[GolinoML] Hotel (Great Britain/Italy, 20001) screened at Toronto

Wed, 19 Sep 2001 12:32:04 +0200

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Hi folks,
I hope those of you who live in the United States are all OK after the
disasters of the other week. also the Toronto International Film Festival
in Canada has been modified after the facts of September 11th.
Ferruccio Amendola, the most famous Italian dubber, died two weeks ago
after long disease.
I have added to the site several interviews in Italian, mostly on L'inverno
(Italy, in post-production), and some links to Valeria's collagues.

- Ferruccio Amendola (Turin, 22/07/1930 - Rome, 03/09/2001);

- the world premiere of Hotel (Great Britain/Italy, 20001) rescheduleded;

Ferruccio Amendola (Turin, 22/07/1930 - Rome, 03/09/2001)

Son of actors, nephew of director/writer Mario Amendola, he made his
début in cinema with Gian Burrasca (Italy, 1930) directed by Sergio
Tofano and begun early to work as dubber and, after

year of revue stage, cinema and TV from 1968 he devoted himself almost
exclusively to dubbing. For decades, he has been the Italian voice of Dustin
Hoffmann, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro,

Sylvester Stallone and has also dubbed Cuban Tomas Milian in many Italian
films. More, he has acted in commercials and in fiction TV of great success.
He has worked for the Italian edition of two films with Valeria dubbing
Ben Gazzara in Figlio mio, infinitamente caro... (Italy, 1985) and Dustin
Hoffmann in Rain Man (United States, 1988); his

son Claudio Amendola.has acted with Valeria in early 2001 in the fiction
TV Cuore di ghiaccio (Italy, in post-production).
The funeral of Ferruccio Amendola took place at Piazza del Popolo in
Rome in the Chiesa degli Artisti on 06/09/2001.

the world premiere of Hotel (Great Britain/Italy, 20001) rescheduleded;

Toronto, 12/09/2001: due to the air attack to the United States on Tuesday
11 the Toronto International Film Festival at 12:30 PM had cancelled all
the extra Festival

events and at 02:00 PM all the remaining screenings for that day. The
scheduleded world premiere of Hotel (Great Britain/Italy, 2001) has been
moved to Wendsday 12

at 11:45PM, Varsity 8. The same day takes place the press conference
of the film with only Director Mike Figgis present. Some of the cast members
of the film,

including Salma Hayek, Julian Sands and David Schwimmer, are in Toronto
and were meant to accompany Figgis to promote the film but they chose not
to attend. The

scheduleded second screening of the film has been too moved to Friday
14 at 09:15 PM, Varsity 8.
I attach an article on the press conference.

Remember to visit the site every now and then.
That's all, folks!
Giuseppe

--

http://www.pietrobo.com/~caruso
ValeriaGolino.Agave[it, en]

Notes about the Italian/Greek actress (born in Naples) Valeria Golino,

in Italian and in English

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Wednesday, September 12, 2001
Hotel Press Conference
 Director Mike Figgis sat alone on the stage at the press conference for his latest piece
of aesthetic cinema, Hotel. Some of his cast members - including
Salma Hayek, Julian Sands and David Schwimmer - are
in Toronto and were meant to accompany Figgis to promote
the film, but in light of  yesterday's terrorist attacks
are devastated and chose not to attend.
"My cast felt as a mark of respect that they didn't want to do
 it," Figgis said. "I myself had reservations, but there was also
the relief of not having to sit in front of the television." Figgis
then said he was happy to talk about the film, but felt it very strange at the same time.
Figgis spoke extensively about his use of digital cameras - on which Hotel is entirely shot, and of his
avant-garde approach to filmmaking as well as the restraints imposed by the supposedly 'liberating'
bsp; new technology.
 "What I love about the new digital
equipment?" Figgis answered, slowly. "Everyone is busting a gut
 trying to make it look like film.
Low-end digital doesn't look like film, like television, or life - it looks
not
 quite so precious. It throws the
focus on the performances."
 Hotel uses Venice as its principal
setting, with four simultaneously projected images of prostitutes,
 tourists, a killer, a maid, a
film crew and a tour guide as they travel through the city streets, piazzas
and
 canals all the while progressing
the story. Figgis also uses smaller images within a large, single frame
 and night vision shooting. Hotel
- like Figgis' precious feature Time Code - is being called 'exciting',
 pushing the boundaries of cinema
forward.

On shooting four images simultaneously, Figgis said that it

provides such varied material of roughly the same time/scene.

With his previous film, Miss Julie, Figgis found that shooting

with two cameras, and getting two angles instead of two

different shots, gave the film much more substance. When

asked if he was being 'avant-garde' in Hotel - incorporating a

split screen scene that divides the sound - Figgis replied,

"You can call it avant-garde, or that the projector lead was

the wrong way round."

Indeed, technical difficulties can prove to be the most
 challenging when using new technologies.
"The main problems are stability of image, and recording good,
 usable sound," said Figgis. He
explained that he built special equipment for the shoot, including a rig
to
 steady the digital camera, but
that there were still frustrations.
 Digital cameras are very small,
and Figgis was frequently pulling out reading glasses to be able to see
 the menu, then programming the
shoot on what he described as 'tiny' buttons. "Digital was designed for
 ease of use, ironically it makes
it more difficult. I spent lots of time pre-setting the camera,
 remembering to clean the camera
so there wouldn't be spit marks on it." In the end, a lot of preparation
 went into the equipment used to
film Hotel, but Figgis said he found this an interesting process.
 Recording good, usable sound was
another challenge. Figgis gave all his actors mini-disc recorders to
 have on their bodies at all times
of shooting. The problem? "Often, they'd forget to turn them on, or
 they'd confuse the on and off
button so I would get one and a half hours of them talking then none of
the
 scene."
 Figgis encountered further difficulty
shooting the street scenes as actors such as Hayek and
 Schwimmer began to be recognized;
in addition, the cast included many Italian actors whose natural
 method of acting includes drinking
espresso and smoking between scenes. Much of the filming was
 described as rapid, fluid and
experimental - a challenge to which Figgis is obviously accustomed.
 To bring such a variety of actors
to his film, he explained that he works with an "unofficial ensemble"
 cast that he calls upon. For Hotel,
he worked each part around the availability of his actors - and clearly,
 the flexibility of their talents.
 "Lucy Liu got off the plane and
I said to her 'do this scene.' She looked at me and said, 'What's my
 character? What's the plot?' I
told her we didn't have time for that. She was great, and the next day
she
 had it - the process of osmosis."
 -Erin Phelan

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