Storaro/Caravaggio

I had been looking forward to it all week. An invitation by Vittorio Storaro (three Academy Awards in cinematography...) to Rob and me to come to Technicolor for a showing of the film he shot about the life of Caravaggio. I've been in love with Caravaggio for thirty years. And to have a chance to hear Vittorio talk about him was just too exciting....

It brought back so many memories of the Technicolor Friday Night screenings that Rob would put on. Same room, same people. Rob saw his old secretary, Pat, as well as the guard that was there the first day Rob went to work for Technicolor in 1979. Another connection is that on his first day at Technicolor, Rob sat along with Vittorio and Francis Ford Coppola and viewed the five hour version of Apocalypse Now, something that Coppola had been keeping under tight wraps.

We joined cinematographer friends Vic and Claire Kemper, Woody and Florence Omens, Caleb and Mary Jo Deschanel, Owen Roizman and his son Eric, Vilmos and Susan Zsigmond, and Garrett and Kelly Smith, Warren Beatty (in a cream colored suit with white shirt. I wouldn't normally mention the outfit, but it definitely stood out in a small room of dark clothes...), and Mike Medavoy, among others. I tried to remember how my friend Penny Peyser knows Warren, in case I was in a conversation with him and needed some material, but I couldn't remember. (Update from Penny - she and Warren used to date in the 90's...) I also know Warren's former neighbors, the Minears, so I was ready to play that card if needed. It wasn't. Kelly said that Warren walked by her and said, "When am I going to see you next?" which was a pretty cool thing to hear. But, sadly, Warren and I did not exchange any words. If I was really on the ball (which I apparently wasn't) I would have had something witty to say to Mike Medavoy about my script I've been working on for 5 - 6- 7 (whatever) years. Didn't happen.

Vittorio said to me, "From the very beginning, I feel something special about Rob." And he hugs Rob as a long lost friend.

Garrett brought party favors - dvd's of The Conformist, a Bertolucci film shot by Vittorio. Before the talk/screening, Owen said that after he had just shot French Connection, he saw The Conformist and decided that he might as well quit now and get out of the business because he could never get film to look that good. Funny because French Connection was a ground-breaking work itself.

We talked with Mary Jo Deschanel about our Emily's, and then she reminded us that Zooey's middle name is Claire, and Claire Kemper joined in and somehow it felt good to have such lovely representatives for the name Claire, and for the name Emily. I love that connection.

Then Vittorio stood in front of the screen which was projecting a slide of himself, along with a painting by Caravaggio, and the words, "Storaro/Caravaggio." He positioned himself so that the word "Storaro" was projected across his chest and he remained there for the whole talk. Whether it was by design or not, it was mesmerizing and perfect.

After he had left film school, he was in the Piazza Navona in Rome and went into the nearby Church of San Luigi dei Francesi. People were gathered looking at a group of paintings and Vittorio joined them. It was Caravaggio's series on St. Matthew. The first painting (above) was of the calling of St. Matthew and shows the moment in which Jesus sees Matthew and calls him into service. The rest of the group are unaware of what is happening. The mundane money-changing interrupted by the divine light.

Vittorio showed a version of the painting that didn't have the shaft of light coming from the right side. Then he showed the painting as it was painted. Then he went back to the one without the light. "I did that with Photoshop," he said. The light didn't come from the window. The light was divine, and no source needed to be shown.

Vittorio said that particular painting changed his life. He had never seen anything like it. And he began to explore the way artists, particularly Caravaggio, used light in their work. He said that without that painting, he could never have done Apocalypse Now, Reds, or Last Emperor.

(I love the way Vittorio says Plato, "Plah - toe" and Emmaus, "A - mouse"...)

Afterwords Vilmos said that all those years in school and he never learned so much about art as he did with Vittorio's talk. Rob announced that he was thinking about auditing the class, but now thinks he's going to take it for credit.

My favorite Caravaggio is in the Ufizzi in Florence. The Sacrifice of Isaac. He chose the perfect moment - the moment Abraham was willing to follow the command, but also the moment where he was told that he didn't have to. This painting makes me cry....



Postscript: Vittorio wanted to visit "the Dalsa" so he and his director, Angelo Longoni, spent the morning with Rob. Then Rob brought them by the house where they could throw toys to Sparky and I could recite the only Italian I know which is a poem I used to hear repeatedly on TV in Rome by Gabriella Ferri. Fortunately, Angelo started saying it along with me, so we must have been watching the same show in 1978...