01,760 --> 00:22:03,400
as with the music movies.

328
00:22:03,600 --> 00:22:05,440
He wants to prove that he is also,

329
00:22:05,640 --> 00:22:08,200
as he really was,
a man of great culture.

330
00:22:08,400 --> 00:22:09,760
Of great historical sensitivity.

331
00:22:10,280 --> 00:22:11,840
The government of East Germany,

332
00:22:12,040 --> 00:22:14,120
has decided to stop
free transit,

333
00:22:14,320 --> 00:22:17,400
and all communications
between the two zones of the city.

334
00:22:18,440 --> 00:22:21,680
A wall is erected on the border line.

335
00:22:24,680 --> 00:22:27,440
Another reason I'm happy
to have made it,

336
00:22:27,640 --> 00:22:29,960
is that I upstaged Bertold Brecht.

337
00:22:35,120 --> 00:22:36,800
There was this actress Nana Osten,

338
00:22:37,000 --> 00:22:40,840
who was a young circus equestrian,

339
00:22:41,040 --> 00:22:44,240
and Brecht had taken her
in at the Berliner Ensemble.

340
00:22:44,440 --> 00:22:46,520
A Swiss who had a cabaret
said to me:

341
00:22:46,600 --> 00:22:50,480
- I’ve got an actress
who studied with Bertold Brecht,

342
00:22:50,560 --> 00:22:51,720
I'd like you to see her.

343
00:22:51,960 --> 00:22:53,360
What do you do here?

344
00:22:53,560 --> 00:22:55,160
I work here.

345
00:22:55,440 --> 00:22:57,040
As what?

346
00:22:58,080 --> 00:22:59,840
I'm a cosmonaut.

347
00:23:01,320 --> 00:23:03,280
With the Russians or the Americans?

348
00:23:03,560 --> 00:23:05,320
Let say I'm self-employed.

349
00:23:05,520 --> 00:23:06,800
What a nutcase.

350
00:23:07,040 --> 00:23:09,160
I went to see her,
and she was amazing.

351
00:23:09,360 --> 00:23:12,280
So much so that, alas,
I fell in love on the spot.

352
00:23:14,320 --> 00:23:16,200
So in love that,

353
00:23:16,560 --> 00:23:18,080
at the time,

354
00:23:18,440 --> 00:23:20,000
though I was married in Italy,

355
00:23:20,320 --> 00:23:21,760
I had a fiancé.

356
00:23:21,960 --> 00:23:24,920
Since she was blonde
and blue-eyed,

357
00:23:25,120 --> 00:23:27,640
I had given her a part
in the film.

358
00:23:29,720 --> 00:23:34,920
When my fiancé arrived in Berlin,
I had an affair with Nana Osten.

359
00:23:35,200 --> 00:23:37,000
At that point, it was a triangle.

360
00:23:38,320 --> 00:23:41,040
At that point my fiancé
had become like a wife.

361
00:23:41,240 --> 00:23:44,480
And a new fiancé, Nana Osten.

362
00:23:44,720 --> 00:23:45,480
My love.

363
00:23:45,880 --> 00:23:46,920
My love.

364
00:23:48,320 --> 00:23:50,240
I am very honest, very sincere.

365
00:23:50,480 --> 00:23:52,640
Even with my real wife,
the numero uno,

366
00:23:53,040 --> 00:23:55,440
I had never worried
about hiding my love affairs.

367
00:23:55,880 --> 00:23:57,400
So at this point I said:

368
00:23:57,600 --> 00:23:59,280
- Well, you wanted to be
like my wife?

369
00:23:59,320 --> 00:24:00,320
she said: - Absolutely.

370
00:24:00,400 --> 00:24:02,760
- Always sleep with me?

371
00:24:03,160 --> 00:24:03,800
- Absolutely.

372
00:24:03,960 --> 00:24:05,440
- Wake up in my arms?

373
00:24:05,640 --> 00:24:06,400
- Absolutely.

374
00:24:06,440 --> 00:24:08,560
- Bring me coffee in bed in the morning?

375
00:24:08,760 --> 00:24:09,440
- Certainly.

376
00:24:09,520 --> 00:24:10,760
- Just like my wife?

377
00:24:10,960 --> 00:24:11,520
- Yes.

378
00:24:11,600 --> 00:24:13,480
-Then, just like my wife,
you’re a cuckhold.

379
00:24:13,560 --> 00:24:16,360
And I must say
it was in bad taste.

380
00:24:17,080 --> 00:24:18,160
She got really pissed off,

381
00:24:18,240 --> 00:24:19,720
and put me in my place.

382
00:24:19,920 --> 00:24:21,520
She bit my lip so hard,

383
00:24:21,840 --> 00:24:23,000
I’ve still got a scar.

384
00:24:23,440 --> 00:24:26,280
You have no idea
how much blood flows,

385
00:24:26,480 --> 00:24:28,000
when you get a bitten lip.

386
00:24:28,200 --> 00:24:30,040
The spurt is incredible.

387
00:24:32,640 --> 00:24:33,680
What's going on?

388
00:24:34,960 --> 00:24:37,160
It's the American tanks,

389
00:24:37,520 --> 00:24:39,720
going to Chekpoint Charlie.

390
00:24:44,200 --> 00:24:45,520
The film didn’t get seen much,

391
00:24:45,560 --> 00:24:47,240
although producer Rizzoli
liked it.

392
00:24:47,360 --> 00:24:49,440
When it was released
Rizzoli even had,

393
00:24:49,480 --> 00:24:50,960
to complicate my life,

394
00:24:51,120 --> 00:24:53,520
Nana Osten come for the premiere.

395
00:24:53,880 --> 00:24:59,200
I traveled to Milan
to enjoy the film with her.

396
00:24:59,680 --> 00:25:01,080
Bad luck that,

397
00:25:01,160 --> 00:25:04,040
Who was in the lobby of
the hotel in Milan?

398
00:25:04,160 --> 00:25:07,320
My other fiancé.
The one I had in the film.

399
00:25:10,360 --> 00:25:11,480
In East Zone, West Zone,

400
00:25:11,520 --> 00:25:14,600
once again Piero private life
and art are intertwined.

401
00:25:14,800 --> 00:25:17,400
He falls for the lead actress,

402
00:25:17,600 --> 00:25:19,640
had a fling with
the secondary one.

403
00:25:20,160 --> 00:25:22,520
He probably wasn’t
super focused on set.

404
00:25:22,720 --> 00:25:27,120
But this has never been the cause
of success or failure of a film.

405
00:25:27,360 --> 00:25:28,920
Come back.

406
00:25:32,840 --> 00:25:34,480
Western imperialist,

407
00:25:34,520 --> 00:25:37,920
will never suppress the will
for peace of democratic workers.

408
00:25:38,480 --> 00:25:42,120
It could have been
Piero's launch,

409
00:25:42,320 --> 00:25:46,440
into another level as a director.
but it didn’t happen. A real pity.

410
00:25:54,960 --> 00:25:57,440
That object prevents me
from seeing who you are looking at.

411
00:25:57,720 --> 00:25:58,600
You.

412
00:25:59,200 --> 00:26:02,120
"il Vuoto" is a film that
could have gone on forever.

413
00:26:02,320 --> 00:26:04,760
It was a love story
between a married man,

414
00:26:04,960 --> 00:26:06,880
a type of story I knew very well,

415
00:26:07,280 --> 00:26:10,440
and a young woman
who was in love with him.

416
00:26:10,800 --> 00:26:12,320
If I had a date with you,

417
00:26:12,360 --> 00:26:14,640
I would be talking with a formula.

418
00:26:14,880 --> 00:26:17,640
The film as usual
didn’t pass censorship,

419
00:26:17,880 --> 00:26:19,640
because it was too erotic.

420
00:26:19,840 --> 00:26:23,720
The two characters on holiday,

421
00:26:24,000 --> 00:26:27,640
see a girl in the other building,

422
00:26:27,840 --> 00:26:29,160
who takes all her clothes off.

423
00:26:29,360 --> 00:26:32,160
Seeing her naked, they get horny.

424
00:26:32,400 --> 00:26:34,920
Today I would have
shot it that they fuck.

425
00:26:35,360 --> 00:26:37,000
Instead they just lower themselves,

426
00:26:37,160 --> 00:26:38,440
and the camera stays on her.

427
00:26:38,840 --> 00:26:41,480
A woman without complexes.

428
00:26:44,080 --> 00:26:46,520
The film was produced
by Federico Aicardi,

429
00:26:46,720 --> 00:26:48,440
an Argentine,

430
00:26:48,880 --> 00:26:50,120
who had made money,

431
00:26:50,360 --> 00:26:51,120
with smuggling.

432
00:26:51,400 --> 00:26:53,040
The film then,

433
00:26:53,200 --> 00:26:55,040
had been selected
by the Venice Film Festival.

434
00:26:55,120 --> 00:26:57,000
They asked us to bring a copy.

435
00:26:57,320 --> 00:26:58,480
He got in his car,

436
00:26:58,800 --> 00:26:59,680
left for Venice,

437
00:26:59,880 --> 00:27:00,960
nodded out,

438
00:27:03,120 --> 00:27:05,480
and ended up in a ditch,
him, the car.

439
00:27:06,000 --> 00:27:08,400
It never made it to Venice.

440
00:27:10,040 --> 00:27:12,040
My dear daughter,
you must learn,

441
00:27:12,160 --> 00:27:14,480
that in every artists’ career,

442
00:27:14,680 --> 00:27:16,480
there is always a flop.

443
00:27:16,680 --> 00:27:19,640
It might be a small flop,
but is always there.

444
00:27:21,120 --> 00:27:22,760
Compared with other directors,

445
00:27:22,840 --> 00:27:25,280
who feel already dead
in their 40’s or 50’s,

446
00:27:25,560 --> 00:27:28,080
after suffering a defeat,

447
00:27:28,280 --> 00:27:30,440
he was willing to start over
for a next round.

448
00:27:33,360 --> 00:27:34,840
“Rita, the American daughter”,

449
00:27:35,320 --> 00:27:37,040
is a fine film.

450
00:27:39,160 --> 00:27:40,440
A great comedy.

451
00:27:40,480 --> 00:27:42,560
A very good musical comedy.

452
00:27:45,960 --> 00:27:47,720
It features Totò,

453
00:27:47,920 --> 00:27:49,400
in a melancholy turns.

454
00:27:49,600 --> 00:27:52,400
He played melancholy very well.

455
00:27:52,680 --> 00:27:54,920
You must be strong,
you must be brave.

456
00:27:55,440 --> 00:27:56,600
Never give up.

457
00:27:57,320 --> 00:27:59,000
That's my motto: insist.

458
00:27:59,920 --> 00:28:01,280
Posterity,

459
00:28:01,760 --> 00:28:03,120
will judge.

460
00:28:06,320 --> 00:28:09,480
He managed to put three
different worlds in one film:

461
00:28:09,720 --> 00:28:11,480
the beat music of the Rokes,

462
00:28:11,720 --> 00:28:13,080
Rita Pavone,

463
00:28:13,160 --> 00:28:16,040
the most popular singer of the moment.

464
00:28:16,400 --> 00:28:17,880
And the great Totò.

465
00:28:18,080 --> 00:28:19,120
A proto-hipster Totò.

466
00:28:19,320 --> 00:28:22,560
A beat Totò. Outside the box.
A long-haired Totò,

467
00:28:22,960 --> 00:28:26,200
who shared the stage with
Rita Pavone and the Rokes.

468
00:28:26,400 --> 00:28:28,280
You're begging my love,

469
00:28:28,360 --> 00:28:30,720
but I hate your love,
I hate you.

470
00:28:44,280 --> 00:28:46,680
Vivarelli was a
transgressive character.

471
00:28:47,040 --> 00:28:49,320
Totally outside the box.

472
00:28:49,680 --> 00:28:51,720
He was a big fan of mine.

473
00:28:52,320 --> 00:28:55,080
The fact that I was
the favourite singer,

474
00:28:55,520 --> 00:28:57,600
of (Communist secretary)
Palmiro Togliatti...

475
00:28:57,920 --> 00:29:01,160
All this made me of interest,

476
00:29:01,360 --> 00:29:04,960
to the leftist intelligentsia
who wrote about me.

477
00:29:05,320 --> 00:29:08,440
And it also attracted Vivarelli.

478
00:29:35,280 --> 00:29:35,880
Rita.

479
00:29:36,680 --> 00:29:37,160
Daddy.

480
00:29:37,360 --> 00:29:37,680
Rita.

481
00:29:38,080 --> 00:29:38,600
Here I am.

482
00:29:39,800 --> 00:29:40,440
Stop it.

483
00:29:42,240 --> 00:29:45,840
At fourteen I was a fond reader of Big.

484
00:29:46,040 --> 00:29:49,520
Big was a youth magazine,

485
00:29:49,920 --> 00:29:52,400
about youth culture and pop culture,

486
00:29:52,600 --> 00:29:55,280
and Piero Vivarelli
wrote the editorials.

487
00:29:55,720 --> 00:29:58,400
I learned so much when 14 -15,

488
00:29:58,600 --> 00:30:02,640
from Piero Vivarelli’s editorials.

489
00:30:02,840 --> 00:30:06,600
In my world Big is worth
just as much as any,

490
00:30:06,800 --> 00:30:09,920
of the sophisticated
magazines I read later.

491
00:30:10,120 --> 00:30:12,200
Big is on the same level
as Quaderni Piacentini.

492
00:30:12,400 --> 00:30:13,400
Big was like

493
00:30:13,680 --> 00:30:15,680
the Bible.

494
00:30:15,880 --> 00:30:18,000
For those in music biz like me,

495
00:30:18,400 --> 00:30:19,720
you just had to read Piero.

496
00:30:19,960 --> 00:30:21,880
Don’t insult me.
What are you insinuating?

497
00:30:21,960 --> 00:30:23,680
- I'm not insinuating.
- So shut up.

498
00:30:23,720 --> 00:30:25,280
I’m running to the paper
to be the first,

499
00:30:25,360 --> 00:30:27,840
who breaks the news that
the ye-ye have a new idol!

500
00:30:28,040 --> 00:30:29,720
You, get cracking!
Move it!

501
00:30:29,920 --> 00:30:34,080
Us youngs, and less young people,

502
00:30:34,280 --> 00:30:37,200
we were hanging on his every word.

503
00:30:37,600 --> 00:30:40,760
He was living with this black girl,
who was very cute.

504
00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:43,960
She was often an extra,

505
00:30:46,760 --> 00:30:48,000
in dance scenes.

506
00:30:52,200 --> 00:30:56,960
I was close with Totò
and Rita Pavone.

507
00:30:57,240 --> 00:30:59,480
To this day if I met Rita
or Patty Pravo on the street,

508
00:30:59,680 --> 00:31:02,320
I'm sure they are among
the few people,

509
00:31:02,520 --> 00:31:05,080
who would recognize me.

510
00:31:05,440 --> 00:31:07,640
Will you write a piece about us?

511
00:31:07,760 --> 00:31:10,000
Girls, I accepted to help you out.

512
00:31:10,080 --> 00:31:11,880
Piero is a friend.
But we can’t go overboard.

513
00:31:12,000 --> 00:31:13,360
Friendship is a beautiful thing,

514
00:31:13,480 --> 00:31:14,640
but the paper isn’t mine.

515
00:31:14,840 --> 00:31:16,080
I’m happy to publish a picture,

516
00:31:16,200 --> 00:31:19,840
I need something newsy. New ideas.

517
00:31:20,600 --> 00:31:23,240
Piero was a bit reluctant
to give me work.

518
00:31:23,440 --> 00:31:26,000
He was jealous, he was possessive.

519
00:31:26,280 --> 00:31:28,760
So Piero, you want new musical ideas?

520
00:31:28,960 --> 00:31:31,240
We’ve got them. Listen.

521
00:31:31,440 --> 00:31:33,800
- I’m listening
- Come on...

522
00:31:33,960 --> 00:31:35,200
He was,

523
00:31:38,440 --> 00:31:40,080
the lost love of my life.

524
00:31:40,800 --> 00:31:42,480
She’s crazy.

525
00:31:42,680 --> 00:31:44,880
- A total nutcase.
- Nuts, but simpatica.

526
00:31:45,080 --> 00:31:46,520
-Shall we sit?

527
00:31:46,600 --> 00:31:48,520
I'm with this bum photographer.

528
00:31:48,760 --> 00:31:50,600
I’m the one who gives you
all your smokes!

529
00:31:51,280 --> 00:31:54,440
Piero had an office in Via Veneto,

530
00:31:55,320 --> 00:31:57,000
and a friend of mine, Tommasini,

531
00:31:57,200 --> 00:31:59,280
took me to his study.

532
00:31:59,520 --> 00:32:02,880
I got to know him, and it was like,

533
00:32:03,400 --> 00:32:05,520
I was the morning lover.

534
00:32:05,720 --> 00:32:08,760
He would come see me every morning.

535
00:32:09,320 --> 00:32:11,560
Piero was really extraordinary.

536
00:32:12,480 --> 00:32:13,920
He was a very nice person.

537
00:32:14,520 --> 00:32:16,440
He respected women.

538
00:32:16,720 --> 00:32:20,200
And he had a great
admiration for black people.

539
00:32:20,640 --> 00:32:24,280
I think I was one of
the big loves of his life.

540
00:32:27,280 --> 00:32:32,440
I first heard of Piero Vivarelli
from Sergio Corbucci.

541
00:32:32,640 --> 00:32:33,600
He told me:

542
00:32:33,720 --> 00:32:38,160
- Myself, Lucio Fulci
and Piero Vivarelli,

543
00:32:38,680 --> 00:32:42,000
we were the left side
of the street on via Veneto.

544
00:32:42,560 --> 00:32:46,880
He explained how the left side
of via Veneto had two features,

545
00:32:47,200 --> 00:32:50,240
it was where the leftists went,

546
00:32:50,440 --> 00:32:54,440
and it was where
the hookers were.

547
00:32:54,640 --> 00:32:58,200
That was the key thing
that made me understand,

548
00:32:58,480 --> 00:33:02,760
Sergio Corbucci, Lucio Fulci
and Piero Vivarelli's cinema.

549
00:33:03,200 --> 00:33:06,200
Piero had the greater imagination.

550
00:33:06,880 --> 00:33:10,920
Sergio was the more solid one,
more concrete.

551
00:33:11,160 --> 00:33:13,840
So they were a good duo.

552
00:33:13,960 --> 00:33:16,120
Genius and recklessness.

553
00:33:16,720 --> 00:33:19,560
Their filmmaking was not
second rate cinema.

554
00:33:19,640 --> 00:33:20,720
Not at all.

555
00:33:20,880 --> 00:33:22,680
But let’s call it "minor cinema".

556
00:33:22,760 --> 00:33:25,120
Less pretentious than,

557
00:33:25,720 --> 00:33:28,200
Neorealism, Italian comedies.

558
00:33:28,400 --> 00:33:30,560
Different from the genial Fellini,

559
00:33:30,680 --> 00:33:32,080
or the introverted Antonioni.

560
00:33:32,320 --> 00:33:33,880
If it hadn’t been for our movies,

561
00:33:34,080 --> 00:33:36,080
Antonioni could not
have made “La Notte”,

562
00:33:36,240 --> 00:33:38,280
or “Il Grido”.

563
00:33:38,480 --> 00:33:41,040
Because his films
didn’t sell internationally.

564
00:33:41,320 --> 00:33:43,640
Our films instead traveled
around the world.

565
00:33:43,880 --> 00:33:45,200
With those profits,

566
00:33:45,400 --> 00:33:49,520
producers could afford
to use part of the money,

567
00:33:49,720 --> 00:33:52,280
to make so called 'auteur' movies.

568
00:33:52,920 --> 00:33:55,200
Antonioni owes his movies to us.

569
00:33:55,400 --> 00:33:58,320
There was a time when
Piero was being,

570
00:33:58,840 --> 00:34:04,440
constantly badgered
by Corbucci who wanted him,

571
00:34:04,840 --> 00:34:07,040
to hand in a script.

572
00:34:07,680 --> 00:34:11,560
Then there was Django which he wrote,

573
00:34:12,120 --> 00:34:14,040
with Lalli Rossetti.

574
00:34:14,160 --> 00:34:15,480
You have to realize that Italy,

575
00:34:15,680 --> 00:34:19,040
in the early 70’s,
made 350 movies a year.

576
00:34:19,520 --> 00:34:23,080
They saturated the Italian market,

577
00:34:23,280 --> 00:34:25,280
then mostly traveled abroad.

578
00:34:25,480 --> 00:34:27,120
In those days,

579
00:34:27,720 --> 00:34:29,440
a screenwriter or a director,

580
00:34:29,640 --> 00:34:31,760
would meet with a producer.

581
00:34:31,960 --> 00:34:33,200
Sometimes without a script.

582
00:34:33,400 --> 00:34:37,280
He would tell the story,
he would act it out.

583
00:34:37,480 --> 00:34:41,040
He would say:
- A close up here, a dolly there.

584
00:34:41,240 --> 00:34:43,200
That’s how he would
sell the movie.

585
00:34:43,400 --> 00:34:46,440
And the producer:
- Ok, let's do that.

586
00:34:55,520 --> 00:34:58,480
Corbucci said to me:
- I’ve got an idea.

587
00:34:58,680 --> 00:35:00,000
- So, let’s hear it.

588
00:35:00,640 --> 00:35:04,040
- I want to make a movie
that starts with a man,

589
00:35:04,800 --> 00:35:06,560
who is dragging a coffin.

590
00:35:06,800 --> 00:35:10,480
I was pretty impressed.

591
00:35:10,720 --> 00:35:12,600
In those days, we really
believe in this stuff.

592
00:35:13,000 --> 00:35:15,720
So I said:
- Yup, that could be pretty good.

593
00:35:16,120 --> 00:35:19,360
And he said:
- So try writing it.

594
00:35:20,040 --> 00:35:23,960
I said: - What do you mean?
Then, what happens?"

595
00:35:24,440 --> 00:35:30,440
- That’s what you need to write.
Why do you think I told you?

596
00:35:30,880 --> 00:35:32,280
- I got it.

597
00:35:32,400 --> 00:35:35,520
So that’s when I thought to call Piero.

598
00:35:39,560 --> 00:35:41,040
Sergio called me and said:

599
00:35:41,240 --> 00:35:44,000
-Piero, do you feel like
doing a script polish?

600
00:35:44,480 --> 00:35:47,040
If you've got nothing to do.

601
00:35:47,240 --> 00:35:51,960
Lalli Rossetti is on the script,
but he's totally burned out.

602
00:35:52,360 --> 00:35:54,000
I need a fresh mind.

603
00:35:55,240 --> 00:35:58,200
I said:
-Sure Sergio, gladly.

604
00:35:58,400 --> 00:36:00,760
He said:
-Then go to the production office.

605
00:36:00,960 --> 00:36:03,720
Your contract for the polish is ready.

606
00:36:03,920 --> 00:36:06,560
There was no story, no script.

607
00:36:07,360 --> 00:36:09,960
It was a weird situation.

608
00:36:10,320 --> 00:36:13,960
I went to the production office.
I signed a contract.

609
00:36:14,160 --> 00:36:17,600
Then I went to Sergio’s
to read the script.

610
00:36:17,800 --> 00:36:19,880
He said:
-Let me tell it to you.

611
00:36:20,360 --> 00:36:23,440
The movie starts with a man
walking through the mud.

612
00:36:23,880 --> 00:36:26,040
Since we shoot in wintertime,

613
00:36:26,440 --> 00:36:27,840
it could be raining.

614
00:36:28,120 --> 00:36:30,920
A saddle on his shoulders,
dragging a coffin.

615
00:36:31,640 --> 00:36:33,520
-Fuck! That’s a great beginning.

616
00:36:33,880 --> 00:36:35,480
-Yes, in fact I sold the film on this.

617
00:36:35,680 --> 00:36:37,000
-And then what happens?

618
00:36:37,080 --> 00:36:38,400
He said: -I have no idea.

619
00:36:38,720 --> 00:36:40,320
-What do you mean, no idea?

620
00:36:40,920 --> 00:36:43,720
-I don’t even know what’s in the coffin.

621
00:36:43,880 --> 00:36:44,960
Is there somebody in there?

622
00:36:52,640 --> 00:36:54,560
One named Django.

623
00:36:56,200 --> 00:36:58,200
-But I signed a contract for a polish.

624
00:36:58,400 --> 00:37:00,240
-Come on, Piero, don’t get fussy.

625
00:37:00,400 --> 00:37:02,640
We used to write a treatment.

626
00:37:03,000 --> 00:37:05,840
Then we'd go over each scene.

627
00:37:06,280 --> 00:37:07,720
Then Sergio would dismiss us,

628
00:37:08,120 --> 00:37:10,760
by saying: - And now, go write.

629
00:37:12,080 --> 00:37:15,480
I had lent him my
Django Reinhardt records.

630
00:37:15,640 --> 00:37:18,000
I said: - I'd like my Django
Reinhardt records back.

631
00:37:18,160 --> 00:37:19,120
- Let’s call it Django.

632
00:37:19,360 --> 00:37:22,320
He was the famous Gypsy guitarist,

633
00:37:22,440 --> 00:37:25,120
who played with two fingers
missing on his left hand,

634
00:37:25,240 --> 00:37:26,720
in the Hotel de France.

635
00:37:35,400 --> 00:37:39,320
- So then what happens?
- Look, I shot one movie,

636
00:37:39,840 --> 00:37:41,560
that ends up with
the main guy who’s blind.

637
00:37:41,840 --> 00:37:45,360
Then one with Mark Damon,
where the hero becomes deaf.

638
00:37:45,560 --> 00:37:48,600
I said: - Then our guy ends up
with his hands mangled.

639
00:37:48,800 --> 00:37:51,680
- That’s a great idea.
- Yup, his hands are mangled.

640
00:37:52,160 --> 00:37:53,440
-And who mangled them?

641
00:37:53,640 --> 00:37:55,200
-The Mexicans.

642
00:37:55,680 --> 00:37:57,120
-Why the Mexicans?

643
00:37:57,360 --> 00:38:00,440
We wrote the screenplay
starting from the ending.

644
00:38:26,120 --> 00:38:28,640
Our models in those days,

645
00:38:28,840 --> 00:38:31,520
were Eisenstein, Pudovkin.

646
00:38:31,920 --> 00:38:34,240
Russian cinema, and also French.

647
00:38:34,440 --> 00:38:38,560
That’s what we talked about,
who our references were.

648
00:38:46,160 --> 00:38:46,760
Django,

649
00:38:46,960 --> 00:38:50,520
is very Vivarelli style,
it’s very Sienese.

650
00:38:50,760 --> 00:38:55,200
Since both Piero and
Franco Rossetti are Sienese.

651
00:38:55,400 --> 00:38:59,720
You need to know Siena,
to understand Piero.

652
00:39:11,520 --> 00:39:15,200
I remember in September of '43,

653
00:39:15,640 --> 00:39:18,080
while Siena was being bombed
by the Allies,

654
00:39:18,280 --> 00:39:24,560
Piero darted out
of a doorway in pajamas,

655
00:39:24,880 --> 00:39:30,080
and a fascist army overcoat.

656
00:39:30,600 --> 00:39:33,720
He started screaming insults,

657
00:39:34,480 --> 00:39:38,560
against the Allied bombers.

658
00:39:47,360 --> 00:39:49,840
I joined the Decima Mas,

659
00:39:50,080 --> 00:39:52,320
when the fascist militias,

660
00:39:52,360 --> 00:39:54,320
became the National Guard,

661
00:39:54,600 --> 00:39:58,200
and entered their Navy seals
and paratroopers unit.

662
00:40:04,240 --> 00:40:05,120
Decima Mas,

663
00:40:05,160 --> 00:40:06,560
was never fascist.

664
00:40:07,040 --> 00:40:10,280
We had believed
in a proletarian fascist Italy.

665
00:40:10,480 --> 00:40:13,520
Then we had been paid back
as we know.

666
00:40:13,600 --> 00:40:15,360
So it seemed a logical step,

667
00:40:15,400 --> 00:40:16,720
for many of us,

668
00:40:16,760 --> 00:40:19,400
to join the ranks
of the Italian Communist Party.

669
00:40:23,840 --> 00:40:25,760
I knew Borghese very well,

670
00:40:25,960 --> 00:40:29,840
up until January 11, 1950.

671
00:40:30,320 --> 00:40:33,680
He had already left jail,
thanks to the Togliatti amnesty.

672
00:40:33,880 --> 00:40:36,680
I had already joined the communists.

673
00:40:36,840 --> 00:40:40,160
Then I got married,
and went on holiday in Sardinia.

674
00:40:40,440 --> 00:40:43,200
Then we came to Rome,

675
00:40:44,160 --> 00:40:46,360
and paid a visit to Valerio Borghese,

676
00:40:46,520 --> 00:40:48,720
who was his commander
in the Decima Mas.

677
00:40:49,160 --> 00:40:52,560
We met. He was very nice.

678
00:40:52,760 --> 00:40:54,920
He said:
- Politics is a dirty thing.

679
00:40:55,240 --> 00:40:59,000
You did right. After Decima,
everyone is free to do as they like.

680
00:40:59,440 --> 00:41:02,440
And after all these wonderful
declarations of intent,

681
00:41:02,680 --> 00:41:06,800
he accepted the presidency
of the neofascist party.

682
00:41:07,040 --> 00:41:08,600
At that point,
I told him to fuck off.

683
00:41:27,840 --> 00:41:30,720
When I did ‘Mister X, comic books
had just started in Italy.

684
00:41:32,440 --> 00:41:34,560
I gave myself a part in it.

685
00:41:37,160 --> 00:41:39,960
I picked Gaia Germani
as the female lead.

686
00:41:46,480 --> 00:41:49,760
My girlfriend at the time
also got a part.

687
00:41:54,600 --> 00:41:55,920
When it was released in France,

688
00:41:56,160 --> 00:41:59,600
they said, I think in the Figarò,

689
00:41:59,800 --> 00:42:02,320
that with half of the ideas in Mister X,

690
00:42:02,520 --> 00:42:04,880
you could make three Bond movies.

691
00:42:08,040 --> 00:42:10,160
Right after Mister X we made Satanik.

692
00:42:49,520 --> 00:42:54,560
The thing about Satanik
is the story of how it got made.

693
00:42:54,920 --> 00:42:59,880
Produced by Romano Mussolini,

694
00:43:00,480 --> 00:43:04,840
who hired Vivarelli,

695
00:43:05,200 --> 00:43:09,440
wouldn’t you know it,
"Xa Mas", an old comrade.

696
00:43:14,680 --> 00:43:19,360
Romano Mussolini was
Benito Mussolini’s youngest son.

697
00:43:19,800 --> 00:43:22,440
Since he had married Maria Scicolone,

698
00:43:22,640 --> 00:43:24,200
Sofia Loren’s sister,

699
00:43:24,400 --> 00:43:28,160
he was a relative of Carlo Ponti,
who was Sophia’s husband.

700
00:43:28,440 --> 00:43:32,000
Carlo Ponti had asked him
to become a film producer.

701
00:43:32,280 --> 00:43:36,200
Since I had talked to him
about my passion for filmmaking,

702
00:43:36,560 --> 00:43:37,560
he called me and said:

703
00:43:37,680 --> 00:43:40,440
-Do you want to be
a production assistant?

704
00:43:40,720 --> 00:43:43,400
He was a frozen foods salesman
in Bologna,

705
00:43:43,600 --> 00:43:45,720
and he had a really good salary.

706
00:43:45,920 --> 00:43:48,560
But he asked to come
as a volunteer assistant.

707
00:43:48,760 --> 00:43:52,880
I even gave him a little cameo,
so he could earn something.

708
00:43:53,160 --> 00:43:56,320
In august, when I was
on vacation from Findus,

709
00:43:56,560 --> 00:43:59,400
I came to Rome and
I met Piero Vivarelli.

710
00:43:59,600 --> 00:44:01,880
Pupi is still sore about the fact,

711
00:44:02,560 --> 00:44:07,440
that Piero treated him like dirt.

712
00:44:07,680 --> 00:44:11,280
The fun thing is that
nobody gave Pupi the time of day,

713
00:44:11,520 --> 00:44:14,640
so he was glued to the camera,
and therefore to me,

714
00:44:15,000 --> 00:44:18,040
and we struck up a friendship.

715
00:44:18,280 --> 00:44:23,920
The few times that I managed
to see while they were shooting,

716
00:44:24,120 --> 00:44:28,600
I realized that directing was one of
the easiest things in the world.

717
00:44:32,760 --> 00:44:35,600
One day he said to me:
-Would you play the coroner?

718
00:44:35,840 --> 00:44:37,440
There was a corpse on the ground.

719
00:44:37,720 --> 00:44:41,000
The actor who was supposed
to play him hadn’t showed up.

720
00:44:41,400 --> 00:44:46,280
So I changed, and a bit nervous,

721
00:44:46,520 --> 00:44:47,520
I went to play the part.

722
00:44:47,640 --> 00:44:48,760
Here is the medical report:

723
00:44:49,280 --> 00:44:50,480
based on body temperature,

724
00:44:50,520 --> 00:44:52,680
this man must have died
two hours ago.

725
00:44:53,320 --> 00:44:54,320
I will send the report.

726
00:44:54,680 --> 00:44:56,840
Inspector, my regards.
- Goodbye

727
00:44:58,240 --> 00:45:00,360
A sudden call.
It happens rarely.

728
00:45:00,720 --> 00:45:04,720
I even debuted as an actor,
thanks to Piero Vivarelli.

729
00:45:10,400 --> 00:45:13,080
Magda Konopka was
an interesting character.

730
00:45:14,600 --> 00:45:17,560
Quite intriguing.

731
00:45:17,960 --> 00:45:20,120
A reserved person.

732
00:45:21,640 --> 00:45:23,560
She probably had
an affair with Piero.

733
00:45:28,040 --> 00:45:28,840
One time,

734
00:45:29,600 --> 00:45:31,440
I organized a romantic evening.

735
00:45:31,720 --> 00:45:36,400
I took her out to dinner
to a fancy place in Geneva.

736
00:45:36,760 --> 00:45:40,360
To eat blue trout, drink champagne.

737
00:45:40,960 --> 00:45:43,120
Of course this is spring trout.

738
00:45:43,280 --> 00:45:45,440
Lake trout is different.

739
00:45:45,680 --> 00:45:47,480
And I bought Playboy.

740
00:45:47,760 --> 00:45:49,800
Which was transgressive to the max.

741
00:45:50,080 --> 00:45:52,160
We went to my room.

742
00:45:52,360 --> 00:45:54,680
And she liked to cuddle.

743
00:45:54,760 --> 00:45:56,400
But with her fingernails.

744
00:45:56,560 --> 00:45:58,160
To the point that
she lacerated me.

745
00:45:58,280 --> 00:46:03,120
The next day,
while we were shooting,

746
00:46:03,320 --> 00:46:07,200
I asked the seamstress:-Can you put some cream on my back?

747
00:46:07,400 --> 00:46:09,160
She pulled up my shirt:

748
00:46:09,400 --> 00:46:12,440
-My god!
Miss Magda really killed you.

749
00:46:12,640 --> 00:46:15,800
The whole crew knew everything.

750
00:46:20,200 --> 00:46:24,680
The best scene in Satanik
is Magda Konopka’s strip tease.

751
00:46:24,880 --> 00:46:27,120
Piero really cares
of this scene.

752
00:46:27,400 --> 00:46:30,000
He’s fascinated by
this masked women,

753
00:46:30,440 --> 00:46:33,720
who takes her clothes off
in front of a mirror.

754
00:46:33,920 --> 00:46:37,800
You can sense his libido,

755
00:46:38,200 --> 00:46:41,080
the director’s attraction
for his subject matter.

756
00:46:48,880 --> 00:46:52,160
And from here going forward
it begins to become clear,

757
00:46:52,840 --> 00:46:55,400
what shape Piero’s career
is going to take.

758
00:47:04,360 --> 00:47:07,240
The most powerful picture
that Piero ever made,

759
00:47:07,440 --> 00:47:09,720
is il Dio Serpente
[the Snake God].

760
00:47:09,960 --> 00:47:12,720
It’s got a really great title,

761
00:47:13,040 --> 00:47:17,560
great Vivarelli style:
erotic-exotic imagery,

762
00:47:17,960 --> 00:47:19,600
and at the same time,

763
00:47:19,960 --> 00:47:21,840
a yearning for new territories,

764
00:47:22,160 --> 00:47:23,640
adventures,

765
00:47:24,080 --> 00:47:26,280
to get out of Italy.

766
00:47:57,960 --> 00:47:59,640
You are Bernard Lucas’ wife?

767
00:48:00,000 --> 00:48:00,560
yes,

768
00:48:01,440 --> 00:48:04,640
I'm Paola. you are Stella, right?
My husband told me about you.

769
00:48:04,840 --> 00:48:07,440
Did he tell you I'm crazy?
- No, relax.

770
00:48:07,560 --> 00:48:08,800
Also, I know you well

771
00:48:09,040 --> 00:48:10,360
Piero was restless.

772
00:48:10,560 --> 00:48:15,240
He had a thirsty curiosity
to quench and,

773
00:48:15,440 --> 00:48:19,760
a big libido, constantly
pushing him forward.

774
00:48:20,000 --> 00:48:22,200
It’s what makes him
entertaining.

775
00:48:22,320 --> 00:48:25,880
Because there's never
a cold calculation.

776
00:48:26,080 --> 00:48:30,560
He's driven by desire.

777
00:48:30,960 --> 00:48:32,480
Let's do one eye each.

778
00:48:40,760 --> 00:48:42,840
The story begins
with a woman and her husband,

779
00:48:43,040 --> 00:48:45,600
watching a couple
making love on the beach.

780
00:48:45,800 --> 00:48:47,080
A black couple.

781
00:48:47,280 --> 00:48:53,000
What they see stimulates
their curiosity, a desire to see more.

782
00:49:02,520 --> 00:49:04,840
With "Il Dio Serpente",

783
00:49:05,040 --> 00:49:07,080
thanks to the music,

784
00:49:07,440 --> 00:49:09,320
and thanks to Nadia Cassini,

785
00:49:09,880 --> 00:49:13,480
Vivarelli comes up
with something new.

786
00:49:13,840 --> 00:49:16,960
The erotic-exotic genre,

787
00:49:17,320 --> 00:49:22,000
becomes a component
of Italian genre movies.

788
00:49:23,600 --> 00:49:26,360
Nadia Cassini was a young starlet,

789
00:49:27,040 --> 00:49:29,440
of spectacular beauty,

790
00:49:29,800 --> 00:49:33,080
but she is really enhanced
by Vivarelli’s mise-en-scene,

791
00:49:33,280 --> 00:49:37,600
with a lot less vulgarity
and misogyny,

792
00:49:37,880 --> 00:49:41,520
than other Italian directors
of that time or later.

793
00:49:41,800 --> 00:49:44,880
I respect all religions.
- But you only believe in your own.

794
00:49:45,560 --> 00:49:47,680
Instead god doesn’t just speak Latin.

795
00:49:47,960 --> 00:49:49,760
God has always existed,

796
00:49:50,040 --> 00:49:51,440
and he exists everywhere.

797
00:49:51,640 --> 00:49:54,560
It’s quite a refined movie,
in what it narrates:

798
00:49:54,840 --> 00:49:58,520
the sexual liberation of a women,

799
00:49:58,720 --> 00:50:01,880
but it goes beyond sexuality
into total freedom.

800
00:50:02,080 --> 00:50:07,120
There is also a discourse leftist,

801
00:50:07,240 --> 00:50:11,680
not reactionary, or conservative,
on the issue of colonialism.

802
00:50:13,840 --> 00:50:16,360
The beauty of the film,

803
00:50:16,440 --> 00:50:19,960
is that one doesn’t just feel like
a total voyeur,

804
00:50:20,200 --> 00:50:25,480
watching something unhealthy,
in terms of the ideas behind it.

805
00:50:25,680 --> 00:50:28,440
The film is remarkable,

806
00:50:28,800 --> 00:50:32,200
for what is said
and the ideas it sets forth.

807
00:50:34,640 --> 00:50:38,200
I think this film can easily qualify,

808
00:50:38,400 --> 00:50:42,440
among the best erotic films
of all times.

809
00:50:44,280 --> 00:50:48,360
It’s also ahead of its time,
because in 1970 or around then,

810
00:50:48,560 --> 00:50:52,760
there was an ambition to take
erotic cinema out of the ghetto.

811
00:50:53,120 --> 00:50:59,840
Here there is really the ambition
to release eroticism from the ghetto,

812
00:51:00,160 --> 00:51:03,920
and give it the cinematographic
means for it to evolve.

813
00:51:49,240 --> 00:51:52,320
The film reflects the spirit of 1970,

814
00:51:52,880 --> 00:51:54,720
the year in which it was made.

815
00:51:55,040 --> 00:51:57,240
At the same time it benefits,

816
00:51:57,520 --> 00:51:59,360
from the feminism then in the air,

817
00:51:59,680 --> 00:52:02,680
and an interest
in third world cultures,

818
00:52:02,880 --> 00:52:06,400
the issue of colonialism
and of sexual liberation.

819
00:52:20,440 --> 00:52:23,320
I wound up with Piero in 1972,

820
00:52:23,520 --> 00:52:25,400
on the set of ‘The Black Decameron’.

821
00:52:25,600 --> 00:52:29,200
We traveled to Africa.
It was produced by Alfredo Bini,

822
00:52:29,400 --> 00:52:32,160
on the wave of
Pasolini’s ‘Decameron’.

823
00:52:32,360 --> 00:52:35,360
My darling husband
I'm waiting for you, come.

824
00:52:35,520 --> 00:52:37,200
Did you cook something for me?

825
00:52:37,360 --> 00:52:43,200
Anything with the adjective ‘black’
really piqued people’s interest.

826
00:52:43,400 --> 00:52:46,880
These films were r-rated:
‘Black Criminal’

827
00:52:47,080 --> 00:52:49,360
‘Black Decameron’, ‘Black Eve’.

828
00:52:49,560 --> 00:52:52,680
Audiences flocked to.

829
00:52:52,880 --> 00:52:56,680
For a cheap ticket,

830
00:52:56,960 --> 00:53:00,440
you were guaranteed thrills
that you would never get from TV,

831
00:53:00,840 --> 00:53:03,120
with two channels, black-and-white.

832
00:53:25,560 --> 00:53:28,320
Piero really felt for this film.

833
00:53:28,680 --> 00:53:31,280
The African atmosphere,
the exoticism,

834
00:53:31,520 --> 00:53:34,120
and the eroticism.

835
00:53:34,760 --> 00:53:38,160
He was ahead of his day.
He forged something new.

836
00:53:38,600 --> 00:53:41,040
These films spawned,

837
00:53:41,400 --> 00:53:44,800
all the Black Emmanuelle
by Joe D’amato and the others,

838
00:53:45,080 --> 00:53:48,400
made in the second half of the 70’s.

839
00:53:48,600 --> 00:53:51,040
They are all derivations
of the Black Decameron.

840
00:53:54,920 --> 00:53:58,200
I did another movie that Piero
co-wrote with Maria Pia Fusco,

841
00:53:59,720 --> 00:54:01,880
Emanuelle In America.

842
00:54:02,720 --> 00:54:03,360
Yes

843
00:54:03,720 --> 00:54:05,080
a good choice,

844
00:54:06,280 --> 00:54:08,040
good old Joe,

845
00:54:08,560 --> 00:54:10,920
later I'll get to know you better.

846
00:54:12,160 --> 00:54:13,160
Edmondo Amati,

847
00:54:13,400 --> 00:54:18,240
asked me to write a treatment,
centered around Black Emanuelle,

848
00:54:18,400 --> 00:54:21,360
a woman who traveled the world,

849
00:54:21,720 --> 00:54:26,960
and had high-tension
erotic adventures.

850
00:54:27,160 --> 00:54:29,440
You are afraid of women.

851
00:54:29,760 --> 00:54:32,680
Women who talk back,
terrify you.

852
00:54:33,440 --> 00:54:35,160
They could destroy you.

853
00:54:35,720 --> 00:54:38,000
Poor Erik Van Darren

854
00:54:38,360 --> 00:54:41,080
The inspiration, undoubtedly,

855
00:54:41,280 --> 00:54:45,560
the only Italian journalist
who traveled the world,

856
00:54:45,680 --> 00:54:50,000
delving into dictatorships, wars,

857
00:54:50,640 --> 00:54:54,000
and terrible crime scenes,

858
00:54:54,360 --> 00:54:55,720
was Oriana Fallaci.

859
00:54:56,720 --> 00:54:59,880
Piero Vivarelli
was Fallaci's friend.

860
00:55:00,840 --> 00:55:03,640
He gave me the right tips,

861
00:55:03,880 --> 00:55:07,400
to make the story work.

862
00:55:13,720 --> 00:55:16,560
The President of Senegal
at the time was Leopold Senghor,

863
00:55:16,840 --> 00:55:18,880
who was also a poet.

864
00:55:19,080 --> 00:55:22,320
He sent all several theater actors,

865
00:55:22,520 --> 00:55:25,000
that Piero used in this film.

866
00:55:25,440 --> 00:55:29,080
Piero had worked with
Djibril Diop Mambéty,

867
00:55:29,160 --> 00:55:31,600
who was also an actor and
had been in Italy for a few years,

868
00:55:31,640 --> 00:55:33,720
great director of African cinema.

869
00:55:33,920 --> 00:55:37,920
We often wrote about him
in our reports from Ouagadougou,

870
00:55:37,960 --> 00:55:40,280
and Tunis, where we attended
African film festivals.

871
00:55:40,600 --> 00:55:43,000
The legendary director,

872
00:55:43,200 --> 00:55:44,280
of Touki Bouki.

873
00:55:44,680 --> 00:55:46,080
Go ahead speak,

874
00:55:46,280 --> 00:55:47,760
why is it a shame?

875
00:55:47,960 --> 00:55:50,600
It’s a shame that
yours is upside down.

876
00:55:51,560 --> 00:55:52,520
Upside down?

877
00:55:53,480 --> 00:55:55,640
At the time there was a conflict,

878
00:55:55,840 --> 00:55:58,080
between former Portuguese colonies:

879
00:55:58,320 --> 00:56:00,360
Guinea-Bissau, Angola
and Mozambique.

880
00:56:00,640 --> 00:56:02,880
There was this guerrilla group,

881
00:56:03,080 --> 00:56:05,680
headed by Cabral, Amilcar Cabral.

882
00:56:06,000 --> 00:56:10,040
While working, we met
Luis Cabral, his brother.

883
00:56:10,240 --> 00:56:13,920
One evening, protected by
the Senegalese army,

884
00:56:14,160 --> 00:56:17,680
we traveled to the jungle,
to meet Cabral.

885
00:56:18,200 --> 00:56:21,760
It was an exciting experience.

886
00:56:21,960 --> 00:56:24,640
We traveled on a military jeep.

887
00:56:25,000 --> 00:56:27,800
It was an exciting meeting.

888
00:56:28,880 --> 00:56:30,400
I don’t think I'll ever find a man,

889
00:56:31,520 --> 00:56:33,320
who is worthy of being my king.

890
00:56:33,520 --> 00:56:35,480
Dad was not a dad.

891
00:56:36,120 --> 00:56:37,400
He was a character.

892
00:56:37,680 --> 00:56:39,600
A group of paparazzi
on City Hall,

893
00:56:39,800 --> 00:56:41,240
greets a bride
who is making the news:

894
00:56:41,440 --> 00:56:43,760
Jamaican actress
Beryl Cunningham,

895
00:56:44,000 --> 00:56:47,720
star of the Black Decameron
and other recent blockbusters.

896
00:56:48,080 --> 00:56:49,440
She’s being wedded
with Piero Vivarelli,

897
00:56:49,640 --> 00:56:52,520
film director after being
a journalist and songwriter.

898
00:56:52,720 --> 00:56:56,160
Her ebony face against
her bright white clothing,

899
00:56:56,480 --> 00:56:58,400
made us run the risk
we see just her profile.

900
00:56:58,600 --> 00:57:00,360
But the close up shot,

901
00:57:00,600 --> 00:57:03,920
allowed us to admire
her exotic beauty.

902
00:57:04,480 --> 00:57:06,960
The exchange of rings
and a little speech,

903
00:57:07,160 --> 00:57:10,560
where the highlights
of the brief ceremony.

904
00:57:11,640 --> 00:57:18,600
I called Beryl mom.
I thought she was my mom.

905
00:57:19,440 --> 00:57:21,440
Although I was a bit baffled that,

906
00:57:23,160 --> 00:57:24,840
she was black and I was white.

907
00:57:25,040 --> 00:57:26,320
Do you remember
‘Le Salamandre’?

908
00:57:26,520 --> 00:57:28,840
One of the two actresses
is now an Italian citizen.

909
00:57:29,080 --> 00:57:33,440
Beryl Cunningham, Jamaican actress,
model married with director Vivarelli.

910
00:57:34,120 --> 00:57:36,800
I was a married man,
but I had lots of girlfriends,

911
00:57:37,000 --> 00:57:38,600
black ones of course.

912
00:57:38,800 --> 00:57:40,400
Piero for me was like a father,

913
00:57:41,240 --> 00:57:42,520
a lover,

914
00:57:43,080 --> 00:57:44,080
I can’t say a husband.

915
00:57:44,560 --> 00:57:46,160
She was my girlfriend,

916
00:57:47,400 --> 00:57:48,880
and her name was Veronique.

917
00:57:57,880 --> 00:58:00,680
The funny thing is he called me,
he said: Vania, Vania,

918
00:58:00,920 --> 00:58:02,480
she’s pregnant!

919
00:58:02,560 --> 00:58:05,200
I'm going to have a black child.
I'm thrilled.

920
00:58:05,320 --> 00:58:08,680
I was irresponsible,
I wasn’t taking the pill.

921
00:58:09,000 --> 00:58:11,320
And with Piero,
I don’t know if I can say this,

922
00:58:11,520 --> 00:58:13,040
we would fuck all day long.

923
00:58:13,240 --> 00:58:14,760
Piero was one of those.

924
00:58:14,960 --> 00:58:16,880
I told him,

925
00:58:17,080 --> 00:58:18,760
-I'm expecting a baby.

926
00:58:29,200 --> 00:58:31,240
After a few months,
he called me up and said:

927
00:58:31,640 --> 00:58:33,160
-He’s born, he’s born!

928
00:58:33,400 --> 00:58:34,560
I said:
-Are you happy?

929
00:58:34,800 --> 00:58:35,520
-No
-Why?

930
00:58:35,720 --> 00:58:37,080
-He’s white.

931
00:58:37,320 --> 00:58:40,080
We all burst out laughing.
He was desperate.

932
00:58:40,320 --> 00:58:44,200
He wanted a black son.
But the boy was born almost white.

933
00:58:44,440 --> 00:58:47,360
When I was born I wasn't welcome.

934
00:58:47,560 --> 00:58:51,720
They called me ‘that one’.

935
00:58:52,000 --> 00:58:56,880
My eldest daughter Nathalie,
was born from an arranged wedding.

936
00:58:57,120 --> 00:58:58,600
At the time there was no divorce.

937
00:58:58,800 --> 00:59:03,120
Oliviero, officially, was
anonymous mother' son,

938
00:59:03,320 --> 00:59:04,840
otherwise I risked losing,

939
00:59:05,840 --> 00:59:07,280
custody of Nathalie.

940
00:59:07,640 --> 00:59:10,320
I remember that for a time,

941
00:59:11,120 --> 00:59:13,960
I was in an institution run by nuns.

942
00:59:14,200 --> 00:59:16,120
Before being officially
adopted by Piero,

943
00:59:16,160 --> 00:59:18,040
after Beryl's wedding,

944
00:59:18,120 --> 00:59:22,080
I had a fake last name:
Rossetti.

945
00:59:22,320 --> 00:59:25,400
At 27 I was invited,

946
00:59:26,040 --> 00:59:27,480
to a lunch.

947
00:59:27,760 --> 00:59:31,960
There was this person
who was a bit drunk,

948
00:59:32,800 --> 00:59:36,320
I was talking about Beryl,
-Beryl, my mother...

949
00:59:36,520 --> 00:59:38,520
He said:
-Your mother is not Beryl.

950
00:59:39,000 --> 00:59:41,520
I said:
-My mother is Beryl.

951
00:59:42,120 --> 00:59:43,480
-Your mother’s name is Veronique.

952
00:59:43,680 --> 00:59:47,320
I rushed to Piero’s house.

953
00:59:47,440 --> 00:59:50,920
At the door, I asked:
-Who's Veronique?

954
00:59:51,240 --> 00:59:53,280
Piero's face turned pale.

955
00:59:54,000 --> 00:59:55,840
He said: -Sit down.

956
00:59:56,200 --> 00:59:57,760
I said:
-No, tell me who's Veronique.

957
00:59:58,080 --> 00:59:59,520
He said:-Veronique is your mother.

958
00:59:59,720 --> 01:00:00,520
I was 27.

959
01:00:00,800 --> 01:00:02,400
And who was Veronique?

960
01:00:02,760 --> 01:00:04,680
The go-go dancer of the Piper Club.

961
01:00:15,640 --> 01:00:18,000
Piero created the Piper.

962
01:00:18,320 --> 01:00:22,200
Without him the Piper
would never have existed.

963
01:00:22,640 --> 01:00:25,720
When Piero Vivarelli
walked into the Piper,

964
01:00:26,120 --> 01:00:28,200
when it was at its peak,

965
01:00:28,360 --> 01:00:30,480
there were all
these young women,

966
01:00:30,520 --> 01:00:33,000
he was like the prince
making his entrance.

967
01:00:33,280 --> 01:00:37,160
Musically, the ‘Piper-girl’
was Patty Pravo,

968
01:00:37,360 --> 01:00:40,200
but I was the real "Piper -girl",
dressed in white.

969
01:00:40,400 --> 01:00:41,720
Always dancing on that cube.

970
01:00:41,920 --> 01:00:43,800
He would sit down and check me out.

971
01:00:44,280 --> 01:00:47,160
He probably got excited,
looking at me.

972
01:00:57,040 --> 01:00:58,720
He wanted to taste
a bit of everything.

973
01:00:58,800 --> 01:01:02,280
He was an extremist.
It was always a game.

974
01:01:02,520 --> 01:01:04,480
Chicco always played with life.

975
01:01:05,200 --> 01:01:07,600
He always considered it
a big adventure.

976
01:01:07,800 --> 01:01:10,240
Provoking, undoing,
fixing, starting over.

977
01:01:13,120 --> 01:01:15,520
I had had the opportunity

978
01:01:15,600 --> 01:01:18,080
of organizing Aretha Franklin's
Italian tour.

979
01:01:18,280 --> 01:01:20,320
I went to see
the impresario Radelli.

980
01:01:20,440 --> 01:01:24,400
Piero was his music consultant.

981
01:01:24,600 --> 01:01:28,200
Piero would say:
-Can we get this artist?

982
01:01:28,240 --> 01:01:30,000
He'd shoot big.

983
01:01:31,320 --> 01:01:33,760
He asked:
-Can we get Led Zeppelin?

984
01:01:33,880 --> 01:01:35,040
I said:
-Sure.

985
01:01:35,320 --> 01:01:37,680
I didn't even know
who they were.

986
01:01:38,760 --> 01:01:39,720
I went to London.

987
01:01:39,960 --> 01:01:41,440
I met the manager.

988
01:01:41,520 --> 01:01:43,840
He was huge, must have
weighed 200 kilos.

989
01:01:44,160 --> 01:01:44,760
I said:

990
01:01:45,160 --> 01:01:47,200
-We'd like Led Zeppelin
to come to Italy.

991
01:01:47,280 --> 01:01:49,440
His answer was: -No way.

992
01:01:50,280 --> 01:01:51,000
-Why?

993
01:01:51,160 --> 01:01:52,880
-You don't have the money.

994
01:01:53,320 --> 01:01:56,480
I opened my briefcase
with the money,

995
01:01:56,840 --> 01:01:58,520
that Radaelli gave me.
He had told me:

996
01:01:59,040 --> 01:02:02,360
-The only way to sway the Brits
is show them the money.

997
01:02:02,560 --> 01:02:05,280
I had 20 thousand pounds
in the briefcase.

998
01:02:05,400 --> 01:02:08,440
I said: -This is the money.

999
01:02:09,320 --> 01:02:10,760
He said:-How much is it?

1000
01:02:11,080 --> 01:02:12,160
-15.000 pounds

1001
01:02:12,360 --> 01:02:15,160
He said: -I want 20.000.

1002
01:02:15,760 --> 01:02:17,560
-Ok, here's 20.000.

1003
01:02:18,200 --> 01:02:20,320
He said:
-Ok, we'll do the concert.

1004
01:02:20,400 --> 01:02:22,880
LED ZEPPELIN IN WARFARE

1005
01:02:22,960 --> 01:02:24,880
MOLOTOV COCKTAILS AT CANTAGIRO

1006
01:02:25,040 --> 01:02:27,120
Rock music and concerts,

1007
01:02:27,200 --> 01:02:28,960
big music events,

1008
01:02:29,120 --> 01:02:34,120
have been the only place where
there's no discrimination.

1009
01:02:34,360 --> 01:02:37,760
Black, white and Chinese people,
all sit together,

1010
01:02:37,840 --> 01:02:39,480
they all sing together,

1011
01:02:39,520 --> 01:02:40,600
they dance,

1012
01:02:40,680 --> 01:02:42,080
no distinctions,

1013
01:02:42,200 --> 01:02:44,560
nobody cares who's rich, who's poor.

1014
01:02:44,800 --> 01:02:47,960
It's a great way to bring
people together.

1015
01:02:48,080 --> 01:02:50,440
This is what, in the 80s,

1016
01:02:50,600 --> 01:02:53,720
scared the Italian political power.

1017
01:02:53,920 --> 01:02:56,120
Piero was one of those saying:

1018
01:02:56,320 --> 01:02:57,960
-We're making a revolution,

1019
01:02:58,280 --> 01:02:59,920
-We're making a revolution.

1020
01:03:01,920 --> 01:03:04,280
Maybe if he had been
more of a dad,

1021
01:03:04,480 --> 01:03:06,520
I don’t know,

1022
01:03:06,960 --> 01:03:08,200
how can I say this?

1023
01:03:09,200 --> 01:03:12,280
I would not have
appreciated him when I was 30.

1024
01:03:12,640 --> 01:03:13,840
After the Black Decameron,

1025
01:03:14,040 --> 01:03:15,920
Piero had a bad car accident.

1026
01:03:20,360 --> 01:03:23,080
This accident hindered him
for a long time.

1027
01:03:23,280 --> 01:03:25,760
It also had
a big impact on his life.

1028
01:03:27,320 --> 01:03:29,680
Look at him, he’s a basket case.

1029
01:03:29,880 --> 01:03:32,040
Did you call the ambulance?
- Yes, I called it.

1030
01:03:32,320 --> 01:03:34,360
Ambulance? He's dead already!

1031
01:03:34,560 --> 01:03:36,640
Dead my ass.

1032
01:03:36,840 --> 01:03:38,800
Beryl,

1033
01:03:39,840 --> 01:03:41,560
how is my Beryl?

1034
01:03:56,880 --> 01:03:59,440
I went to see him
in the hospital.

1035
01:03:59,640 --> 01:04:01,000
He was in really bad shape.

1036
01:04:01,200 --> 01:04:03,560
It constrained the rest of his life.

1037
01:04:04,400 --> 01:04:05,480
Can't handle it, huh?

1038
01:04:06,440 --> 01:04:08,920
That was 1972, then in 1978,

1039
01:04:09,120 --> 01:04:11,680
we shoot ‘Nella Misura In Cui’
in Colombia.

1040
01:04:16,360 --> 01:04:18,880
An autobiographical movie.
It was his story.

1041
01:04:19,200 --> 01:04:22,440
Call Beryl and tell her I spoke
with Oliviero’s teacher.

1042
01:04:22,640 --> 01:04:24,160
- Ok.
- Ok my ass.

1043
01:04:24,360 --> 01:04:26,880
Besides his private life,

1044
01:04:27,240 --> 01:04:29,840
he put his political ideas in it.

1045
01:04:30,760 --> 01:04:34,240
When I was a kid
I joined the Fascists.

1046
01:04:34,760 --> 01:04:37,240
And now you act like a communist.

1047
01:04:38,480 --> 01:04:39,920
It’s not an act.
I am a communist.

1048
01:04:40,120 --> 01:04:42,880
In life, one can change,
for the better.

1049
01:04:43,080 --> 01:04:44,000
Dad.

1050
01:04:44,200 --> 01:04:45,440
What's up?

1051
01:04:45,520 --> 01:04:47,120
I got a flat tire.

1052
01:04:47,880 --> 01:04:49,840
Dad is the one who,
in a heartbeat,

1053
01:04:50,040 --> 01:04:52,240
stole Alessandro’s girlfriend.

1054
01:04:52,440 --> 01:04:57,360
Alessandro took her home
to introduce her to him.

1055
01:04:58,280 --> 01:05:00,200
He went to the bathroom.

1056
01:05:00,480 --> 01:05:01,400
When he came back,

1057
01:05:01,600 --> 01:05:04,040
he found them
snogging on the couch.

1058
01:05:04,400 --> 01:05:07,640
Alex, who met her
the night before, said:

1059
01:05:07,840 --> 01:05:09,760
- Ok, cool, bye.

1060
01:05:09,960 --> 01:05:12,480
He left, and they were together
for two or three years.

1061
01:05:12,760 --> 01:05:14,240
You see how much fun
he’s having?

1062
01:05:14,600 --> 01:05:16,200
Don't let him get bored,

1063
01:05:16,400 --> 01:05:18,880
or he gets depressed
and acts like a child.

1064
01:05:19,080 --> 01:05:20,160
He’s in your hands.

1065
01:05:28,040 --> 01:05:32,720
He really loved Alessandro.
A very beautiful boy.

1066
01:05:33,920 --> 01:05:36,080
Unfortunately
he died too young.

1067
01:05:36,360 --> 01:05:38,440
He loved him,
but he did so his own way.

1068
01:05:44,680 --> 01:05:47,080
Piero adored him.

1069
01:05:47,480 --> 01:05:50,320
Even though he wasn’t
around much.

1070
01:05:50,920 --> 01:05:52,560
But we were always,

1071
01:05:53,040 --> 01:05:55,080
running around.

1072
01:05:55,280 --> 01:05:57,280
We stayed out late at night.

1073
01:05:58,160 --> 01:06:01,480
Chicco wasn't a traditional father.

1074
01:06:01,920 --> 01:06:04,160
What does traditional father
mean anyway?

1075
01:06:04,280 --> 01:06:05,720
I'm not sure.

1076
01:06:05,960 --> 01:06:08,440
Piero on set was like,

1077
01:06:08,960 --> 01:06:10,800
when you go out for dinner.

1078
01:06:11,600 --> 01:06:14,040
Of course, the strain,

1079
01:06:14,760 --> 01:06:17,600
is not the same,

1080
01:06:17,920 --> 01:06:20,400
but he was always very pleasant,

1081
01:06:20,600 --> 01:06:23,360
always a very chilled person.

1082
01:06:23,560 --> 01:06:25,760
It seemed like
he was having a good time,

1083
01:06:26,200 --> 01:06:27,360
instead of working.

1084
01:06:27,640 --> 01:06:28,280
Any regrets?

1085
01:06:28,480 --> 01:06:29,960
No way.

1086
01:06:30,160 --> 01:06:31,480
I’m good the way things are,

1087
01:06:31,680 --> 01:06:34,040
although surviving
gets tougher every day.

1088
01:06:34,480 --> 01:06:35,640
Really no regrets?

1089
01:06:36,720 --> 01:06:37,400
Nope.

1090
01:06:38,320 --> 01:06:40,360
None at all.

1091
01:06:41,360 --> 01:06:43,200
I just made some bad choices.

1092
01:06:43,400 --> 01:06:45,480
Marrying Alex’s mother
was a mistake.

1093
01:06:45,680 --> 01:06:47,760
Beryl was a mistake.

1094
01:06:47,960 --> 01:06:49,640
At least you have
the guts to admit it.

1095
01:06:49,840 --> 01:06:51,840
Yes, but guts are all
I've got left.

1096
01:07:11,640 --> 01:07:13,800
Colombia, ganja, the joints,

1097
01:07:14,000 --> 01:07:17,280
there was this naif atmosphere,

1098
01:07:17,480 --> 01:07:20,720
a bit counterculture,
against the rules.

1099
01:07:28,760 --> 01:07:32,400
I have this image of Piero
dressed like a guru,

1100
01:07:32,600 --> 01:07:34,760
walking along the walls
of Bocachica,

1101
01:07:34,880 --> 01:07:37,720
like a sort of hermit.

1102
01:07:37,920 --> 01:07:39,600
It was in his spirit.

1103
01:07:43,200 --> 01:07:49,600
Some people, many of whom
are in the film business,

1104
01:07:50,080 --> 01:07:53,640
who walk on the edge of a precipice.

1105
01:07:54,320 --> 01:07:57,600
Piero had a big heart,

1106
01:07:57,720 --> 01:08:00,200
and a boundless imagination.

1107
01:08:00,400 --> 01:08:04,880
He was a man of his time.
Of the 60s and 70s.

1108
01:08:05,160 --> 01:08:10,200
Alessandro carried this legacy
during a time that got harsher,

1109
01:08:10,520 --> 01:08:13,760
tougher, the 80s and 90s.

1110
01:08:14,000 --> 01:08:18,200
Unfortunately Alessandro
lost his way,

1111
01:08:18,640 --> 01:08:22,760
when Italian youngs
were in a dangerous spot.

1112
01:08:23,480 --> 01:08:24,440
I knew him.

1113
01:08:24,640 --> 01:08:27,400
He was very handsome.

1114
01:08:27,600 --> 01:08:30,840
He had pretty strong character.

1115
01:08:31,040 --> 01:08:36,280
He executive produced a movie
that won an Oscar, ‘Mediterraneo’.

1116
01:08:36,480 --> 01:08:40,600
Being producer Minervini’s stepson,
he had a future in the business.

1117
01:08:40,800 --> 01:08:43,520
Gianni [Minervini] waited 11 years.

1118
01:08:43,680 --> 01:08:46,400
Because Piero
wouldn't give me Alessandro.

1119
01:08:46,760 --> 01:08:49,840
I wasn't leaving Piero
without Alessandro.

1120
01:08:50,200 --> 01:08:53,360
You can be director of your own life

1121
01:08:53,400 --> 01:08:55,840
There isn't a script.

1122
01:08:56,400 --> 01:08:58,960
But you can act in it.

1123
01:09:00,480 --> 01:09:05,280
Piero and Alessandro were,
literally, actors.

1124
01:09:05,480 --> 01:09:10,360
Alessandro appeared
in two of my movies.

1125
01:09:10,560 --> 01:09:12,560
What’s going on?

1126
01:09:12,760 --> 01:09:13,720
Where?

1127
01:09:13,920 --> 01:09:16,800
In Italy, in Europe.

1128
01:09:17,480 --> 01:09:18,320
Dunno.

1129
01:09:18,680 --> 01:09:19,880
What do you mean dunno?

1130
01:09:20,680 --> 01:09:23,840
Mussolini, Hitler, Germany?

1131
01:09:24,040 --> 01:09:25,080
Dunno.

1132
01:09:25,280 --> 01:09:26,680
Who is dunno?

1133
01:09:26,880 --> 01:09:28,680
Where are you from?

1134
01:09:28,880 --> 01:09:33,600
Kash, Antalya, Fethiye. No war.

1135
01:09:34,360 --> 01:09:38,480
Alessandro had
a serious drug problem.

1136
01:09:38,720 --> 01:09:40,480
Addiction is no joke.

1137
01:09:40,720 --> 01:09:43,320
Dad, not being a dad,

1138
01:09:43,560 --> 01:09:45,600
had no idea how to handle it.

1139
01:09:45,840 --> 01:09:48,880
Alessandro was supposed
to be constantly kept in check,

1140
01:09:49,080 --> 01:09:55,880
with the excuse of the dog,
he would meet his dealer.

1141
01:09:56,080 --> 01:10:00,880
Once, the cops came to take him
away for an interrogation,

1142
01:10:01,080 --> 01:10:03,960
I was in his apartment asleep.

1143
01:10:04,160 --> 01:10:05,880
They broke in.

1144
01:10:05,920 --> 01:10:08,360
Talk about the fact that,

1145
01:10:08,560 --> 01:10:09,760
it’s true,

1146
01:10:10,000 --> 01:10:13,120
I really think that real life,

1147
01:10:13,320 --> 01:10:16,480
isn’t an art movie,
It’s really a b-movie.

1148
01:10:23,160 --> 01:10:26,960
Piero was hit very hard
by Alessandro’s death.

1149
01:10:27,320 --> 01:10:30,840
Partly because he felt,
I think, responsible.

1150
01:10:31,040 --> 01:10:36,360
He hadn’t provided him
with an example,

1151
01:10:36,560 --> 01:10:39,320
of a regular, normal, tranquil life.

1152
01:10:39,680 --> 01:10:43,200
All of this hadn’t helped
Alessandro to come out,

1153
01:10:43,440 --> 01:10:46,080
of his downwards spiral.

1154
01:10:46,280 --> 01:10:48,560
It struck me deeply,

1155
01:10:48,760 --> 01:10:51,920
when I called him,
and he broke out crying:

1156
01:10:52,120 --> 01:10:55,720
-They killed him, these drug dealers.
And so on.

1157
01:10:56,000 --> 01:10:58,320
Minervini the same thing.

1158
01:10:58,800 --> 01:11:00,840
He was also crying:
-They ruined him. And so on.

1159
01:11:01,000 --> 01:11:05,880
This is a sensitive thing,
but it’s interesting,

1160
01:11:06,080 --> 01:11:10,800
and all due respect for
all the people involved.

1161
01:11:11,000 --> 01:11:12,760
Alessandro suffered a lot,

1162
01:11:12,960 --> 01:11:14,560
due to his relationship
with his father,

1163
01:11:14,600 --> 01:11:16,400
with his fathers.

1164
01:11:16,920 --> 01:11:21,200
He would say to me:
-I don’t know if I’m Piero’s son,

1165
01:11:21,400 --> 01:11:23,600
but Gianni Minervini is telling me:

1166
01:11:23,800 --> 01:11:27,480
I'm your father,
the one who raised you.

1167
01:11:27,680 --> 01:11:31,480
This really had an impact on him.

1168
01:11:31,680 --> 01:11:34,680
The fact that his father
stole his girlfriend,

1169
01:11:34,880 --> 01:11:37,040
something that doesn’t
just happen in the movies,

1170
01:11:37,240 --> 01:11:40,680
there we are
the level of Greek tragedy.

1171
01:11:40,880 --> 01:11:44,160
This is another reason
why I loved him.

1172
01:11:44,360 --> 01:11:46,720
Alessandro was a fragile person.

1173
01:11:47,240 --> 01:11:49,160
Unfortunately, drugs,

1174
01:11:49,560 --> 01:11:51,440
heroin in particular,

1175
01:11:51,640 --> 01:11:54,960
became the refuge
for a lot of people,

1176
01:11:55,160 --> 01:11:57,520
who had a sensitivity,
an intelligence,

1177
01:11:57,840 --> 01:12:01,960
that didn’t allow them to align
with what we call being normal.

1178
01:12:02,160 --> 01:12:05,000
And it was also
a way to join a club.

1179
01:12:05,240 --> 01:12:08,840
I can't be like my father,
like that famous director or lawyer,

1180
01:12:09,040 --> 01:12:12,360
and so I just call myself out.

1181
01:12:12,560 --> 01:12:16,440
Alessandro’s problem was really:

1182
01:12:16,640 --> 01:12:18,320
who am I?

1183
01:12:22,400 --> 01:12:26,680
I found a letter I had written
to my wife from Cuba,

1184
01:12:26,880 --> 01:12:28,560
while shooting ‘La Rumbera’.

1185
01:12:28,720 --> 01:12:33,880
After Alessandro’s death, he's moving
towards another amazing conversion.

1186
01:12:34,400 --> 01:12:35,640
During location' scouting,

1187
01:12:35,840 --> 01:12:37,760
I was struck that
he crossed himself,

1188
01:12:37,960 --> 01:12:40,720
inside a church,
chosen as a location.

1189
01:12:40,920 --> 01:12:44,600
During our evening chats,

1190
01:12:44,800 --> 01:12:47,720
I came to realize that his ‘maturity’,

1191
01:12:47,920 --> 01:12:48,840
and ‘pain’,

1192
01:12:49,040 --> 01:12:50,680
have brought him towards God.

1193
01:12:53,320 --> 01:12:56,920
My sweet Madonna,
let me go back to Cuba.

1194
01:12:57,600 --> 01:12:59,240
I can’t take this anymore.

1195
01:12:59,440 --> 01:13:01,320
Piero was getting on with the years.

1196
01:13:01,520 --> 01:13:03,640
He didn’t care that much
about this story per se.

1197
01:13:03,680 --> 01:13:06,120
What he was interested in
was the soul of Cuba.

1198
01:13:06,280 --> 01:13:11,360
To try and explore that
through a film.

1199
01:13:16,720 --> 01:13:18,560
Piero was fascinated,

1200
01:13:18,760 --> 01:13:20,320
by a revolution,

1201
01:13:20,640 --> 01:13:22,280
in a Caribbean island,

1202
01:13:22,480 --> 01:13:25,040
theoretically super poor,

1203
01:13:25,360 --> 01:13:27,720
which had managed to develop,

1204
01:13:28,000 --> 01:13:31,280
a project for a Utopian society,

1205
01:13:31,520 --> 01:13:35,840
where everyone had
a home with a toilet.

1206
01:13:36,160 --> 01:13:40,960
All children could attend
public schools until 4 p.m.

1207
01:13:41,280 --> 01:13:44,000
Have a chance to go to college.

1208
01:13:44,200 --> 01:13:49,440
The lowest infant mortality rate
in the continent, including U.S.

1209
01:13:49,640 --> 01:13:54,080
The highest average life expectancy,

1210
01:13:54,160 --> 01:13:55,400
on the continent.

1211
01:14:18,320 --> 01:14:20,280
What’s the only place in the world,

1212
01:14:20,520 --> 01:14:22,960
that Piero could identify with?

1213
01:14:25,560 --> 01:14:26,400
Cuba.

1214
01:14:30,960 --> 01:14:35,560
He was the only Italian member
of the Cuban Communist Party.

1215
01:14:35,760 --> 01:14:39,400
On Cuba he had an interpreter, a driver.

1216
01:14:39,760 --> 01:14:45,320
In any restaurant
people would clap at him.

1217
01:14:45,560 --> 01:14:47,520
He was a star,
a total icon.

1218
01:14:47,720 --> 01:14:49,480
I gave him great pleasure,

1219
01:14:49,680 --> 01:14:52,920
because I was able to witness it.
He was saying: - come to Cuba.

1220
01:14:53,000 --> 01:14:55,000
I would think:
- These are the stories Piero tells.

1221
01:14:55,200 --> 01:14:59,000
I was wrong. He was friends
with Fidel Castro.

1222
01:14:59,200 --> 01:15:02,080
He was consulted
by the culture minister.

1223
01:15:02,200 --> 01:15:03,800
He was an amazing character.

1224
01:15:16,160 --> 01:15:18,720
Piero’s militancy for Cuba,

1225
01:15:19,440 --> 01:15:21,800
was so fervent,

1226
01:15:22,960 --> 01:15:25,960
because he was a rebel
who found his cause.

1227
01:15:26,160 --> 01:15:32,400
He focused his will on this place
that he could collaborate with,

1228
01:15:32,600 --> 01:15:36,080
and give everything so
that it was to Cuba that,

1229
01:15:36,280 --> 01:15:37,840
he consecrated great part of his life.

1230
01:15:38,680 --> 01:15:40,240
At the end of the day, what is Cuba?

1231
01:15:40,440 --> 01:15:43,280
A type of vitality still untainted.

1232
01:15:43,520 --> 01:15:44,720
More ass than soul.

1233
01:15:44,920 --> 01:15:49,840
It’s as it good as it gets,
for one with Vivarelli’s aesthetic.

1234
01:15:50,040 --> 01:15:51,800
Vivarelli could not
have been a Leninist,

1235
01:15:52,000 --> 01:15:53,120
or a Trotskyist,

1236
01:15:53,320 --> 01:15:55,440
and even less so a Maoist.

1237
01:15:55,640 --> 01:15:59,160
In these countries they would have
shot him in a hot minute.

1238
01:15:59,440 --> 01:16:02,520
I'm also a member of the
Cuban Army Paratroopers.

1239
01:16:02,680 --> 01:16:07,840
They didn't give a shit
that I was in the Decima Mas.

1240
01:16:08,360 --> 01:16:12,960
They were happy to welcome me.

1241
01:16:17,920 --> 01:16:22,360
We met thanks to the same
passion for skydiving.

1242
01:16:22,640 --> 01:16:25,720
He had written me
to introduce himself.

1243
01:16:25,920 --> 01:16:31,960
The first thing he told me was:
- I am an old navy seals skydiver.

1244
01:16:32,200 --> 01:16:34,360
He had told me his whole story.

1245
01:16:34,400 --> 01:16:39,560
The history of skydiving in Italy.

1246
01:16:39,880 --> 01:16:42,680
No hesitation in these
valorous men who jump down,

1247
01:16:42,880 --> 01:16:44,920
on enemy territory
with the utmost courage.

1248
01:16:45,120 --> 01:16:48,760
Piero wanted me
to debut as an actress.

1249
01:16:49,120 --> 01:16:54,160
There was a lot of talk
about this movie.

1250
01:16:54,400 --> 01:16:58,320
The protagonist was this
gorgeous girl from Nettuno.

1251
01:16:58,520 --> 01:17:03,280
He fell in love with her.
As always with him.

1252
01:17:03,520 --> 01:17:05,960
He would come to watch me land,

1253
01:17:06,160 --> 01:17:10,760
barefoot next to him.
He adored that.

1254
01:17:11,160 --> 01:17:13,440
He would ask me funny things:

1255
01:17:13,680 --> 01:17:15,720
- Do you think one can
make love up in the air?

1256
01:17:15,920 --> 01:17:20,200
Up there in the sky, totally free.
He liked this freedom thing.

1257
01:17:22,520 --> 01:17:25,240
When he asked me:
- I want to jump.

1258
01:17:25,480 --> 01:17:29,120
It was for his birthday.
It was his 85th.

1259
01:17:29,320 --> 01:17:33,640
I would tell him:
-Piero, with your heart condition.

1260
01:17:33,920 --> 01:17:37,360
What are doing?
Jumping out of a plane?

1261
01:17:37,680 --> 01:17:39,880
I would have jumped with him.

1262
01:17:40,480 --> 01:17:44,560
We could hold hands
until the parachute opened.

1263
01:17:48,440 --> 01:17:51,960
It’s beautiful to have
this passion inside you.

1264
01:17:52,200 --> 01:17:55,280
Even if you don’t fulfill it,
because he could not do it.

1265
01:17:55,600 --> 01:18:00,160
To keep dreaming:
- I'm going to jump, I’m going to do it,

1266
01:18:00,360 --> 01:18:02,880
my last jump.
The last jump of my life.

1267
01:18:03,120 --> 01:18:06,240
You don’t want to die in bed,
from some disease.

1268
01:18:06,800 --> 01:18:08,240
You just pass away.

1269
01:18:08,640 --> 01:18:09,880
Flying.

1270
01:18:53,440 --> 01:18:55,760
Now you will be alone
amongst yourselves.

1271
01:18:55,960 --> 01:18:57,280
My time is over.

1272
01:18:58,880 --> 01:19:00,200
The wheel has turned.

1273
01:19:01,040 --> 01:19:03,960
I go back to the origins.
The gods are calling.

1274
01:19:29,280 --> 01:19:30,160
Hey, you.

1275
01:19:31,320 --> 01:19:32,400
Excuse me ma'am,

1276
01:19:33,480 --> 01:19:34,760
I must be mistaken.

1277
01:19:35,600 --> 01:19:36,720
Terribly mistaken.

1278
01:19:37,000 --> 01:19:37,520
Right.