- В никуда, <Дима>, 13.07.1999 13:06
| Subject | | В никуда |
| Sender | Дима |
| Created | 13.07.1999 13:06 |
Что-то все опять куда-то подевались. Наверное, поехали
в разные европейские страны слушать нашего героя.
Перед тем как я подеваюсь сам - в отпуск (до
европейских стран, увы, не доеду), решил повесить
здесь забавную вещь - Том Уэйтс интервьюирует Роберто
Бениньи:
"Roberto Benigni by Tom Waits / A great clown meets an
old pal with a gravelly voice"
Roberto Benigni, the new Clouseau waits for Tom Waits
to pour the coffee and ask the questions
"I ham a good egg," Roberto Binigni claimed in Jim
Jarmusch's "Down By Law" - and, as if there were any
doubt, the Tuscan Toto went on to prove it as the
sheep-loving taxi driver in Jarmusch's "Night On
Earth". In between, he acted in Fellini's "The Voice
Of The Moon" and directed and starred in "The Little
Devil" and last fall's "Johnny Stecchino", the most
successful Italian film of all time; this spring, he
appears as Inspector Clouseau's bungling offspring
in "Son Of The Pink Panther", a casting director's
dream.
When this good egg was recently in Hollywood, we put
him next to a sizzling piece of bacon, Tom Waits, who
had shared a cell with Benigni (and John Lurie)
in "Down By Law". Waits follows last year's "Bone
Machine" album with "The Black Rider" (Island) in
April and his role in "Bram Stoker's Dracula with one
in Robert Altman's upcoming "Short Cuts". Samuel
Beckett didn't write the dialogue of his conversation
with Benigni, but 'Godot' was definitely in the
details.
TOM WAITS: The one thing that makes you such a gifted
comedian and actor is that you have a sense of music
about everything you do. That's what I love, when you
hit your boot and knee and your chest...
ROBERTO BENIGNI: Yes, yes.
TW: When you're directing, how do you keep the humor
and keep the life? How do you keep the wings on all
the birds?
RB: That is a very good question. So you think to
direct is to fly? To move legs from the ground?
TW: To leave the ground and to soar. I don't know how
you do it, because in films you deal with a machine.
My theory about songs is that most of them don't like
to be recorded, they like to be wild. And I think very
human moments in film sometimes don't like to be
captured by the camera. The camera is like a butterfly
net. You have to capture the butterfly without hurting
it.
RB: Yes. I think this is a very good sensation you
have about the movies. I feel exactly the same.
Because when I am shooting it, the romantic thing
about a movie is it's the opposite of theater: (sic)
you can't control it. You never know when it's good or
not. Because the movie is choosing what is beautiful.
When you are acting, if the crew is laughing very
much, this doesn't mean that you are doing it right.
For a movie, a laughing crew is very dangerous.
TW: So, ideally, the camera is laughing and the crew
is silent?
RB: Right! A lot of the time on "Johnny Stecchino" I
remember the crew didn't laugh. But then the audience
rioted. I was really flabbergasted. Very
discombobulated. And always the movie is choosing you.
You can't say, "I am a good actor for a movie." Only
the screen can say "This is good actor - I like him."
I never go with my director of photography to watch
rushes, because a movie must be undisturbed until the
end. Like a watermelon. You open it - "Oh, it's red.
Hah! It's red. It's red!" Heh-hah!
TW: They say that if you tap on a watermelon and it
has a certain sound, it's a red watermelon.
RB: Hah! I tap the camera. This sounds very good, yes.
TW:Yeah, it's red. But not always. Sometimes it's
rotten. With insects living inside of it.
RB: Revolting.
TW: I think that's a good metaphor, the watermelon.
RB: There it is - it's fresh, it's sweet, it's very
red and good. But it's true, about a movie choosing
you. It happens a lot of times that very bad actors
become big. They not good actors. They are just in a
good movie, a good watermelon.
TW: Just light flicking through a machine.
RB: And your metaphor with the music is good, because
the music is like a free jail. It you read the script
of Bach, you see music is like mathematic, but when
you hear it, it seems like something completely free,
improvisation. Like in your songs. My favourite
musicians, Bach and Waits.
TW: My thing is the best songs come out of the ground,
just like a potato. You plan and plan, and then you
wait for the potato - and watermelon, same.
RB: Your potato is for music, watermelon is for film.
So when you are doing a soundtrack, you are doing a
potato for a watermelon.
TW: And the tape machine is like the camera. There are
things that go into the machine that are improved, and
there are other things that go into the machine that
are lost. It's not like a science. It's like a
mystery. More coffee?
RB: Yes. I like coffee. Black coffee. I have a
wonderful jet lag, yes.
TW: You like jet lag?
RB I love it. Jet lag is one of my favourite things in
the world. Yes. I woke up this morning, and it was
4:30, and I felt so good, but I didn't know what time
it was. I thought it was the sun that was very dark. I
couldn't understand what happened.
TW: It's good to be lost.
RB: Yes. Lost with yourself.
TW: Because film and music are expeditions and
sometimes you have no map. You just go drifting, and
you go many days without water or food. When I am
making music, I don't change my clothes for two full
months.
RB: You know who did this, too?Michelangelo. He
painted the Sistine Chapel. He never washed himself,
he never changed clothes, especially shoes and socks.
TW: Yeah?
RB: Michelangelo tried to take the socks off and skin
came off with the socks. He never changed his clothes
until he was finished, and was completely revolting.
TW: Sometimes when you finish, you take the clothes
and you put them in a pile, and you burn them. You
make a fire of all your clothes. Sometimes to be a
leader you must be a child, you must be a stinking
idiot.
RB: Absolutely. You must be a stinking idiot.
TW: You know what I mean? The courage of a child to
say, "I smell nothing," and to go into it with eyes
open. But more important than liking movies, it's
important for the movies to like you.
RB: Right! I like watermelons. But it's more important
that the watermelons like me. We started with this
theory - the movies choose you. Movies decide if you
are a great actor.
TW: Yeah. We've come full circle.
RB: This is it. This is like Bach's music.
TW: Exactly.
RB: Correct. Very good. Without meaning to, we finish
where we started.
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