Woke up early Tuesday, too early. 4 in the morning early. Forced myself to stay in bed for at least a couple of hours before beginning one of my favorite first day in Europe (and still suffering from jet lag) activities - a long walk around the city watching the town awake. So, there I was, at 630 in the morning, alone on the Spanish Steps, alone in the Piazza Navona. I walked around for a good three and a half hours before finally heading back to my hotel. As I returned, I began to hear sirens, ambulances in every direction. I had heard other ambulances and police cars earlier in the morning, so I just thought, there are a lot of sirens in this city for so early.
It was only later in the day that I learned of the terrible crash in the Rome subway system. One train parked at a station hit from behind by a second train. At least one person dead (the first report I heard was 6 dead, but it was later reduced), hundreds injured, some critically. Talking to one of the workers at the film festival later, he told me that Rome has been on guard, and actually expecting, a terrorist attack. He said, "we know that it is coming. Everyone else who has gone to war with the United States has been hit - Spain, the UK. So we know that we will get it and it will happen here in Rome. But this, this kind of accident." And with that he shook his head.
Apparently, the first thought of emergency workers was that it was, indeed, a terrorist attack on the subway system, similar to incidents in other European cities. Another festival worker told me that the entire festival was on heightened security alert, apparently due, at least in part, to the Pope's recent comments that offended many in the Islamic world.
There is definitely a security presence here at the festival, but to the eye it reveals itself by the numerous young men in Italian suits who are stationed all throughout the festival headquarters. It's like a swarm of bouncers and doormen, if the doormen were skinny fashion models with sunglasses.
Meanwhile, the festival had a quick reaction to the tragedy. They canceled all of the red carpet events and assorted glamour, they postponed the screening of the evening's big comedy - a satire about fascists on Mars, starring a big Italian comedy icon - and began each film screening with an announcement of condolence and a moment of silence.
For a festival in its first year, the Rome fest is remarkably assured and organized. The centerpiece venue, the Auditorium Parco Della Musical is any festival planners dream. Four theatres, restaurants, space for exhibits, a bookstore, a large deck that overlooks the entire venue, modern and beautiful. I mentioned to a well-known festival veteran that very few festivals have a venue like this for their headquarters and she responded, "nobody has this. It's amazing." And while most people are staying at hotels near Via Veneto, some 4 km away, there is constant shuttle service, running every 3 minutes for free.
They've also done a good job of involving the entire city, not just by having screenings in outlying areas (every film premieres at the Auditorium and then has a second screening somewhere else in Rome), but also by staging events or displays throughout the city. Everywhere you turn, there is a reminder that the festival is taking place, not just by signs but by movie-inspired art installations and concerts and bus tours and retrospectives. I've never quite seen anything like it.
Talking to a few veterans of the festival circuit, the sole complaint seems to be that many of the films were already in Toronto or elsewhere. The festival does seem to find itself torn between a desire to be a major festival (which inherently requires it to be competing with Venice, hence the feud that has developed between the two festivals this year) with big premieres, big stars and a business element, and a desire to contribute something positive to the city, letting the vagueries of premiere-status and entourages be damned. One way this is expressed is that the competition is being decided not by a jury of industry professionals but by one of 50 locals. As one person said to me yesterday, it is a decision that is not without risk. Should the locals choose a film deemed by the industry as unworthy, it could cast a bad light on the festival. And ultimately, no matter how much the festival would love to go its own way, it is, like so many others, dependent on the approval and attendance of those same industry representatives. So as much as it's a festival for the city, it will ultimately have to please those tastemakers in order to convince distributors to send their premieres to Rome, which is clearly something everyone hopes will happen. It will be interesting to watch this balancing act as it goes forward. But by raw materials alone, Rome has a huge head start over many, many festivals.
Saw two movies yesterday - Eric Steel's The Bridge and Barbara Kopple and Cecelia Peck's Shut Up and Sing. I'd been wanting to see The Bridge ever since reading about the controversial and sometimes outraged reaction to newspaper reports on the film's content. For those unfamiliar, the movie documents the strange phenomenon of people who jump from the Golden Gate Bridge (more people end their life there than anywhere else in the world). The filmmakers set up cameras and observed the bridge throughout 2004, capturing numerous suicides and preventing several (it seems from watching the film - but I have no confirmation of this - that if someone crawled over the railing and onto the ledge and waited for a little while, the observers would contact the authorities, but if someone was just on the bridge for a long time, looking out into the distance, the filmmakers would videotape them but not report the suspicious activity). This point, that they filmed several people who ultimately killed themselves for numerous minutes without doing anything, and the fact that they got permission to film the bridge without revealing their true subect matter, has angered some in San Francisco.
The film is not as exploitive as its description suggests, although there are certainly ethical questions raised by the filmmakers' actions and by some of their editing. But ultimately, it's an aching and sympathetic view of the reasons why people choose to end their own lives, something that due to the subject matter of my own film was both fascinating and heartbreaking.
Shut Up and Sing, meanwhile, is a triumph. While it's perhaps too soon to speculate how the film will ultimately be viewed within the pantheon of music related documentaries, I think it is one of the best films of the genre that I've ever seen. Certainly part of this is due to the Dixie Chicks, who are open and funny and who delivered a golden moment to filmmakers Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck when they opined that they were ashamed that George Bush was from Texas in post-Iraq invasion 2003. But so much of the filmmaking - the structure of the editing, jumping around with ease between 2003, 2005 and 2006, the effortless way recording sessions are included, the way in which supporting characters are included - is of such high caliber. It's easily Kopple's best film since her Oscar winning American Dream and a sure contender for another Oscar nomination.
Seeing the film now, in the midst of crashing approval ratings for the president and his ill-advised war, makes 2003 and the pro-war, anti-dissent mania that accompanied it, like some kind of fever dream. To think that off-hand banter from a musician on a stage would set off a storm that would lead to boycotts and death threats shows just how desperate American had become (not that we are totally free from this - and certainly in some parts of the US the fervor is still whipped into a frenzy). When you hear an advisor to the Dixie Chicks tell them, in explaining why their comments need to be explained and corrected, that the US is going to be in and out of Iraq in months and Bush will be more popular than ever, you realize just how many people bought into the administration and media spin that Iraq was a necessary cakewalk. Pay no attention to the millions marching in the streets.
The theatre last night was not even half full. Most people here, I am told, only know vaguely of the Dixie Chicks, and only then from their run in with the president. Their music is unfamiliar to most Italians. But judging by last night's enthusiastic reaction, love of the Chicks is no precursor to loving this movie. What's also clear is that Dixie Chicks are heroic.
And so ended my first full day at the Rome Fest. Did I mention the bottle of wine at the Enoteca? Or the press screening for my film? No, these will be saved for another day.
Welcome from Rome, your article makes me proud of my town! Thanks!
Posted by: Sergio | October 19, 2006 at 02:10 PM
hi there. Welcome to rome. I was there on wendsday to see your last film, Kurt cobain about a son. It was amazing. I mean it was just like kurt was here, alive, talking about things coming to his mind. I have never thought of kurt in taht way you (He) described. The idea of not using nirvana images or photo it's great just like the decision of not hearing any of the nirvana's songs. it works as a counterpoint. I was listening to your words just out of the auditorium. You said that the movies it's divided in three chapter, that are connected to the three different cities kurt live in. Aberdeen, it was the first movement the masculine part, Olympia was the second movement, where the female and more free nature of Kurt come out. The third movement, the conclusion it's just like a mixture of the first and the second chapter or movement. I had a question list time but I couldn't ask. Can we see the entire film as musical composition, whith its introduction (abeerdeen), its variation (olympia) and its conclusion, that has part of the introduction and the variation. Maybe i went to far. Just to ask. Thank you very much for taking here your film, You think is it going to be developed in italy? I mean here every single film is dubbed, and i think it would be terrible not hearing kurt voice!
I have plenty of things to ask about your film, maybe later. Thanks
Giacomo
ps sorry for my english...
Posted by: Giacomo | October 20, 2006 at 01:11 PM
Giacomo and Sergio,
Thanks so much for the notes and kind words. I had a wonderful time in Rome and can't wait to write another post about the screening. It was such a great night and wonderful to meet so many of the people who came to see the film.
Giacomo, I think you are right to look at the film as one might view a musical composition. In fact, I asked the composers to create an overture and two musical interludes for the film, so I think that we all were viewing the musical elements (as well as some of the thematic elements) in that sense.
We are very much hoping that the film will return to Italy and to theatres there. I don't have any final details at the moment, but hope to soon. I don't think they would dub Kurt's voice - that would seem to negate the point - but I guess anything can happen!
Thanks again and congrats on a wonderful first festival for Roma.
AJ
Posted by: AJ Schnack | October 24, 2006 at 11:27 PM
A.J., I get the honor of meeting and dining with you Nov. 12. Looking forward to it.
Alan
Posted by: Alan Barbour | October 31, 2006 at 08:02 PM