 The last colony
Interview with filmmaker Parvin Ansary
December 15, 2003
The Iranian
I have known Professor Parvin Ansary since I was in 6th grade
in Rome all the way back to 1961 when I was 11 years old. In
1975
and '76, I acted in two of the films she made in Iran. We
have remained and continue to be friends all these years and in
fact we consider each other family. There are few people on this
planet male or female whose intellect I admire and respect as much
as hers. My own father, who went to Harvard College when he was
15, came close but then he was a philosopher and never made a movie
in his life. Parvin is not just an academician but is very much
of this world too....For me personally I have always considered
Parvin to be my very own "Auntie Mame!" (Rosalind Russell,
1958.)
This interview was made in a series of 2 to 3 hour phone conversations
from California over a 6 week period in September and October 2003,
every Saturday morning with Parvin in her villa in the woods outside
Rome. It became such a routine that I am already missing it. See photos
Q: Where were you born and where did you go to grammar school?
A: I was born in Tehran and I went to the French School there.
Q: What do you remember from the Tehran of your childhood?
A: I remember beautiful gardens, snow on the mountains, flowers
and trees especially at dawn. Now the views of the mountains and
the skyline are ruined by all the sky scrapers... I remember
the water flowing in the jubes at the sides of the kuches. I remember
how people were very kind and generous in those days. I remember
the smell of chicken khoresh; and the music in the alleys. When
I hear it now, it makes me homesick. It was not so overpopulated
then. People were much more generous.
Today people in general,
everywhere are overeducated, there is too much information most
of which is irrelevant and selecting what is important is not
done. There is too much information and a need for self censorship.
I
prefer my memories of old movies than to seeing them again. There
are too many books published these days. I particularly enjoy
rereading great books every 10 years or so as I mature to see how
the impression
they make on me has changed as I have changed. When I read history
it seems like politics never changes.
Q: When did you leave Iran?
A: I lived in Iran until I was 18 years old and completed grades
K through 12 there. Then I went to Switzerland and eventually Rome
to continue my higher education. I was always alone. My marriages
went bad. I continued my studies while I was a single mom. I love
people but I need lots of time by myself to think and be creative.
After spending time with people I need some time to be cloistered.
I never get bored by myself; I never need company. Let's
face it; no one really cares about our personal problems anyway. Q: How did you first become interested in cinema?
A: I loved movies ever since I was a little child. I went twice
a week. In those days there were lots of movie theatres on Avenue
Lalezar. People were very elegantly dressed to go out to the movies
in those days. The films were in French and English and not dubbed.
Every so often there was a translation block. Movies were my main
form of entertainment as a child.
Q: So when you started out in the film industry in Rome how did
you make a living?
A: In Rome, I started a dubbing company translating all of Vittorio
De Sica's films ("The Bicycle Thief" and "The
Garden of The Finzi Contini") and Carlo Ponte's films
into Persian. I had a good friend, who was a baritone opera singer
named Hossein Sarshar, who did a lot of the voices.
Also my friend
Hananeh, a Persian composer and musician did some of the dubbing.
A group of our friends and amateurs who loved film all helped
with the dubbing. Khanoum-e-Nabat even learned to dub Sophia Loren
and
Gina Lola Brigida. I translated lots of Italian comedy into Persian.
I was 21 years old at the time. My family didn't approve
of it. It was so much fun that it was more like a game than real
work and the Iranian public liked it so much that it became a
good business for us. One time Sarshar dubbed both the voice of Alberto Sordi and Vittorio
De Sica in the same film at the same time. He did such a great
job that I invited both De Sica and Sordi to watch the film in
Persian and they loved it. My family and I were friends with Luigi
Zampa (To live in Peace, 1946 and City on Trial 1952) who was a
big director in those days. Zampa saw what a great interest I had
in film and film history and he counseled me to apply to and study
at the famous "Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia;" (today
it is called the National Film School of Italy and it is still
the only state institution of its kind in Italy.)
I was friends
with Michelangelo Antonioni ("Blow Up" and "Zabrinski
Point," 1970.) and with Paolo Germi, who also studied at
the "Centro" and was a major contributor to Italian
Comedy ("Divorce Italian Style", "Seduced and
Abandoned," 1964.) We were taught both film theory and practical
aspects of film making plus I also learned a lot on my own. At
the school they taught us about music. You know, a film director
must know music, all about music, the history of music and also
about script writing, scenery, set design, make up, camera
technique, everything...it is a huge job to be a film director;
there are so many different aspects to be coordinated. I was very
dedicated and serious about learning the techniques in school.
Q: What films did you make?
A: At first I made 12 to 14 documentary films for the Italian public
about Iran. My first one was about the Zur Khuneh, then about Isfahan
and Shiraz. I also made one about Persian miniatures and one called "The Drunkeness of Omar Khayyam." I produced a whole series of
10 minute films about Iran for RAI (The Italian national radio
and television agency.)
Then I went to Iran to make the film:"The Travels of Pietro
Della Valle" which you acted in as Sir Robert Shirley. I
had already put 5 years of research into the making of Pietro Della
Valle before we took a single shot.
You have to understand how difficult it was for a woman to become
a film director. Let us digress for a moment and talk about feminism.
Women are the last colony to be liberated from the imperialist
era. For many centuries woman have been exploited and were not
even allowed an education or to write. Women were not allowed to
express themselves and had no rights. We young women were greater
than a nation in number and yet once we were over 40 we were considered
finished.
Q: Don't you think it is amazing considering the "Titism"
mentality at the time, that an actress like Audrey Hepburn built
her success
without big tits? I mean look at what women will do to themselves
with plastic surgery in order to have big tits, but can they act?
A: Audrey Hepburn for that time was a very rare sophisticated comedienne. Society
has become superficial. People don't want to think. Give
women another 100 years to learn what to do with their new found
freedoms and try to remember that for 1000's of years they
have been suppressed.
Q: What do you think about the IRI?
A: I think that a 23 year reaction is too long. Even the biggest
revolution in the world which was the French Revolution didn't
take this long. It is not just Iran. I think that quality of life
issues have become a worldwide problem. There are too many people.
Everywhere there are cities that are too large and too crowded
with too much traffic, too many books and writers, too much information,
no selectivity, people live too long. People in antiquity only
lived into their 40's if they were lucky.
Iran is like Italy in the sense that it knows how to survive.
The mullahs will make deals to survive. Unlike the Arabs they
will
not fight the USA head on. Iraq is being given no self determination.
Bush has packed his administration with Zionists and they will
make deals with the mullahs. As bad as Saddam was in Iraq he
held the Kurds, Shias and Sunnis together by force until a transition
could have been made to democracy.
Now what is happening to Iraq?
Q: Let us return to talk
about your two major films: "Pietro
Della Valle" and "Sarab-e-Soltanieh" and the
one you are doing the research for now about: "Beatrice Cenci."
A: When I read Pietro's journals in 3 or 4 different libraries
they were very difficult to read in the Italian language of the
1600's but he wrote extremely well. Pietro got his idea from
Marco Polo, to travel to the East to become known and important
but he was also very sincere. He lived at the time of the Inquisition
when Jews and Moslems were being persecuted in Spain and elsewhere
in Europe. In Naples there was a group of orientalists.
One in
particular named Mario Esquifano loved the orient and he was a
friend of Pietro. He talked Pietro into visiting the mythical "Land
of Aurora" (Persia.) His journals had three episodes. The
first was his trip to Turkey. The Battle of Lepanto (in which Christendom
defeated the Ottoman navy) had ended a few decades before and Pietro
hated the Turks. He hated Istanbul and ignored it in his journals.
When I saw Istanbul for the first time I found it truly the Rome
of the East.
In his second episode he traveled to Syria. In my current research
on Beatrice Cenci, who was a girl who lived at the end of the 1500's,
I find that it was a very difficult time to live in Rome. Her brothers
murdered her father for political intrigue, the Protestant Reformation
was going on and there was lots of chaos in general and so Pietro
was relieved to leave Italy. In Aleppo he knew a Signorina Manni
who was catholic and he soon fell in love with her and began also
to fall in love with the Middle East seeing it through her eyes.
In the third episode they travel to Persia and he falls in love
with
it and with Shah Abbas and his court and the fact that Shah
Abbas has maintained his independence from the Ottoman. Pietro
really came to love Iran. No other travelers to Iran before or
after him wrote so well about Iran. He spoke very, very well
of Safavid Iran but he also put in little criticisms. At first
I didn't
understand his strange criticisms but then I came to understand
that it was because he was a fervent catholic. Otherwise he admired
Iran very much. He traveled in Iran from 1621 to 1622 but did
not publish his journals until 40 years later in 1670.
Shah Abbas was very polite to Europeans and to the Armenians
at Jolfa and to his other Christian minorities. When the Shah
drank
his wine he would toast King Phillip II of Spain. The Shah's
mullahs from time to time were fanatical but this period was
a real renaissance for Iran.
In my film I wanted to capture the essence of the era of Shah
Abbas. To make a film capturing that idea could have cost millions
and
involved millions of extras like a Cecil B. Demille style production
but I didn't have that kind of budget. Instead the film became
an art film which many critics found metaphysical and jewel
like. In 1978 the film was presented at the Monte Carlo Film
Festival. The actor Richard Widmark was one of the judges. He congratulated
me and commented favorably on my film. He particularly liked the
mixture of Monteverdi and traditional Persian music in it. Although
the film was mentioned by the reporter covering the festival for
Time Magazine, in retrospect the Monte Carlo Film Festival was
not the correct venue to debut this film. Even the judges were
not right. I mean after all Widmark was a cowboy actor. It
won a gold medal at the documentary festival in Nice that year
as well.
The IRI didn't like my film because it did nothing to enhance
their politics. At the Key Club people sent me over champagne.
They recognized my film. I had used some of my own funds
to produce it. It was not a popular film. I have never tried to
make a popular film. I have particular tastes that may not appeal
to everyone. But I can tell you that whoever sees this film loves
it. It has become a Classic.
I am a foreigner in Italy and also in Iran. I can tell you that
Darius Mehrjui ("The Cow."1970, "The Cycle,"1977
and "The Tennants," 1982) likes my work and respects
it. I was never part of a group. I always went solo.
When I was making: "Sarab-e-Soltanieh," the revolution
started and the NIRT which was helping to fund it went on strike.
The IRI didn't like my film. I told them it was about the
mosque at Soltanieh but they weren't impressed. In this film
half the Iranians were Europeanized and Americanized and half were
not. The male protagonist was an archeologist studying the unique
blue ceramic tile at Soltanieh. He was played by Parviz Mirhosseini.
In his role, he had a traditional conservative father and he had
gone to school in a madresseh. His girlfriend, played by Shohreh
Aghdashloo, was Europeanized and didn't speak Persian very
well.
I thought this film was appropriate for the time but the IRI
put it in a box at NIRT and said they would call me and that
was 24
years ago now. The film had three episodes and I made it with both
my own money and funding from NIRT. I thought it was a very honest
work.
Shohreh was perfect for the role. She is a real actress and
works very hard. I came to feel a great affection for Shohreh
and vice
versa. When you put me in touch with her after 24 years it was
like no time had passed at all. She is so unpretentious and simpatica.
Also Gholam-Hossein Naghshineh was perfect in both my films: "Pietro
Della Valle" and "Sarab-e-Soltanieh." The Italian
film editors were very impressed with the professionalism of Naghshineh.
The filming of "Sarab-e-Soltanieh" was made so easy
by the professionalism of the actors.
Q: What was the deal with that Yugoslav lead actor: Stanco Molnar?
What was his recommendation?
A: I was attracted by his eyes but he was a pain in the ass. He
was recommended to me by
my friends the Taviani brothers. He had acted for Paolo and
Vittorio Taviani in their film "Intolerance" about the American
director Griffith. He also acted in Bertolucci's: "1900"
and in "Allons Enfants..." Stanco worked with Marcello
Mastroiani but he did not have the warm personality of Marcello.
I liked Stanco's eyes.
You know I have many gay friends who are
very simpatico and wonderful human beings but Stanco put on airs
and had a difficult personality to work with. A great actor must
be humble and helpful not difficult. He was a closet case gay and
had a diva attitude. Remember how
he fussed about not having a room in the Shah Abbas Hotel and moved in over there at his
own expense? And I never got much help from the assistant directors
either while making "Pietro..."
Regarding "Sarab-e-Soltanieh," the cause should have
been more important than luck. In ancient Persia, 500 years ago,
they used to talk about "the auspicious time to do something,
the right time to do something." It was the wrong time to
make this film. I finished it in August of 1978. With all the strikes
going on, I saw it all happening but I had to bring this film to
Iran to make it. There were huge strikes, nothing was happening
at NIRT and then the Shah left and Khomeini arrived. The revolution
made huge, huge changes to everything. The new directors, even
the best are restricted by the IRI. Actresses have to wear head
scarves. But even during the Shah's time there were some quite daring
films that were made.
I once asked Hatami, the director of "Silk Route" how
he managed to get away with making that film. It took a lot of
courage to make that film even coming at the end of the Shah's
era as it did.
There is no way today that I could remake "Sarab-e-Soltanieh" now
with all the women in chadors. We are small in the face of huge
historic events. Before the revolution much was wrong but there
were a lot of good things too. Those who wanted a better Iran were
marginalized by the IRI. The Mojahedin and the Fadaiyan were
marginalized.
Q: What did you think of Sharpour Bakhtiar?
A: Sharpour Bakhtiar would have been perfect. Khomeini appealed
to the illiterate masses. I interviewed Bakhtiar one time for the "Corriere
della Sera" (largest circulation Italian daily.) Bakhtiar
was educated in France. The population of Iran was not ready for
Bakhtiar. The people had once loved the Shah but the Shah did not
give parliament enough power.
The Imperial Court appointed parliament
and the MP's were mostly the nouveau riche. Bakhtiar believed
in the constitution of Iran and in an elected parliament. Mossadegh
believed in the constitution and the parliament as well. All
the revolutions in Europe in the 1800's were fought to gain parliamentary
systems. The Shah understood this too but it was too late. He
needed
to start making Iran into a republic 4 or 5 years sooner. I believe that the USA had only one motive. They were afraid of
the USSR only. I do not believe in a big conspiracy theory. Usually
motives are simple not complicated in history. Khomeini wanted
to export his revolution to the Shias in Iraq. I believe Saddam
attacked Iran for his own motives also and not just at the bidding
of the USA. Khomeini wanted to conquer Jerusalem and Syria. If
Gorbachev had arrived earlier there would have been a much softer
transition in Iran.
Illiteracy almost no longer exists in Iran. There are many books
being printed and translated in Iran. As long as the first page
has a disclaimer against the Shah and his father then they can
print anything they want without further censorship. People are
very well read these days and a lot of books are being published
now in Iran. The Shah had much more censorship of literature than
now. It is a different type of censorship now of a religious nature
like the restrictions on drinking, women's dress and make
up and so on.
Some great books have been written under the IRI
regime about Shah Reza and Reza Shah. Some very good writers are
still in Iran. The population has become much more educated. The
population never dies. The Italians have never been as great
as the Romans even though they had their Renaissance, O.K.! But
Persians never die. Persians were always advisors to the Ottoman
caliphs for example. Modern Greeks have never attained the greatness
of the ancient Greeks like Aristotle, Socrates or Plato but Persians
still have a great culture.
Q: What do you think about modern Iranian cinema?
A: Some beautiful films are also being made now in Iran. The whole
world is calling Iranians terrorists thanks to America and yet
they have been making films, some very artistic films in the middle
of all this. Persians in the final analysis are poets not terrorists.
I always thank Persian students and poets because they insist on
existing in spite of all the politics.
"The Circle," "Dayere" of
Jafar-e-Panahi was very beautiful. It was not right for TV because
it was full of "chiaro scuro." It won the Golden Lion
award at the Venice film festival. The movie starts out in a hospital
with a baby being born and the whole family wanting a boy. When
a girl is born they are all disappointed. You see I am telling
you again that women are the last colony to be liberated. Kiorastani has been very successful. In Italy he has much respect
and is considered a great photographer and referred to as Maestro. Also
Makhmalbaf and his film "Kandahar" has earned a lot
of recognition internationally. I am very impressed by the
courage of Kiorastani and his films.
Q: Besides Kiarostani and Makhmalbaf are their any other modern
Iranian directors that you admire?
A: Well those are the two I am most familiar with. I liked Abbas
Kiarostani's "Taste of Cherry" about ordinary
events in life and emotions versus 20th century events beyond our
control. His films are always successful despite the climate of
fear of censorship in the IRI and I admire his courage greatly.
"The Circle" was much more cinematographic but I did not find
it profound three days later.... A lot of the interest in Iranian film is due to the curiosity
in the West about life in the IRI. However I must add that there
were
also some great directors at the time of the Shah like Kimiavi.
He was an admirer of Jean Luc Goddard. Kimiavi made some very beautiful
films in those days. In fact, despite his shortcomings, the Shah
actually did much for Iran and the Iranian cinema industry with
classes offered in cinematography at the universities and by supporting
NIRT. The great directors of Iran learned their craft under the
Shah's regime not the Mullahs even though they try to claim
credit for them.
Q: Tell me about the latest film you are working on now?
A: "Beatrice Cenci!" It takes place at the end of the
16th century. She lived near Piazza Navona in Rome and the same
house is still there. I went to see the house and spent a lot of
time studying its aspects. The times were atrocious in Rome of
that day. People criticize Islam but the Islamic world was much
more advanced and civilized than Europe of the1500's. Italy
became a modern nation only in the 1860's.
I am trying to
capture how difficult this period was in my film. The Roman Catholic
Church helped to end the Italian Renaissance because of its fear
of the Protestant Reformation and of the spirit of scientific
inquiry that characterized the Renaissance which put man at the
center
of the universe rather than God. Also Napoleon contributed to
this demotion of the church and monarchies by exporting the French
Revolution
to Italy.
Q: Why did Italian cinema die?
A: Italian cinema is dead because none of the young directors are
great like the 5 or 6 great directors of that time. There were
lots of bad films then, too, but there was a core of good directors.
There are no films like the "Dolce Vita" today. Italians
have a live and let live attitude. Mussolini tried to militarize
and organize them but it couldn't last. The Italians are
not militant. The Italians have a great sense of humor. They are
also cynical and don't expect the best. In general
they are not profound. They are superficial. They like people.
They like to talk about food.
Really, I have encountered Italian
travelers upon their return from places like India and Hawaii and
all they talk about is the food, the cuisine they experienced.
Italians eat a lot of food, take a lot of holidays and have more
parties than most other societies. I mean there are obviously lots
of intellectuals and artists in Italy but in general Italians are
more political and not very sincere. Nobody talks about communism
or fascism anymore. Not like their films from that time of the
40's and '50's. Communism is silent now and not
a big factor. The culture is still socialist. Russian film was
an important influence for its melodrama. How many times have we
all seen that scene of the empty baby carriage going down the steps
over and over and over from "Potemkin?"
The labor party is still alive in Italy. Italians went from fascism
to socialism. There was a stalemate between the church and communism.
Even the Italian communist leaders were not of the proletariat
but were the radical chic, wearing Yves St. Laurent clothes and
Ferragamo shoes. My neighbor the communist film director
Carlo Lizzani ("Celluloid," 1996 and "Mussolini,
The Last Act.") was very bourgeois and used to drive around
in a Ferrari. It's not like this anymore.
Q: What about the rise of feminism in Italy?
A: Feminism was very strong in Italy in 1972 and 73. Divorce was
legalized. The Minister of Education was a woman and there were
women judges, congressmen and professors. They changed many the
laws to help women. We women are more direct and more honest than
men. It is harder for a woman to be a crook than a man or to start
a war for that matter.
In the days when I became a film director, it was considered scandalous.
There were not many women directors at all back then. The only
other Italian woman director I knew at that time was Liliana Cavani
("Night Porter," 1973) and she dressed very soberly,
like a man. I was too showy for that time and was resented by a
lot of male directors.
Now women are wearing make up and following fashion trends but
for centuries women were denied education, married off young. Women
had brains and lots of potential which was denied in the past.
Many women in Italy for centuries were sent to convents by their
own fathers who wanted to save the inheritance for their eldest
sons rather than spend it on wedding dowries to the benefit of
some son in law outsider. Now many convents are empty. Religion
has now become fashionable; no longer really spiritual, with role
models like Richard Gere (with his flirtations with Buddhism and
the Dalai Lama.)
America sets trends and fashions. Europe looks to the USA as a
role model. TV is replacing social life. Family life is not like
before as it was portrayed in Fellini's "Amarcord" with
the family members all together and full of passion and affection.
Modern technology has separated people from each other.
Q: So what are your past times?
A: Well for one, I don't like to gossip or watch soap operas.
But at least the virtual gossip of soaps is better than real gossip
in the sense that actual gossip can really hurt and ruin people.
A lot of people these days read romance novels and pulp fiction;
throw away books to escape from their problems. I myself like to
reread the great novels to see how my impressions have changed
from reading them, say ten years earlier. I don't want to
lose time on stuff that doesn't make me think!
Q: What did you think about 911?
A: I think that many Americans don't know about the pain
of others and don't believe in the suffering of others, of
non-Americans. Revenge is not good because it only generates more
violence. The USA is not going to fix Iran by invasion.
Q: What do you think about Islam?
A: Did you know that historically many cities in Iran resisted
Islam for 400 years. They had to pay much more tax for being non
Moslem to their conquerors. Despite the negative propaganda of
today, Islam actually helped to create a renaissance in Iran producing
great scholars like Avicenna and Ferdowsi and many others from
1200 to 1400.
It was really a two way street. Islam benefited greatly
from its exposure to Persian culture and the encounter of the
Islamic Empire with all its many cultural influences from Spain,
Egypt,
Syria, Turkey, the Balkans and Hungary, gave a lot of culture
to Persia influencing the likes of Razzi, Farabi and Ferdowsi.
You
know there are 1 billion 400 million Moslems in the world, the
vast majority of whom are peace loving. The fanatics represent
a very small minority. Propaganda is creating a lot of anti Islamic
sentiment these days and persecution of Moslems in Europe and
the United States which I find personally very upsetting.
I don't want to see Iran bombed by anyone. I can't
stand Persians who want to see Iran invaded by the USA. They forget
that the USA and Europe sold Iraq all the weapons. Many of the
soldiers in the Iran Iraq war on both sides went into the military
to feed their families.
You can't recreate a situation in Iran of 20 years ago! After
bombing it, then what? Nothing stays the same. Stagnant water stinks!
Nobody wants to think about or act upon political ideals anymore.
I think however that Bush has finally understood after Iraq that
he can't go it alone and needs the U.N.
Remember that history is written by the victors. The vanquished
even a great civilization like the Carthaginians have been completely
forgotten. The historic greatness of Iran has been forgotten. Do
you know that I still hate Alexander The Great for attacking Persia
and burning Persepolis? He attacked my country! Besides Alexander
was not really a Greek, he was a Macedonian and not really the
heir of classical Greece. Napoleon copied Hamurabi.
Alexander copied Cyrus and Darius.
In the West, Alexander is considered a big conqueror but in reality
he usurped the Empire that Cyrus and Darius had already set up.
The Greeks didn't want empire, they wanted a republic and
they didn't want Alexander to be emperor of Persia.
That imbecile Dino De Laurentis produced the film:" Alexander"
in which he cast Leonardo De Caprio as Alexander. It was based
on
a book called "Alexander" by Manfreddi which itself
was good. The book was full of humanity showing everyday occurrences,
arguments and also about Roxanna falling completely in love with
Alexander. Alexander had married both daughters of Darius and Roxanna
ended up killing them both. Manfreddi was independent and not influenced
by anyone else's opinions or prejudiced by the burning of
Persepolis.
The Persians civilized the Mongols and the Timurids. No one ever
conquered the Zagros Mountains. The Greeks eventually left Iran
and moved to Syria. Iran has a long complicated history.
Q: Let us go back to the discussion of Italian cinema.
A: Italian cinema invented Neo-Realism after the War. They didn't
have a lot of resources at that time. They made great and beautiful
films out of collective sadness, fear and poverty, especially fear.
These conditions created great films not the times of plenty. Mussolini's
fascism left the Italians hated after WW II. Rome became the open
city and liked the Marshall Plan. Italian films were created out
of extreme poverty. People didn't want war anymore. Italy
got lots of benefits from their film industry.
There were about 10 directors of which 4 or 5 were truly great
at that time. It was the era of Neo Realism. Visconti had
his own "other" politics. Fellini dealt in fantasy.
Fellini never left Cinecitta. He never filmed on location. He did
everything in the studio. He created his own fantasy world. He
loved Cinecitta... Rossellini got pissed off at Italy and went
to France. And there was Pier Paolo Passolini, who was first a
poet and then a director.
When prosperity returned to Italy, the
era of "Italian Comedy" arose. At the time it was considered
2nd rate but now intellectuals consider it 1st rate. Then after
that, it was "Spaghetti Westerns" and Cecil Demille
type films about Hercules and the like. Now only a few good films
are being made. Everyone watches TV now, not cinema. No one goes
out anymore. People are afraid of
crime,
traffic hassles, etc...no one goes out.
Dino De Laurentis went to America and remade: "King Kong" and
Carlo Ponte went to the USA and produced Doctor Zhivago and never
came back to Italy. When they left they took away a lot of Italy's
production capacity. There had also been a real synergy between
Ponte and script writers like Cesare
Zavattini,( "Il Tetto,"1956 and "I Misteri Di
Roma," 1963.) The producers and script writers needed each
other to produce such works like:" Miracle in Milan" and "The
Bicycle Thief." When these producers left for Hollywood, the
great works in Italian cinema ended.
The rest of the Italian producers who made little films were not
great. They were not educated. They were ex butchers with nothing
to say; no more genius left, nothing riveting. There was a lack
of energy. Film takes a lot of money and resources which are more
available in the USA. The US films went for comedy to cover over
the war. Musicals
like Carmen Miranda and the like were made to cover over the sadness
of World War II.
Q: What do you think about Hollywood?
A: Hollywood films are well made. I love American cinema. In childhood
I only saw American movies. In those days of the '50's
people had manners, politeness. Men were courtly. They bought women
presents, pulled out their chairs, opened car doors for them. During
the time of Roosevelt and Truman there was racial discrimination
and there were no black Americans in films except as waiters.
The
films portrayed houses as always very well furnished and in imitation
of England or New England. Everything was portrayed as perfect,
ideal; children were always beautiful. This made an impression
on me in my childhood. US films today show lots of people kissing
and hugging but for real romance it is only the old American films....I
loved Katherine Hepburn for her feminism and her great comical
dialogue with actors like Cary Grant. I loved Hitchcock's "Rear
Window." Those are jewels that we don't see anymore.
That film kept you riveted in your seat for 2 hours.
I like French and English film too and they have their charm but
they are different from that golden era of American film also.
Q: So what do you think about cinema today and about the contemporary
era?
A: There is too much sound, too much computer graphics. The youth
like it...all the computer games. The internet replaces family
and extended family. In their free time they go to technology.
It is their generation...computers. But I say that as long
as we can think that we are relevant and not passé. The
brain is everything! You can be relevant at whatever age you reach
as long as your brain is working. I pray not to go senile.
I am not opposed to change. I think it is marvelous that things
change. Yesterday there was a massive power failure through out
Italy and it made me think about how wonderful electricity is and
what it must have been like to get electricity for the first time
back at the beginning of the Industrial Age. There is always newness
with each generation. This is life; life goes on.
There are today some profound American producers and directors
in America like Copolla and Scorcese. Scorcese claims
that Rossellini taught him. Anyway I love their films! The latest
technology and capabilities are new and need time to be digested,
to become normal and more selective and sophisticated.
Q: That reminds me of the early privatization of TV in
Italy when after decades of repression by the church and ownership
by the
state they went crazy with pornography.
A: Exactly!
Q: Parvin, if you permit me, did I ever tell you the story
about my own grandfather who invented water softeners? He used
to visit
us in Italy from time to time when he was in Genoa to work on the
water desalinization systems for the Italian cruise ship line on
vessels like the "Michel Angelo" and the "Leonardo
Da Vinci."
A: Did you inherit his fortune?
Q: No, unfortunately he divorced my grandmother when my dad was
only 14 and invested all his emotions, time and resources in his
step children and his step grandchildren. So in a sense I was disinherited
decades before I was even born.
A: We are all ripped off in one way or another, every single one
of us human beings....don't worry, you are not alone....
Q: Well let's get back to cinema. I think this is a very
interesting theme about adversity creating great art while prosperity
creates decadence. I found a similar theme in the book:" Reading
Lolita in Tehran" by Azar Nafisi when she talks about Nabakov,
postulating that when an idea like communism or Islamic
fundamentalism is forced upon reality then reality as you knew
it or want it to be becomes
an idea. That is a situation in which, horrible as it is, a lot
of great artistic achievement can be produced.
A: I agree. However I do not mean to suggest that there are no
current great Italian directors. There was: "Intolerance:
The Story of Griffith" by the Taviani Brothers and there
are Oscar winning films by Giuseppe Tornatore like "Cinema
Paradiso," "Everybody's Fine" and "The
Star Maker" and Bertolucci has won Oscars too.
Q: By the way, what did the Italians think about the Nobel Peace
Prize going to Shirin Ebadi?
A: Many Italians were mad that the Pope didn't get it but
I say, the Pope is supposed to make peace his business and he doesn't
need a prize for that. The Italian leftwing were very happy for
her! I think that there will come a day when the President of Iran
will be a woman! Q: So let's talk for a few minutes about some of the film
celebrities whom you have known personally?
A: I came into lots of contact with Vittorio De Sica when he was
still mostly acting at Cine Citta. Whenever he saw me he would
always call out: "Long Live Persia!" De Sica was very
polite. While he was making:" Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow" he
introduced me to Marcello Mastroiani who was a wonderful human
being. De Sica's son Manuel was a musician and a good friend
of mine. He always went with me to see Horror films to get the
chills esp. in the summer heat.
Q: You're kidding! I never realized that you liked Horror
films!
A: Oh Yes. I love Horror films...all of Hitchcock. My all time
favorite Horror film is "Shining" with Jack Nicholson.
Q: No way!
A: Yes! I have seen "Shining" at least 15 times and
it still scares me every time. I have to cover my eyes. I never
stop being scared by this film. I love the end of the film with
the old photos from the '20's.
I love "Vertigo" also with Kim Novak and Jimmy Stewart!
Q: Did you know that that was filmed right near where I
live in Northern California? There were scenes from San Francisco
but the
mission with the tower was San Juan Bautista, which is about 45
minutes south from where I live. That tunnel of Eucalyptus trees
they kept showing in the movie is still there on Highway 101 and
in fact I love driving through it because it smells like cough
drops. Hitchcock use to live in the Bay Area. His "Birds" was
shot north of here at a town on the ocean called "Bodega
Bay." So how did you develop this passion for Horror films?
A: When I was six years old I went to see: "The Wizard of
Oz!" with Judy Garland. That was my first scary film. I don't
know why but I have always liked them from the time I was a little
girl.
I would like to make a Horror film around here where I live. You
should see the woods around me when they become filled with fog!
And there is an old castle on the top of a mountain peak you can
see from my window...
Q: Well if you do decide to make that Horror film then I definitely
want a part in it!
A: Surely! Well let's see...as far as greats that I knew
there was Gian Maria Volonte who made all those Spaghetti Westerns
with Clint Eastwood and there was Alberto Sordi. Sordi really made
me laugh. I loved his sense of humor. You know when Sordi died
they made it a national holiday and closed down everything in Italy.
There was a huge parade that went right through Piazza Del Popolo
complete with airplanes trailing banners over head.
I was a very close friend of Anna Maria Pier Angeli and I was
very sad when she died (Suicide in Hollywood.) She was my neighbor
in
Rome and in the evening she would come over to my house for cocktails
and tell me the story of her life. She had been married to the
singer Vic Demone at one point. She had debuted in a French film
called:" Tomorrow is Too Late" which gained her enough
recognition to be picked up by a 7 year contract with Hollywood.
She went there with her mother who was very bourgeois and a "stage
mom..." There she shortened her stage name to Pier Angeli
to make it easier for the Americans and she acted in films with
Paul Newman and also she fell in love with James Dean. Her mother
did not like James Dean. She thought he was a slob. When
he came over to their house in Hollywood, he would always wear
the same dirty jeans, put his feet up on the furniture and go into
the refrigerator uninvited and help himself to their food and drink
milk out of the carton. Her mom did not like Dean's bad manners
and she was the one who put a stop to the romance.
All these people lived in Rome in those days and we use to see
each other at parties all the time. Anthony Quinn and Elizabeth
Taylor lived in Rome then too. It's not like that anymore.
I don't want to know any of the new players. It is not that
I think I am better than anyone else. We are not better than others
and in fact it is we who become worse, not the others. We were
just more social when we were younger; it's human nature.
Q: I would like to mention here that not only was Hitchcock
living and filming around Northern California but John Steinbeck
lived
in Salinas, 45 minutes south of me and it was during the filming
of either the Steinbeck story:" East of Eden" or "Grapes
of Wrath" on location that James Dean died in a car crash
near Salinas. So back to the interview: What do you do to
pass your time now?
A: Now I must have periods of intellectual solitude rather than
gregariousness. I spend time alone in Rome seeking out evidence
of the Renaissance in architecture and artifacts. Today's
actors are superficial and undignified. I knew Luchino Visconti
from a distance. He was serious and aloof... a count. He was
influenced by the German romantics, Expressionists and authors
like Thomas Mann with his struggle between the timeless spiritual,
mythological, mystical and artistic perceptions versus the contemporary
reality, comfort and familiarity of day to day bourgeois life.
("Death in Venice," 1971 adapted from Mann's
novella.)
I also knew Antonioni quite well. These days Michelangelo Antonioni
("The Passenger" 1975) due to strokes can now no longer
even speak and he directs films by writing. I know a lot of people
still but everything has changed. Rome used to be like a living
room. It was personal and comfortable. Remember when we would go
to Rosati's Bar in Piazza Del Popolo? We would always see
someone like Alberto Moravia there or Pier Paolo Passolini. There
were always a minimum of 2 or 3 important film directors in there.
Now it is crowded with strangers and only the nouveau riche and
it is all about politics.
The world changes yes but we are too crowded now. Everyone is "more
important" than you. No more limits or boundaries.
People know everything but not profoundly, only superficially and
everything is political; not as before....
I hate trends and fashion. Trends exist to make money for the producers.
Trends are not profound.
There are a few of the new generation of Italian directors who
have won many prizes like:
Nanni Moretti and Gabriele Salvatores who have had their works
nominated for Oscars 8 or 9 times. Salvatores's "Mediterraneo" was
sent to the Oscar committee... I keep up with my old friends. I
think it is superficial to know
too many people. Fewer is better.
The American Director Paul Bartel was a very close friend to me
in film school. I went to visit him in New York City one time when
he was making a film with Krzysztof Zanussi ("A
Year in the Quiet Sun," 1985.) Paul showed me all around
NYC and took me to movie theatres in Harlem where we could see
all the little street urchins making all kinds of noise in the
audience when they got carried away by the film, which reminded
me of Tehran. Paul had me over to his house for dinner in New Jersey
at that time and he cooked everything himself. He was a good chef!
He died 3 or 4 years ago under mysterious circumstances. He was
gay. One time I remember he came to see me in Rome at twelve o'clock
midnight.
Paul Bartel made a lot of movies in Hollywood too like "Escape
from L.A."
Q: I know. I loved his first film which was really low
budget and dark humor: "Eating Raoul!" in which he directed and
acted. He was a very funny man. He had a lot of Cameo appearances
in movies too like "Caddy Shack II." He was great!
He made about 50 independent films.
A: You know in all these years I have only had two really close
American friends and that would be Paul Bartel and You!
Q: I am honored. So what ever became of our friend Romina Power?
(Tyrone Power and Linda Christians older daughter.)
A: Romina left that rock singer Al Bano whom we Persians nick named "Albaloo!" and
for a time she became a painter. She had a daughter who at age
22 ran away to the USA and disappeared. The daughter went to live
with some drug addicts in New Orleans for a time and then she disappeared.
Q: I am sorry to hear it. It seems a far cry from those
innocent days when she and I and her sister Taryn would meet at
that club:
Helio Cabala outside Rome for the tea dances. Do you remember how
Anthony Quinn was always there swimming in that ice cold stream
fed pool? The water was so cold that he and I were usually
the only ones in the pool.
Also I never forget that when I was 17 you taught me how to dance
the Cha Cha and the Bosa Nova at Helio Kabala.
Well Parvin, I want to thank you for this interview. It
has been a real education for me in the history of cinema,
in antiquity, in modern politics, about the IRI and in the issues
of the times
we now live in. I know that the readers of "The Iranian.com" are
going to be very excited to read this long awaited interview.
I thank you from the bottom of my heart and I hope to see "Pietro
Della Valle" entered in the next Iranian Film Festival
in NYC.
A: It is I who must thank you! I have enjoyed
talking to you as always. I send you and your family a big hug. See photos
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