1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 3 00:00:27,986 --> 00:00:33,575 Can a reporter be objective, be it in film or in print? 4 00:00:33,659 --> 00:00:34,743 I say, no. 5 00:00:41,500 --> 00:00:44,378 Pure objectivity doesn't exist in a documentary. 6 00:00:44,461 --> 00:00:46,630 I totally agree. 7 00:00:52,427 --> 00:00:57,683 Even if you're intimately, sincerely objective, 8 00:00:57,766 --> 00:00:59,810 the very moment you choose the framing of a shot 9 00:01:00,686 --> 00:01:04,731 automatically, your personal point of view comes out. 10 00:01:04,815 --> 00:01:07,943 Certainly, absolute objectivity is impossible. 11 00:01:08,026 --> 00:01:10,946 But honesty exists and is essential. 12 00:01:18,078 --> 00:01:23,208 Italian neorealism never convinced me, quite frankly. 13 00:01:23,292 --> 00:01:27,462 As a documentarist, as a lover of documentaries, 14 00:01:27,546 --> 00:01:30,882 I saw neorealism as fictionalized documentary. 15 00:01:30,966 --> 00:01:32,759 It always gave me that impression. 16 00:01:32,843 --> 00:01:34,136 "Let's pretend it's true." 17 00:01:34,219 --> 00:01:35,679 This always bothered me. 18 00:01:35,762 --> 00:01:41,268 I don't mean to put down the big directors of the past. 19 00:01:41,351 --> 00:01:43,103 This is my opinion. 20 00:01:43,186 --> 00:01:46,648 As a documentarist I saw neorealism as artificial. 21 00:01:55,532 --> 00:01:58,201 I was a professional journalist, I still am. 22 00:01:58,285 --> 00:02:00,370 For me the transition from, say, 23 00:02:00,454 --> 00:02:07,336 written journalism to visual or filmed journalism 24 00:02:07,419 --> 00:02:12,883 was an evolution of my trade, 25 00:02:12,966 --> 00:02:17,137 a development in the ability to express and narrate 26 00:02:17,220 --> 00:02:20,098 what I saw and wanted to tell the public. 27 00:02:20,182 --> 00:02:21,475 That is, 28 00:02:21,558 --> 00:02:25,854 when I realized, and it didn't take long, 29 00:02:25,937 --> 00:02:31,068 that cinema provided me an immense wealth of photos, of frames, 30 00:02:31,151 --> 00:02:37,324 and at the same time a sound track to transfer my text into spoken words, 31 00:02:37,407 --> 00:02:40,035 I realized that this was the perfect medium 32 00:02:40,118 --> 00:02:43,288 to tell the facts of life. 33 00:02:59,388 --> 00:03:02,432 My background is that of a naturalist. 34 00:03:03,517 --> 00:03:08,814 I graduated in natural science and biology 35 00:03:08,897 --> 00:03:11,274 and further specialized in theology. 36 00:03:12,442 --> 00:03:16,238 We started shooting some documentaries and realized that 37 00:03:16,321 --> 00:03:22,035 they were much more lucrative than scientific studies. 38 00:03:25,997 --> 00:03:27,457 For us European journalists, 39 00:03:27,541 --> 00:03:30,794 going out into the streets in search of footage is a nearly suicidal endeavor. 40 00:03:32,295 --> 00:03:34,506 In movie theaters, newsreels with the events of the week 41 00:03:34,589 --> 00:03:37,050 always preceded the feature film. 42 00:03:37,134 --> 00:03:41,513 I was a commentator, and from that I got my interest in film making, 43 00:03:41,596 --> 00:03:43,348 for the visual elements of storytelling. 44 00:03:43,432 --> 00:03:47,310 So I began shooting short documentaries. 45 00:03:59,531 --> 00:04:06,371 When Blasetti asked me if I would do World by Night, 46 00:04:07,038 --> 00:04:12,252 he sent me location scouting all over the world in search of shows. 47 00:04:12,335 --> 00:04:14,588 He had given me some suggestions; 48 00:04:14,671 --> 00:04:18,675 he was looking for shows like cabarets, or theaters, 49 00:04:18,759 --> 00:04:23,013 not things from real life, but rather fiction. 50 00:04:23,764 --> 00:04:25,807 I researched thoroughly. 51 00:04:25,891 --> 00:04:31,062 Travel wasn't as easy then as it is today, 52 00:04:31,146 --> 00:04:38,153 but I noticed that the most interesting were not the theatrical shows 53 00:04:38,236 --> 00:04:40,655 but the show of humanity itself. 54 00:04:49,873 --> 00:04:54,628 I met Gualtiero through a mutual friend, Carlo Gregoretti. 55 00:04:54,711 --> 00:05:00,967 I proposed the idea of a film to Gualtiero: Love of the World. 56 00:05:01,051 --> 00:05:04,012 I wanted to show different aspects of love in the world, 57 00:05:04,095 --> 00:05:08,141 of humans, and of animals. 58 00:05:08,225 --> 00:05:14,439 He replied that we should do an "anti-documentary” instead. 59 00:05:14,523 --> 00:05:17,567 So far we had done documentaries 60 00:05:17,651 --> 00:05:21,112 that just hail the places you're seeing. 61 00:05:21,196 --> 00:05:23,156 They're flattering, over-polished. 62 00:05:24,282 --> 00:05:27,994 "Let's show the real world." 63 00:05:44,427 --> 00:05:48,890 My curiosity was such that I decided I would do a very long newsreel. 64 00:05:50,183 --> 00:05:53,687 A long document of actualities that I would title Mondo Cane, 65 00:05:54,855 --> 00:06:02,279 an ironic, mocking, even cynical title to narrate these events of life. 66 00:06:02,362 --> 00:06:04,281 I loved the idea. 67 00:06:18,086 --> 00:06:21,423 I chose events that caught my attention. 68 00:06:21,506 --> 00:06:24,217 First of all, research varies. 69 00:06:24,301 --> 00:06:26,386 You get it from the press, 70 00:06:26,469 --> 00:06:33,643 collecting news, collecting stories, collecting articles. 71 00:06:33,727 --> 00:06:39,649 But you must assess if they are cinematographically reproducible 72 00:06:39,733 --> 00:06:42,110 in terms of narration, if they are for real. 73 00:06:42,193 --> 00:06:45,697 When it's certain and you have a list of events, 74 00:06:45,780 --> 00:06:49,451 you prepare a summary based on geographical location. 75 00:06:49,534 --> 00:06:54,331 For instance, film two scenes in the Far East making just one trip. 76 00:06:57,667 --> 00:07:03,131 The fact is, we took advantage of the little knowledge 77 00:07:03,214 --> 00:07:06,092 the public had of the world at large back then. 78 00:07:06,176 --> 00:07:10,430 Shooting Mondo Cane today would be very difficult. 79 00:07:10,513 --> 00:07:17,646 For instance, we could go with a camera to an erotic club in Hamburg 80 00:07:17,729 --> 00:07:20,440 and they would easily let us in. 81 00:07:20,523 --> 00:07:25,737 If we attempted to do this today we would have to pay, maybe. 82 00:07:25,820 --> 00:07:28,531 It would not be a surprise to them. 83 00:07:28,615 --> 00:07:31,660 Back then the whole world was unprepared 84 00:07:31,743 --> 00:07:33,703 for our shooting strategy: 85 00:07:33,787 --> 00:07:37,707 slip in, ask, never pay, never reenact, 86 00:07:37,791 --> 00:07:40,126 and get everything right there. 87 00:07:52,347 --> 00:07:56,142 I was ignorant until I saw things around the world. 88 00:07:56,226 --> 00:08:00,105 And what I witnessed always surprised me and caught me unaware. 89 00:08:00,188 --> 00:08:03,149 There were no preparations. There were no suggestions from anybody. 90 00:08:03,233 --> 00:08:05,360 They were casual finds. 91 00:08:09,739 --> 00:08:11,491 It wasn't difficult. 92 00:08:11,574 --> 00:08:13,618 All we had to do was face reality. 93 00:08:13,702 --> 00:08:19,082 Because all that we filmed was true, real. 94 00:08:27,257 --> 00:08:32,721 There's a restaurant... if I'm not mistaken called "Four Seasons." 95 00:08:32,804 --> 00:08:36,516 Anyway, it's a famous restaurant. All Americans know about it. 96 00:08:36,599 --> 00:08:42,355 It serves canned ants, lizards, all sorts of delicacies, snake blood. 97 00:08:42,439 --> 00:08:44,399 It was entertaining. 98 00:08:44,482 --> 00:08:52,866 It was also an exclusive restaurant for a rich clientele. 99 00:08:52,949 --> 00:08:55,535 Very expensive. 100 00:08:55,618 --> 00:08:59,247 I found it amusing not so much for what they ate, 101 00:08:59,330 --> 00:09:03,126 but for their ulterior reasons for doing it: 102 00:09:03,793 --> 00:09:10,050 how they wanted to be filmed to seem like extraordinary people, 103 00:09:10,133 --> 00:09:14,304 courageous, nonconformists, experimental. 104 00:09:14,387 --> 00:09:18,141 So it was interesting. A point of view on humanity. 105 00:09:27,567 --> 00:09:33,782 This issue of death being shown on film was something rare then. 106 00:09:33,865 --> 00:09:35,825 Today it is overinflated. 107 00:09:36,826 --> 00:09:40,955 It was pure actuality, and it happened to us by chance. 108 00:09:41,039 --> 00:09:43,792 Obviously, you cannot rehearse someone's death. 109 00:09:43,875 --> 00:09:49,464 And as for the principle of not showing human death on screen, 110 00:09:49,547 --> 00:09:51,508 to be honest, we ignored it. 111 00:09:51,591 --> 00:09:56,763 There is a death scene in Mondo Cane where people are ready to die 112 00:09:56,846 --> 00:09:59,099 and we showed the so-called "House of Death" in Singapore 113 00:09:59,182 --> 00:10:04,604 where old people were taken, waiting for them to die. 114 00:10:04,687 --> 00:10:08,274 Not killed, but left there to languish until their death came. 115 00:10:08,358 --> 00:10:14,572 It was a normally accepted custom there. 116 00:10:15,448 --> 00:10:17,951 There was no hatred or ill feelings involved. 117 00:10:18,034 --> 00:10:22,163 Dying people didn't remain at home. They awaited death in this place 118 00:10:22,247 --> 00:10:26,459 specifically conceived to house them in their last hours. 119 00:10:26,543 --> 00:10:29,087 This was a discovery, and we filmed it. 120 00:10:29,170 --> 00:10:32,215 Something rather sensational, especially in those times. 121 00:10:38,972 --> 00:10:44,477 We were aware that we were shooting documentaries 122 00:10:44,561 --> 00:10:47,814 in a totally different manner. 123 00:10:47,897 --> 00:10:52,986 The cuts were quick, lively and concise. 124 00:10:53,069 --> 00:10:57,282 Making a synthesis of a scene and showing it. 125 00:10:57,365 --> 00:11:01,411 And also, it has to be said, we wanted to shock the audience. 126 00:11:04,622 --> 00:11:08,543 Shocking and alternating emotions. 127 00:11:08,626 --> 00:11:13,464 Inserting soft scenes 128 00:11:13,548 --> 00:11:17,760 to allow digestion of the violent scenes. 129 00:11:18,511 --> 00:11:21,181 To keep the audience's interest alive, 130 00:11:21,264 --> 00:11:24,267 there needs to be a contrast of images. 131 00:11:24,350 --> 00:11:28,688 I paid close attention to the openings, contrapositions, everything, 132 00:11:28,771 --> 00:11:34,027 so as to give the narration a sense of unity, 133 00:11:34,110 --> 00:11:36,070 the film being a collection of distinct events. 134 00:11:36,154 --> 00:11:39,324 Three minutes of this, three minutes of that, etc. 135 00:11:40,116 --> 00:11:44,579 Of course it was very energetic and the scenes time consuming. 136 00:11:45,455 --> 00:11:47,624 The pig slaughter in Goroca, for instance, 137 00:11:47,707 --> 00:11:51,127 would cost us a trip to get a six or seven minute scene, 138 00:11:51,211 --> 00:11:54,672 whereas others would get material for a two hour documentary. 139 00:11:54,756 --> 00:11:58,509 For us it was costly in both time and exertion. 140 00:11:58,593 --> 00:12:04,891 In fact our films would take two or three years to make. 141 00:12:23,993 --> 00:12:26,871 The editing of my films I do personally, 142 00:12:26,955 --> 00:12:29,707 even though they don't write it in the credits. 143 00:12:29,791 --> 00:12:31,042 It's not important. 144 00:12:31,125 --> 00:12:34,003 I insist on doing the editing myself. 145 00:12:35,546 --> 00:12:39,425 I have a passion for editing. 146 00:12:39,509 --> 00:12:41,928 I spend hours at the Moviola without realizing it. 147 00:12:42,011 --> 00:12:45,098 But it takes time, the first cut and so on. 148 00:12:45,181 --> 00:12:47,684 As you well know, this is the nature of our craft. 149 00:12:47,767 --> 00:12:51,437 So you cannot delegate the editing. An author cannot delegate, 150 00:12:51,521 --> 00:12:53,273 maybe only in the case of a well-defined film, 151 00:12:53,356 --> 00:12:55,275 with precise sequences and takes, etc., 152 00:12:55,358 --> 00:12:58,695 born from a well-defined script that only needs to be sewn together. 153 00:12:58,778 --> 00:13:03,116 A documentary has no script. It is imagined, created on the spot. 154 00:13:03,199 --> 00:13:04,784 You can't do the same. 155 00:13:04,867 --> 00:13:09,122 It would be like a novel written on loose sheets, 156 00:13:09,205 --> 00:13:11,582 shuffled together and given to the public. 157 00:13:11,666 --> 00:13:13,042 Absurd. 158 00:13:13,126 --> 00:13:16,796 No, you're narrating, and narration calls for delicate editing, 159 00:13:16,879 --> 00:13:19,299 and that's a task for the author, as is the copy, 160 00:13:19,382 --> 00:13:20,717 the spoken commentary. 161 00:13:34,105 --> 00:13:37,650 Then there is the voice of music which has to be descriptive, functional. 162 00:13:37,734 --> 00:13:40,653 Music tells a story. It is not filler. 163 00:13:40,737 --> 00:13:42,989 I detest the kind of films where two people kiss each other 164 00:13:43,072 --> 00:13:45,491 and there goes the violins. That's horrendous. 165 00:13:45,575 --> 00:13:50,705 Music as a language deserves the utmost respect. 166 00:13:50,788 --> 00:13:56,294 When music is playing, all other voices and effects should be silent. 167 00:14:04,260 --> 00:14:07,638 I was called. 168 00:14:07,722 --> 00:14:14,771 I showed up and I met Jacopetti and Prosperi and also Cavara. 169 00:14:14,854 --> 00:14:18,066 Cavara was the third director for a while, 170 00:14:19,525 --> 00:14:21,986 but moved on and busied himself with other movies. 171 00:14:22,070 --> 00:14:28,117 We looked at each other and we sniffed each other like dogs, 172 00:14:28,910 --> 00:14:30,912 they asked questions, 173 00:14:30,995 --> 00:14:37,877 and it was immediately clear that there was a good feeling between us 174 00:14:37,960 --> 00:14:42,673 and so that is how we started our collaboration. 175 00:14:51,641 --> 00:14:56,145 I worked very closely with them. 176 00:14:56,229 --> 00:14:58,564 They were very hard workers. 177 00:14:58,648 --> 00:15:03,152 They would go in the editing room at around 8:00, 9:00 in the morning 178 00:15:03,236 --> 00:15:06,322 and leave at midnight, 1 a.m., 179 00:15:06,406 --> 00:15:09,617 without a moment's rest. 180 00:15:09,700 --> 00:15:13,371 They were so full of enthusiasm 181 00:15:13,454 --> 00:15:20,128 and desire to work on these scenes 182 00:15:20,211 --> 00:15:23,047 and I lived with them the whole time. 183 00:15:23,131 --> 00:15:27,760 I followed them, maturing the musical pieces. 184 00:15:35,393 --> 00:15:37,019 I remember 185 00:15:39,105 --> 00:15:48,948 a scene in Mondo Cane of the chicks being dyed for Easter. 186 00:15:49,031 --> 00:15:52,285 Ortolani asked what kind of music I was looking for. 187 00:15:52,368 --> 00:15:54,120 "Come on, improvise," he says. 188 00:15:54,203 --> 00:15:55,788 "What do you mean improvise?" 189 00:15:55,872 --> 00:15:58,291 "Just sit at the piano and play something." 190 00:15:58,374 --> 00:16:01,711 I did the most obvious thing. 191 00:16:01,794 --> 00:16:04,797 I said, "I can play a music box style piece."” 192 00:16:04,881 --> 00:16:06,424 He replied, "Okay. Let me hear it." 193 00:16:07,633 --> 00:16:10,595 He would play a few notes, this short motif. 194 00:16:14,515 --> 00:16:16,851 He said, "What is this?" I said, "I don't know." 195 00:16:16,934 --> 00:16:18,603 He told me, "What do mean you don't know?" 196 00:16:18,686 --> 00:16:21,814 "Write this down quickly right now! This will be the theme of the movie!" 197 00:16:21,898 --> 00:16:24,233 This is how "More" was born. 198 00:16:34,619 --> 00:16:38,289 Katyna Ranieri, my wife, 199 00:16:38,956 --> 00:16:41,626 was singing at the Plaza in New York. 200 00:16:41,709 --> 00:16:46,839 At the time, Katyna appeared frequently on television 201 00:16:49,008 --> 00:16:53,554 as a guest on the Johnny Carson show, 202 00:16:53,638 --> 00:16:55,848 and she started singing the song "More." 203 00:16:57,058 --> 00:17:01,771 In a matter of a week, there were seven American versions of the song. 204 00:17:01,854 --> 00:17:05,149 In two weeks there were versions by 205 00:17:05,233 --> 00:17:06,359 Frank Sinatra, 206 00:17:06,442 --> 00:17:07,318 Count Basie, 207 00:17:07,401 --> 00:17:08,736 Nat King Cole, 208 00:17:08,819 --> 00:17:09,904 Duke Ellington, 209 00:17:09,987 --> 00:17:11,447 Della Reese, 210 00:17:11,531 --> 00:17:13,199 Judy Garland, 211 00:17:13,282 --> 00:17:14,867 Stan Kenton, 212 00:17:14,951 --> 00:17:17,078 SO many recordings, SO many American versions 213 00:17:17,161 --> 00:17:22,833 from the best American artists of the time. 214 00:17:22,917 --> 00:17:24,544 The song was a hit everywhere. 215 00:17:24,627 --> 00:17:27,046 And it even became a classic, 216 00:17:27,129 --> 00:17:30,299 still played at wedding ceremonies today. 217 00:17:30,383 --> 00:17:34,554 I often happen to hear it as background music in hotels. 218 00:17:34,637 --> 00:17:36,556 "More" got an Oscar nomination. 219 00:17:37,306 --> 00:17:41,352 Everyone thought the song "More" would win the Oscar, 220 00:17:42,144 --> 00:17:46,065 but as usual the American song won. 221 00:17:58,160 --> 00:18:02,248 When Mondo Cane was first released in Italy, it was very well received, 222 00:18:02,331 --> 00:18:06,669 and it was the top movie at the box office. 223 00:18:07,420 --> 00:18:09,589 It played for a long period of time. 224 00:18:09,672 --> 00:18:13,634 People would line up to see it. 225 00:18:13,718 --> 00:18:18,306 Some of the critics were against it, some for it. 226 00:18:18,389 --> 00:18:24,979 The critics were not kind to them. 227 00:18:25,062 --> 00:18:30,484 They attacked them for many reasons, 228 00:18:30,568 --> 00:18:32,445 said they were porn directors 229 00:18:32,528 --> 00:18:35,781 because there were these black women showing their breasts. 230 00:18:35,865 --> 00:18:39,368 Beautiful and real breasts, 231 00:18:39,452 --> 00:18:41,954 not like the fake ones you see everywhere today. 232 00:19:28,084 --> 00:19:33,005 The film was treated as a special event, 233 00:19:33,089 --> 00:19:37,760 so therefore it was a success, we're not just talking about Italy here, 234 00:19:37,843 --> 00:19:40,680 but it was a great success all over the world, 235 00:19:40,763 --> 00:19:43,432 even in the United States, it was a huge success. 236 00:19:43,516 --> 00:19:46,352 Mondo Cane did great in America. 237 00:19:46,435 --> 00:19:51,649 I still remember when I was in Florida, 238 00:19:51,732 --> 00:19:55,361 in many ports I saw boats named "Mondo Cane." 239 00:19:56,070 --> 00:19:57,988 So it was successful... 240 00:19:58,072 --> 00:20:02,451 but you have to take the times into account. 241 00:20:03,119 --> 00:20:06,706 The film was something new. Its visual style was, too. 242 00:20:06,789 --> 00:20:09,917 What do I think now? I think it was a very good movie, 243 00:20:10,000 --> 00:20:16,841 but it wouldn't work today, because of television. 244 00:20:16,924 --> 00:20:23,556 You couldn't keep the freshness, 245 00:20:24,390 --> 00:20:28,394 therefore you'd lose immediacy. 246 00:20:28,477 --> 00:20:32,606 Many beautiful things die. It is normal. 247 00:20:32,690 --> 00:20:37,445 Those that last are miracles of human intellect, of human spirit. 248 00:20:37,528 --> 00:20:40,197 I know what it cost me in effort, 249 00:20:40,281 --> 00:20:41,282 in danger, 250 00:20:42,283 --> 00:20:46,036 so I firmly believed in my work and got satisfaction from it, 251 00:20:46,120 --> 00:20:47,246 as did the others. 252 00:20:47,329 --> 00:20:50,166 I keep it as an event in my life, 253 00:20:50,833 --> 00:20:52,543 a beloved thing in my life. 254 00:20:59,341 --> 00:21:01,927 While shooting Mondo Cane, 255 00:21:05,848 --> 00:21:11,604 Rizzoli proposed that we should plan to do more documentaries. 256 00:21:11,687 --> 00:21:18,194 During post-production it was evident that we had so much material 257 00:21:18,277 --> 00:21:24,617 from Mondo Cane that it would be a pity to waste three years' work 258 00:21:24,700 --> 00:21:27,411 and hundreds of thousands of feet of film. 259 00:21:27,495 --> 00:21:32,458 Anyway, we didn't want to waste the footage 260 00:21:32,541 --> 00:21:36,879 so we decided to make another movie, Mondo Cane 2. 261 00:21:42,927 --> 00:21:46,639 Let me tell you one thing up front: Mondo Cane 2 doesn't belong to me. 262 00:21:48,057 --> 00:21:50,726 I didn't want to do it really. 263 00:21:50,810 --> 00:21:55,773 I knew it was going to be old hat, a rehash. 264 00:21:55,856 --> 00:21:58,943 So I didn't have the same enthusiasm that I had with Mondo Cane. 265 00:21:59,026 --> 00:22:03,697 I would think, "Look at what I've invented, how beautiful and new it is." 266 00:22:03,781 --> 00:22:06,867 These were my thoughts when I was shooting Mondo Cane. 267 00:22:06,951 --> 00:22:09,662 Mondo Cane 27 Well, the spell was broken there. 268 00:22:09,745 --> 00:22:15,251 It was about commerce, money. 269 00:22:15,334 --> 00:22:17,044 Not about creating something. 270 00:22:17,127 --> 00:22:22,758 And most directors wouldn't either. 271 00:22:22,842 --> 00:22:26,262 Imagine making La Dolce Vita 2 or 8 3/4. 272 00:22:26,345 --> 00:22:27,513 They never would. 273 00:22:27,596 --> 00:22:34,895 But the producers were really insistent and I had a debt of gratitude to them. 274 00:22:34,979 --> 00:22:38,482 So I agreed. 275 00:22:46,156 --> 00:22:51,704 Exceeding expectations for Mondo Cane 2 was difficult, 276 00:22:51,787 --> 00:23:01,213 because the newness of it was gone, it had been used up already. 277 00:23:01,297 --> 00:23:08,804 We had to shoot additional scenes in Africa, in America, in Europe, in India. 278 00:23:08,888 --> 00:23:11,891 We shot in several parts of the world 279 00:23:11,974 --> 00:23:18,063 and also acquired material that was especially interesting, 280 00:23:18,147 --> 00:23:22,151 something we never did for the first Mondo Cane. 281 00:23:34,830 --> 00:23:40,294 The burning monk was purchased to be used as real life footage, 282 00:23:40,377 --> 00:23:46,592 then we added some scenes because we had very little. 283 00:23:46,675 --> 00:23:52,640 It was simply a case of someone arriving late to film that scene. 284 00:24:00,856 --> 00:24:03,108 No, it was totally fabricated. 285 00:24:03,192 --> 00:24:06,445 Exactly, Rambaldi made this mannequin, 286 00:24:06,528 --> 00:24:09,949 and it was taken to Bangkok where it was burned. 287 00:24:10,032 --> 00:24:11,659 We were making cinema. 288 00:24:11,742 --> 00:24:16,246 We didn't just do documentary: 289 00:24:16,330 --> 00:24:19,708 if something was missing to make a scene work well, 290 00:24:19,792 --> 00:24:21,210 we would fix it. 291 00:24:23,379 --> 00:24:26,256 I only want to talk about the films I've done, 292 00:24:26,340 --> 00:24:29,510 whose responsibility and merit falls on me. 293 00:24:29,593 --> 00:24:34,181 I reject Mondo Cane 2, completely. 294 00:24:34,890 --> 00:24:38,936 Not to save my reputation, which I don't ultimately care about, 295 00:24:39,019 --> 00:24:42,231 but because Mondo Cane, 296 00:24:44,233 --> 00:24:47,152 sadly, indirectly spawned a breed of dozens of titles: 297 00:24:47,236 --> 00:24:48,779 "Mondo" this, "Mondo" that. 298 00:24:48,862 --> 00:24:53,742 Ghastly stuff, absurdities that people strangely would go to see. 299 00:26:17,451 --> 00:26:21,580 This offended and damaged me because the overall perception was, 300 00:26:21,663 --> 00:26:22,915 "Oh yes, Mondo Cane, 301 00:26:22,998 --> 00:26:25,042 the film with the scene of the auntie with her nose cut off." 302 00:26:25,125 --> 00:26:27,044 Stuff that I never filmed. 303 00:26:27,127 --> 00:26:34,510 People confused Mondo Cane with all that ugly, vulgar junk. 304 00:26:34,593 --> 00:26:37,554 We didn't mind the imitations. 305 00:26:37,638 --> 00:26:40,182 That was expected, 306 00:26:40,265 --> 00:26:46,605 for we had sold so many scenes to other people 307 00:26:46,688 --> 00:26:48,440 who were doing the same kind of films. 308 00:26:48,524 --> 00:26:51,819 I had many requests to work on this genre of movies. 309 00:26:51,902 --> 00:26:54,905 But I always refused. 310 00:26:54,988 --> 00:27:03,038 I didn't want to betray the original idea of the creators and directors. 311 00:27:03,122 --> 00:27:10,045 I even refused to work with Gualtiero and Prosperi on Mondo Cane 2. 312 00:27:10,129 --> 00:27:15,968 There were imitations, and offers were coming from everywhere. 313 00:27:16,051 --> 00:27:19,763 All the Italian producers, 314 00:27:19,847 --> 00:27:22,599 Cervi, Titanus, were trying to separate us, 315 00:27:22,683 --> 00:27:26,562 because each of us was like a player on a soccer team 316 00:27:26,645 --> 00:27:28,897 after winning the world cup. 317 00:27:28,981 --> 00:27:33,277 Each of us had seen his value magnified. 318 00:27:33,360 --> 00:27:35,529 So they tried to pull us apart. 319 00:27:35,612 --> 00:27:38,907 Very interesting offers to me, 320 00:27:38,991 --> 00:27:42,286 to Gualtiero and the crew to do these films. 321 00:27:48,250 --> 00:27:50,836 Prosperi and I were together. 322 00:27:50,919 --> 00:27:56,758 I shared with him success and failure, the good ideas and the bad. 323 00:27:56,842 --> 00:28:01,263 We each had our own lives, our own tastes, 324 00:28:01,346 --> 00:28:09,313 but our collaboration was always friendly and polite, 325 00:28:09,396 --> 00:28:11,356 despite our completely different characters. 326 00:28:11,440 --> 00:28:14,234 I'm much more extroverted, 327 00:28:14,318 --> 00:28:17,404 but that didn't bear on our relationship. 328 00:28:36,006 --> 00:28:43,805 Prosperi and Jacopetti are both talented filmmakers. 329 00:28:43,889 --> 00:28:47,851 Jacopetti is more inventive, has more imagination, 330 00:28:47,935 --> 00:28:50,062 Prosperi is more rational. 331 00:28:50,145 --> 00:28:54,524 But they have the same degree of influence on the direction. 332 00:28:54,608 --> 00:29:00,155 We never profoundly disagreed. I want to say it again: 333 00:29:00,239 --> 00:29:03,867 for years and years, we had the deepest respect. 334 00:29:03,951 --> 00:29:06,411 "Good morning. Good night. How are you?" 335 00:29:06,495 --> 00:29:11,124 The films were often credited to Jacopetti and not me. 336 00:29:11,208 --> 00:29:14,211 They would say, "This movie is by Jacopetti." 337 00:29:14,294 --> 00:29:16,213 He was the man of scandal. 338 00:29:16,296 --> 00:29:19,508 He had been in a scandal, 339 00:29:20,759 --> 00:29:25,681 had a relationship with a very young girl, 340 00:29:25,764 --> 00:29:28,350 a sixteen year old. 341 00:29:28,433 --> 00:29:36,108 He was almost put in jail, but married her to avoid imprisonment. 342 00:29:36,191 --> 00:29:38,360 The story was in every newspaper. 343 00:29:38,443 --> 00:29:39,528 The man of scandal. 344 00:29:39,611 --> 00:29:41,613 So he was obviously better-known than I was. 345 00:29:41,697 --> 00:29:44,574 I had a background as a naturalist. 346 00:29:44,658 --> 00:29:48,620 I abstained from notoriety 347 00:29:49,496 --> 00:29:56,169 and didn't have a history of scandals behind me. 348 00:29:56,253 --> 00:30:00,966 There was no jealousy 349 00:30:01,049 --> 00:30:06,638 because after doing films with him, 350 00:30:07,556 --> 00:30:11,476 I did other films that had enormous financial success. 351 00:30:11,560 --> 00:30:12,978 Like This Violent World 352 00:30:13,061 --> 00:30:15,397 and Savage Man, Savage Beast, produced by Titanus. 353 00:30:15,480 --> 00:30:19,151 Films that I never put my name on 354 00:30:19,234 --> 00:30:25,198 because I resented always doing the same kind of films. 355 00:30:25,282 --> 00:30:30,203 I'm telling this as proof that I didn't really care about the credit. 356 00:30:30,287 --> 00:30:36,752 If I had to put the different roles in the crew on a scale of importance 357 00:30:36,835 --> 00:30:38,337 I could only tell you this: 358 00:30:38,420 --> 00:30:46,553 What really mattered was the team spirit, our mutual cooperation, 359 00:30:46,636 --> 00:30:48,513 our mutual dedication. 360 00:30:48,597 --> 00:30:51,933 Not one of us was ever more important than the others. 361 00:31:01,360 --> 00:31:03,653 While we were shooting Mondo Cane 2, 362 00:31:03,737 --> 00:31:05,614 we began shooting for Women of the World also. 363 00:31:06,782 --> 00:31:12,037 Rizzoli had proposed the project during Mondo Cane 2 364 00:31:12,120 --> 00:31:14,915 so that is why the two productions overlapped. 365 00:31:16,583 --> 00:31:21,671 Women of the World, honestly, the idea for it was Oriana Fallaci's. 366 00:31:24,716 --> 00:31:27,302 So Rizzoli invited Oriana Fallaci 367 00:31:27,386 --> 00:31:32,891 onto his yacht in Cannes. 368 00:31:33,517 --> 00:31:40,440 Fallaci went and Rizzoli proposed a collaboration with us. 369 00:31:40,524 --> 00:31:46,655 When I said to Rizzoli, "Let's do a film about women in the world," 370 00:31:46,738 --> 00:31:50,242 Oriana claimed copyright on the title. 371 00:31:50,325 --> 00:31:55,288 Now, Gualtiero and Oriana Fallaci were both strong characters, 372 00:31:55,372 --> 00:31:57,457 so they immediately clashed, 373 00:31:57,541 --> 00:32:00,127 because Fallaci wanted to be in charge. 374 00:32:00,210 --> 00:32:03,171 She said that Women of the World was her idea and work, 375 00:32:03,255 --> 00:32:06,341 so she wanted to direct everything, and the rest should follow. 376 00:32:06,425 --> 00:32:08,260 Gualtiero, as you can imagine, replied, 377 00:32:08,343 --> 00:32:10,929 "No. I've done other films so I have to direct." 378 00:32:11,012 --> 00:32:15,267 This fight got so out of control that at one point 379 00:32:15,350 --> 00:32:20,147 Gualtiero grabbed Fallaci and wanted to throw her overboard. 380 00:32:20,230 --> 00:32:23,150 I had to intervene to calm them down. 381 00:32:23,233 --> 00:32:25,527 Oriana Fallaci is admirable, 382 00:32:25,610 --> 00:32:27,988 as long as she is in New York and you're in Beijing. 383 00:32:28,071 --> 00:32:29,990 You can't deal with her. 384 00:32:30,073 --> 00:32:34,578 She's too lively. I don't know how else to put it. 385 00:32:34,661 --> 00:32:39,791 Anyway, Rizzoli calmed her down, 386 00:32:39,875 --> 00:32:43,295 you can always find a way to settle these things. 387 00:32:44,463 --> 00:32:48,383 And so we used the title and did Women of the World. 388 00:32:59,019 --> 00:33:03,273 We just wanted to discuss the subject of women, 389 00:33:03,356 --> 00:33:06,902 very much explored in cinema, 390 00:33:06,985 --> 00:33:12,365 and that somehow was in keeping with my old idea about love in the world. 391 00:33:12,449 --> 00:33:18,288 So it was very interesting to me. 392 00:33:18,371 --> 00:33:22,918 The subject was strictly about women, nothing else. 393 00:33:23,001 --> 00:33:26,671 We salvaged many unused scenes from Mondo Cane. 394 00:33:26,755 --> 00:33:32,928 This reserve footage is normally called "the rushes," 395 00:33:33,011 --> 00:33:37,682 miles of film with complete events, 396 00:33:37,766 --> 00:33:45,023 excess material that we had discarded in favor of better footage. 397 00:33:57,494 --> 00:34:00,997 We had all sorts of problems during the shoot. 398 00:34:01,081 --> 00:34:04,918 Obviously not the same problems we'd face today. 399 00:34:05,001 --> 00:34:11,299 For instance we had to film the life of prostitutes 400 00:34:11,383 --> 00:34:12,801 in the streets of Hamburg, 401 00:34:12,884 --> 00:34:15,679 on that dead-end street of prostitutes in Hamburg. 402 00:34:15,762 --> 00:34:21,017 There were pimps behind these women, so it was forbidden to shoot, 403 00:34:21,101 --> 00:34:24,312 because of the pimps and because of the authorities. 404 00:34:24,396 --> 00:34:28,149 We had to be on the lookout, what to shoot and how. 405 00:34:28,233 --> 00:34:29,734 And poor Cavara, 406 00:34:29,818 --> 00:34:34,072 he had to covertly pass the exposed film 407 00:34:34,155 --> 00:34:37,617 to a fellow technician who waited in a nearby street, 408 00:34:37,701 --> 00:34:40,161 who was pursued by a pimp wanting to stab him with a knife. 409 00:34:40,245 --> 00:34:43,248 He made it by sheer luck. 410 00:35:00,849 --> 00:35:03,935 Again, it was the impact of newness. 411 00:35:04,019 --> 00:35:10,025 A lesbian was a scandal then, unlike today. 412 00:35:10,108 --> 00:35:12,277 It was something exceptional, 413 00:35:12,360 --> 00:35:18,283 especially because people didn't admit it. 414 00:35:18,366 --> 00:35:25,540 So it was something new, something deserving prominence. 415 00:35:26,207 --> 00:35:31,379 Scandals were taken advantage of, 416 00:35:31,463 --> 00:35:37,218 until it became acceptable 417 00:35:37,302 --> 00:35:40,180 and normal as they are today. 418 00:35:40,263 --> 00:35:43,391 The world was different then. 419 00:35:50,899 --> 00:35:55,654 At the time, to show exposed breasts, a topless girl, 420 00:35:55,737 --> 00:35:57,280 was a matter for the censors. 421 00:35:57,364 --> 00:35:59,324 And so we really got into trouble. 422 00:35:59,407 --> 00:36:03,453 However the documentary evolved to completion 423 00:36:03,536 --> 00:36:08,291 and was also a success with the public. 424 00:36:23,598 --> 00:36:30,313 Something in particular interested me: 425 00:36:30,397 --> 00:36:36,152 a topic both journalistically and politically relevant, 426 00:36:36,236 --> 00:36:37,696 Africa Addio, 427 00:36:37,779 --> 00:36:39,572 a spectacular political subject. 428 00:36:49,916 --> 00:36:51,876 Gualtiero received a letter from a friend. 429 00:36:51,960 --> 00:36:59,718 She wrote, "I'm in Africa, and Africa is changing." 430 00:36:59,801 --> 00:37:02,721 That is, 431 00:37:02,804 --> 00:37:10,228 Africa as portrayed and idealized by Europeans, 432 00:37:10,311 --> 00:37:12,230 by Westerners, 433 00:37:12,313 --> 00:37:14,524 is changing and is about to disappear. 434 00:37:14,607 --> 00:37:19,237 It might seem incredible that a simple letter from a young woman 435 00:37:19,320 --> 00:37:22,991 would affect me so much, but it was then that I envisioned Africa Addio. 436 00:37:29,664 --> 00:37:32,792 I remember him saying at the spur of the moment: 437 00:37:32,876 --> 00:37:38,590 "Why don't we document this change in Africa?" 438 00:37:38,673 --> 00:37:41,634 Obviously, I agreed enthusiastically. 439 00:37:41,718 --> 00:37:43,803 As usual, I paid Rizzoli a visit. 440 00:37:43,887 --> 00:37:49,017 You can imagine proposing a film about Africa at the time. 441 00:37:49,100 --> 00:37:53,480 "What? Farewell Africa? What does it mean?" 442 00:37:54,481 --> 00:37:58,610 "Well, the changes in Africa at this precise moment in time 443 00:37:58,693 --> 00:38:04,532 of abrupt, brutal transition for a whole continent." 444 00:38:05,492 --> 00:38:10,163 It was a long and hard enterprise that lasted three years. 445 00:38:10,246 --> 00:38:13,958 This is the destiny of a people who wanted to ignore the color of skin. 446 00:38:14,042 --> 00:38:16,628 This is Portugal. 447 00:38:16,711 --> 00:38:21,424 White or black, we're all Portuguese. 448 00:38:21,508 --> 00:38:23,468 But the rebels of Angola don't agree. 449 00:38:23,551 --> 00:38:26,387 This is Africa. Only blacks are Africans. 450 00:38:26,471 --> 00:38:28,473 We were away for long periods of time, 451 00:38:28,556 --> 00:38:31,559 and we were so busy working... 452 00:38:31,643 --> 00:38:36,689 and had no daily newspapers, 453 00:38:36,773 --> 00:38:40,360 no newspapers from Italy in Africa at the time. 454 00:38:41,319 --> 00:38:43,613 In Africa at the time you didn't follow the news, 455 00:38:43,696 --> 00:38:47,659 no computers, many things were different. 456 00:38:47,742 --> 00:38:52,831 The politics that concerned us were of the continent 457 00:38:52,914 --> 00:38:54,833 where we were working and traveling. 458 00:38:54,916 --> 00:39:03,091 But we didn't have a political point of view, an opinion to follow. 459 00:39:03,174 --> 00:39:06,886 The film was totally objective. 460 00:39:06,970 --> 00:39:09,597 There were no guidelines, no "this wins, that wins." 461 00:39:09,681 --> 00:39:13,351 No! We were witnesses to a tragedy, 462 00:39:13,434 --> 00:39:18,523 political meaning left aside. 463 00:39:24,696 --> 00:39:27,282 I love Africa deeply. 464 00:39:27,365 --> 00:39:29,242 I had been dreaming of it ever since I was a child. 465 00:39:29,325 --> 00:39:31,870 The first time I set foot in Africa, 466 00:39:31,953 --> 00:39:36,749 you know, like the Pope does when visiting a foreign land, 467 00:39:36,833 --> 00:39:42,130 we got off the ship and kissed the soil of Africa, 468 00:39:42,213 --> 00:39:43,840 for our dream had come true. 469 00:39:43,923 --> 00:39:46,968 We have scenes in Africa Addio that, I believe, 470 00:39:47,051 --> 00:39:52,891 are the only document of those dramatic events the continent lived through. 471 00:39:52,974 --> 00:40:00,231 We planned to spend a lot of time, to even run fatal risks, 472 00:40:00,315 --> 00:40:03,526 but without a schedule. 473 00:40:07,280 --> 00:40:11,284 Suddenly the situation in East Africa became explosive, so we moved there. 474 00:40:11,367 --> 00:40:13,578 Thereafter, we would shuttle to and from different countries, 475 00:40:13,661 --> 00:40:20,668 South Africa, East Africa, Mozambique, all the while running after events. 476 00:40:21,419 --> 00:40:25,256 Every time something happened, we would be there. 477 00:40:25,340 --> 00:40:30,511 And instead of sending our material to the papers, as a reporter would do, 478 00:40:30,595 --> 00:40:34,891 we locked it in a safe, and we later assembled Africa Addio. 479 00:40:45,526 --> 00:40:50,281 We never abandoned our original idea for Africa Addio, that is, 480 00:40:50,365 --> 00:40:53,326 to bid a farewell to Africa. 481 00:40:53,409 --> 00:40:58,748 At the same time, predicting what would happen in the future 482 00:40:58,831 --> 00:41:05,171 and make a critical statement about those who abandoned Africa so hurriedly. 483 00:41:05,254 --> 00:41:13,346 We believed the British and French made a gross mistake leaving Africa that way. 484 00:41:13,429 --> 00:41:20,436 Africa wasn't ready for that independence, which was its right. 485 00:41:20,520 --> 00:41:21,813 Not at that moment. 486 00:41:21,896 --> 00:41:26,943 There was no political class that could replace 487 00:41:27,026 --> 00:41:33,992 that kind of foreign administration, the British especially. 488 00:41:34,075 --> 00:41:39,080 There was no political class prepared for this. 489 00:41:39,747 --> 00:41:43,876 Africa Addio prophetically foresaw all this. 490 00:41:50,341 --> 00:41:53,428 Violence, too, is a form of objectivity. 491 00:41:54,178 --> 00:41:59,684 Violence exists in the world, 492 00:41:59,767 --> 00:42:02,228 so why not show it? 493 00:42:02,311 --> 00:42:08,026 We didn't show violence for the sake of it, 494 00:42:08,109 --> 00:42:10,445 but to point out that it should be fought against. 495 00:42:10,528 --> 00:42:14,198 If in Africa Addio we show the violence of animals being killed, 496 00:42:14,282 --> 00:42:15,742 it's because it happens. 497 00:42:22,832 --> 00:42:29,380 Elephants are segregated in national parks 498 00:42:29,464 --> 00:42:38,431 where they are decimated yearly to keep the population within the right limits. 499 00:42:38,514 --> 00:42:43,144 When these national parks were only a few, 500 00:42:43,227 --> 00:42:47,565 showing the slaughter of these animals 501 00:42:47,648 --> 00:42:52,487 was a way of creating an awareness in public opinion. 502 00:42:58,367 --> 00:43:03,414 Now, the Safari caused a lot of debate. 503 00:43:03,498 --> 00:43:06,751 I understand the reason: we showed animals being killed. 504 00:43:06,834 --> 00:43:09,921 Actually, half of the total footage was cut. 505 00:43:10,004 --> 00:43:12,381 I decided to cut it. 506 00:43:12,465 --> 00:43:15,426 Ortolani did something extraordinary. 507 00:43:15,510 --> 00:43:19,305 He composed a symphony in sync with the killing. 508 00:43:28,523 --> 00:43:32,652 While I was working in the U.S. 509 00:43:34,070 --> 00:43:42,870 I kept thinking of some scenes from Africa Addio that I had seen. 510 00:43:44,205 --> 00:43:50,503 I was thinking about it and I had always admired Walt Disney 511 00:43:50,586 --> 00:43:55,591 for the way they do their musical editing, 512 00:43:55,675 --> 00:44:00,304 how they synchronize everything, 513 00:44:00,388 --> 00:44:05,059 every movement of a tail, of a squirrel, of a bird, 514 00:44:05,143 --> 00:44:08,646 every gesture was in sync with the music. 515 00:44:08,729 --> 00:44:15,194 When I was back in Italy, I saw the footage of Africa Addio. 516 00:44:15,278 --> 00:44:21,617 I applied the precise technique I learned from Walt Disney. 517 00:44:33,754 --> 00:44:41,721 This is the famous, tragically famous male hippopotamus 518 00:44:41,804 --> 00:44:46,851 that you see speared to death in Africa Addio. 519 00:44:47,476 --> 00:44:49,604 I think it would be very difficult 520 00:44:49,687 --> 00:44:54,525 to find a beautiful hippo this size today in Mozambique, 521 00:44:54,609 --> 00:44:58,321 where most animals have been killed 522 00:44:58,404 --> 00:45:05,995 in the course of the war that divided Mozambique from the Portuguese. 523 00:45:06,078 --> 00:45:09,582 The police discover hundreds of caches of ivory and furs. 524 00:45:09,665 --> 00:45:14,045 The gangs of poachers have used grenades 525 00:45:14,128 --> 00:45:16,964 to kill over 300 elephants without tusks 526 00:45:17,048 --> 00:45:20,885 Poachers would kill elephants just for ivory. 527 00:45:20,968 --> 00:45:25,932 We have film with tusks being confiscated, warehouses full of tusks. 528 00:45:26,015 --> 00:45:33,356 Rhinos were killed for their horns. Animals were killed for food. 529 00:45:33,439 --> 00:45:35,524 It was a form of anarchy. 530 00:45:35,608 --> 00:45:41,155 We had access to these national parks 531 00:45:41,239 --> 00:45:47,328 with the permission of the management of these parks. 532 00:45:52,708 --> 00:46:02,510 This one belongs to one of the biggest elephant specimens in Mozambique. 533 00:46:02,593 --> 00:46:05,930 During the time we were filming Africa Addio 534 00:46:06,013 --> 00:46:08,266 we had a helicopter at our disposal 535 00:46:08,349 --> 00:46:16,148 so the park rangers protecting the animals 536 00:46:16,232 --> 00:46:24,198 sometimes would borrow it to prosecute poachers. 537 00:46:24,824 --> 00:46:29,745 On one occasion we caught a group of them 538 00:46:29,829 --> 00:46:32,290 who had just killed this animal. 539 00:46:32,373 --> 00:46:40,256 As a token of gratitude the government gave me this tusk. 540 00:46:46,971 --> 00:46:52,435 Our biggest advantage throughout the eight months of filming Africa Addio 541 00:46:52,518 --> 00:46:59,233 was having this helicopter at our disposal with a pilot and mechanic. 542 00:47:00,484 --> 00:47:04,280 We could reach places, film, 543 00:47:04,363 --> 00:47:09,785 and flee if we sniffed danger. 544 00:47:09,869 --> 00:47:17,335 We were in Kenya when the episodes against Nyerere occurred. 545 00:47:17,418 --> 00:47:20,212 It was a Muslim revolt. 546 00:47:20,296 --> 00:47:24,925 We rented an airplane and flew to Dar es Salaam 547 00:47:25,009 --> 00:47:26,761 which was closed down, practically. 548 00:47:35,436 --> 00:47:40,858 We checked into a hotel where they wouldn't let us out. 549 00:47:41,942 --> 00:47:45,112 But we were so curious and eager to film what was going on. 550 00:47:45,196 --> 00:47:47,198 It was our reason to be there in the first place. 551 00:47:47,281 --> 00:48:00,336 So we found a taxi that drove us to a place called "The Barracks" 552 00:48:00,419 --> 00:48:04,131 where the rebel soldiers were. 553 00:48:11,305 --> 00:48:13,557 We asked to be let in, even if it was all shut. 554 00:48:13,641 --> 00:48:16,102 It was a state of emergency. 555 00:48:16,977 --> 00:48:21,774 They refused initially, but then as is usual with journalists, 556 00:48:21,857 --> 00:48:25,486 we insisted on talking to the chief of the rebels. 557 00:48:27,696 --> 00:48:34,412 They led us into The Barracks, searched us and took our belongings. 558 00:48:34,495 --> 00:48:41,627 They tied our hands, and called in a firing squad. 559 00:48:41,710 --> 00:48:43,003 This is all true. 560 00:48:50,177 --> 00:48:53,431 They had machine guns. 561 00:48:53,514 --> 00:48:55,349 They lined us up against a wall, 562 00:48:55,433 --> 00:48:59,186 Climati, Nievo, and me. 563 00:48:59,854 --> 00:49:01,397 We were ready for the worst. 564 00:49:01,480 --> 00:49:05,609 I remember telling Climati, "Smile, smile." 565 00:49:05,693 --> 00:49:09,363 Showing panic would have been really dangerous. 566 00:49:09,447 --> 00:49:14,285 And this squad of a dozen men got ready. 567 00:49:14,368 --> 00:49:16,620 For a moment I thought, "This is the end!" 568 00:49:16,704 --> 00:49:22,877 Finally a young colored officer arrived, shouting, 569 00:49:24,211 --> 00:49:27,548 "Stop! They're not Whites. They're Italians.” 570 00:49:27,631 --> 00:49:29,675 The phrase that saved our lives. 571 00:49:29,758 --> 00:49:33,554 "They are not whites," which meant we were not English. 572 00:49:35,347 --> 00:49:37,808 So they didn't kill us, 573 00:49:37,892 --> 00:49:41,187 a miracle at the end, but we got this close. 574 00:49:41,270 --> 00:49:45,065 They were the worst episodes we've gone through. 575 00:49:50,196 --> 00:49:53,866 Two months later, Stanleyville, stronghold of Simba leader Nicholas Olenga, 576 00:49:53,949 --> 00:49:56,785 has been conquered by Belgian paratroopers and mercenaries. 577 00:49:56,869 --> 00:49:59,121 The city is a cemetery without graves. 578 00:49:59,205 --> 00:50:00,956 During the 100 days of occupation, 579 00:50:01,040 --> 00:50:03,876 the Simba have tortured and, in part, eaten 12,000 Africans. 580 00:50:04,668 --> 00:50:10,257 It was physically wearing, due also to being away from home. 581 00:50:11,175 --> 00:50:13,636 We all had loved ones. 582 00:50:15,387 --> 00:50:18,265 Just to let you know the spirit we had at the time, 583 00:50:18,349 --> 00:50:23,854 we were young - Climati and Nievo came close to me and said: 584 00:50:23,938 --> 00:50:30,110 "We've thought about it. We've got families, and no insurance.” 585 00:50:30,194 --> 00:50:37,660 We actually had insurance, but not for war. 586 00:50:38,327 --> 00:50:42,915 I didn't know what to do. It was a situation of responsibility. 587 00:50:42,998 --> 00:50:49,380 I took a pen and ink and extended the insurance for risks at war. 588 00:50:49,463 --> 00:50:51,757 I took the responsibility. 589 00:50:52,383 --> 00:50:55,886 They accepted this paper. 590 00:50:55,970 --> 00:50:59,932 They were simply honoring a duty towards their families, 591 00:51:00,015 --> 00:51:02,059 but we were really happy to be there. 592 00:51:02,142 --> 00:51:06,021 The next day we followed the battle to the front line. 593 00:51:15,489 --> 00:51:19,243 People were not prepared for cameras then. 594 00:51:19,326 --> 00:51:21,412 They didn't know what we were doing, 595 00:51:21,495 --> 00:51:24,582 and most of the time our cameras were disguised. 596 00:51:24,665 --> 00:51:32,131 In Zanzibar we rented a Dhow, an Arabic sailboat 597 00:51:32,214 --> 00:51:33,966 and we would film from inside the Dhow. 598 00:51:34,049 --> 00:51:39,263 Or we filmed with an angled loop: we pointed the camera in one direction, 599 00:51:39,346 --> 00:51:45,185 but were actually filming on the side, like a periscope. 600 00:51:51,275 --> 00:51:57,031 The scenes we shot in the Congo were really strong, 601 00:51:57,114 --> 00:52:01,076 like the one with the terrorist, "Gancha." 602 00:52:01,160 --> 00:52:05,497 Prior to the arrival of the mercenaries, 603 00:52:05,581 --> 00:52:08,375 This man had set a school on fire, 604 00:52:08,459 --> 00:52:13,130 killing 30 children and their teacher. 605 00:52:13,213 --> 00:52:16,717 When the mercenaries got there and were interrogating him, 606 00:52:16,800 --> 00:52:22,473 one of them suddenly pulled out his pistol 607 00:52:22,556 --> 00:52:24,350 and killed him before our eyes. 608 00:52:29,897 --> 00:52:31,982 Carlo Gregoretti was with us, 609 00:52:32,066 --> 00:52:36,904 the same Gregoretti that had introduced Gualtiero and me. 610 00:52:36,987 --> 00:52:42,993 We invited Gregoretti to join us simply out of friendship. 611 00:52:43,077 --> 00:52:47,790 He was there and he took part in the filming in Africa, 612 00:52:47,873 --> 00:52:49,500 and also published in L'espresso 613 00:52:49,583 --> 00:52:52,753 some of the scenes from Africa Addio. 614 00:53:06,684 --> 00:53:12,815 This false news that caused such a scandal in Italy in L'espresso, 615 00:53:14,650 --> 00:53:18,696 Carlo Gregoretti wrote a few articles about 616 00:53:18,779 --> 00:53:22,783 "The army of Ciombe at the orders of Jacopetti." 617 00:53:56,483 --> 00:54:00,070 The famous article in L'espresso was triggered by this: 618 00:54:00,154 --> 00:54:06,410 Gualtiero, as I said, was a man of extraordinary charisma, 619 00:54:06,493 --> 00:54:10,956 but also of peculiar attitude, 620 00:54:11,039 --> 00:54:12,916 impudent at times. 621 00:54:13,000 --> 00:54:18,046 He met Carlo Gregoretti, who had been invited to join us in Africa. 622 00:54:18,964 --> 00:54:24,428 While chatting, Gualtiero blurted out something he shouldn't have said, 623 00:54:24,511 --> 00:54:26,638 as often happens among friends. 624 00:54:26,722 --> 00:54:31,518 Gualtiero said something like, 625 00:54:31,602 --> 00:54:36,231 "The mercenaries did everything we told them to do." 626 00:54:40,068 --> 00:54:45,949 This is how the unfortunate misunderstanding happened. 627 00:54:46,033 --> 00:54:52,623 So, the legend that we were after bloody events was born, 628 00:54:52,706 --> 00:54:54,958 just for the sake of entertainment. 629 00:54:55,042 --> 00:54:58,295 It was said that we would cynically twist the circumstances 630 00:54:58,378 --> 00:55:03,050 to make the scenes technically more effective, 631 00:55:03,133 --> 00:55:06,929 "staging death under the sun." 632 00:55:07,012 --> 00:55:10,015 Can you imagine that we would stage such a scene? 633 00:55:10,098 --> 00:55:15,479 I say it cynically, to have a man killed for a single take? 634 00:55:15,562 --> 00:55:17,564 Technically speaking, it didn't even make sense. 635 00:55:17,648 --> 00:55:20,150 It would be much smarter to fire blanks, and have him drop 100 times, 636 00:55:20,234 --> 00:55:23,654 so as to be able to film as many takes as needed and pick the best. 637 00:55:23,737 --> 00:55:29,827 Nobody in his right mind would say we had a man killed 638 00:55:29,910 --> 00:55:32,663 just to film a scene. It was preposterous! 639 00:55:32,746 --> 00:55:37,292 An exaggeration, but it affected the public opinion. 640 00:55:42,005 --> 00:55:50,430 When our material arrived in Rome it was viewed by our editors. 641 00:55:51,348 --> 00:55:55,435 Paolo Cavara was also on the staff, 642 00:55:56,937 --> 00:56:02,985 but was left out of the crew of all our films except Mondo Cane. 643 00:56:03,735 --> 00:56:10,742 Maybe he was holding a grudge, 644 00:56:10,826 --> 00:56:14,621 mostly against Jacopetti, 645 00:56:14,705 --> 00:56:17,374 so when he saw some of the footage, 646 00:56:18,250 --> 00:56:26,300 he claimed he had seen us forcing a mercenary to kill a black man 647 00:56:26,383 --> 00:56:28,635 just to complete a scene. 648 00:56:30,304 --> 00:56:34,725 The film was confiscated at Technicolor, with a sign on the door saying: 649 00:56:34,808 --> 00:56:38,020 "Confiscated due to massacre." 650 00:56:38,103 --> 00:56:41,273 So I was in Rome now, answering the magistrates 651 00:56:41,356 --> 00:56:45,277 about all the incriminating scenes in the movie. 652 00:56:45,986 --> 00:56:49,197 I was asked absurd questions. 653 00:56:49,281 --> 00:56:51,992 For example, the judge sat with me at the editing table, 654 00:56:52,075 --> 00:56:55,871 when he saw the scene of the liberation of the town of Stanley, 655 00:56:55,954 --> 00:56:59,082 where we filmed dead people in the streets, he asked, 656 00:56:59,166 --> 00:57:02,753 "Who killed them? Was it you?" 657 00:57:02,836 --> 00:57:07,549 This kind of nonsense. 658 00:57:07,633 --> 00:57:10,886 In the meantime, Gualtiero, Nievo, and Climati, 659 00:57:10,969 --> 00:57:14,806 the ones under direct accusation, had to go back to the Congo 660 00:57:14,890 --> 00:57:19,603 and get some papers to certify 661 00:57:19,686 --> 00:57:23,857 that all the accusations were false. 662 00:57:23,941 --> 00:57:28,153 Stanis Nievo went with me and we made the same trip again. 663 00:57:28,236 --> 00:57:33,158 First to the embassy, where we had a notary accompanying us 664 00:57:33,241 --> 00:57:40,123 with seals and everything to legalize signatures, 665 00:57:40,207 --> 00:57:45,379 and in fact we did gather a big folder with all the evidence and testimonies 666 00:57:45,462 --> 00:57:50,425 of people stating that we had saved them. 667 00:57:56,264 --> 00:57:59,059 We had actually saved people, 668 00:57:59,142 --> 00:58:01,853 on both sides, who were about to be executed. 669 00:58:01,937 --> 00:58:05,565 We would hire them as our crew, saying they were porters or something. 670 00:58:05,649 --> 00:58:07,651 At one point we really had a following. 671 00:58:07,734 --> 00:58:09,361 How did it end? All ended well 672 00:58:09,444 --> 00:58:12,322 for the simple reason that as soon as the judge asked us 673 00:58:12,406 --> 00:58:16,618 if the scene was real where people are killed, 674 00:58:16,702 --> 00:58:20,539 we would answer, "It was all a fake, all staged.” 675 00:58:20,622 --> 00:58:27,713 So the magistrates were happy and we could walk away from this mess. 676 00:58:27,796 --> 00:58:33,135 But of course the acquittal was published with three lines on page five. 677 00:58:33,218 --> 00:58:35,762 The accusation had been broadcast on the front page of every paper. 678 00:58:35,846 --> 00:58:38,765 But that's how it goes. It's no surprise. 679 00:58:42,936 --> 00:58:46,773 Following the publication of the article, 680 00:58:48,108 --> 00:58:51,945 the left took a stand. 681 00:58:52,029 --> 00:58:58,076 They realized that this film showed something very different 682 00:58:58,160 --> 00:59:03,373 from the politically correct vision of Africa 683 00:59:03,457 --> 00:59:05,042 finally becoming independent, 684 00:59:05,125 --> 00:59:09,004 the death of colonialism, freedom to Africa. 685 00:59:09,087 --> 00:59:11,173 This was the politically correct view of the time. 686 00:59:11,256 --> 00:59:14,176 We showed the other side of it. 687 00:59:14,259 --> 00:59:18,180 No, Africa is not ready for this independence. 688 00:59:18,263 --> 00:59:20,098 The debate became political. 689 00:59:21,099 --> 00:59:23,101 Our position was clear. 690 00:59:23,185 --> 00:59:26,063 The scenes we filmed, 691 00:59:26,855 --> 00:59:31,777 the interviews we made, 692 00:59:31,860 --> 00:59:34,863 we weren't interested in the politics of the moment. 693 00:59:34,946 --> 00:59:36,698 We said things honestly. 694 00:59:36,782 --> 00:59:42,496 Our point of view was quite clear. 695 00:59:42,579 --> 00:59:46,625 It was not a justification for colonialism 696 00:59:46,708 --> 00:59:50,170 but it was a condemnation for leaving a continent in miserable conditions. 697 00:59:50,253 --> 00:59:56,009 Daily I fought with the censors, with the Ministry. 698 00:59:56,635 --> 00:59:59,971 They demanded cuts they had no authority to demand. 699 01:00:00,055 --> 01:00:02,432 You don't ask to cut political ironies. 700 01:00:02,516 --> 01:00:06,686 Rather, you ask for cuts because of customs, and moral codes. 701 01:00:06,770 --> 01:00:08,230 But they had the upper hand 702 01:00:08,313 --> 01:00:11,108 and without their okay, newspapers wouldn't advertise. 703 01:00:11,191 --> 01:00:17,155 So I had to make a flexible compromise. 704 01:00:17,823 --> 01:00:24,913 The result was that I got a reputation 705 01:00:24,996 --> 01:00:26,790 for being politically incorrect. 706 01:00:30,085 --> 01:00:34,506 The film was released to great anticipation by the public 707 01:00:34,589 --> 01:00:38,468 because all these attacks caused quite a stir. 708 01:00:38,552 --> 01:00:40,804 So they were very curious to see it 709 01:00:40,887 --> 01:00:46,143 and it was promoted very well, in terms of propaganda. 710 01:00:46,226 --> 01:00:53,608 I remember Rover bought our battered cars 711 01:00:53,692 --> 01:00:58,655 to be displayed in the theater for publicity. 712 01:00:58,738 --> 01:01:02,117 Of course, when a film is released, if it stirs debate 713 01:01:02,200 --> 01:01:04,911 the producers are more than happy, 714 01:01:04,995 --> 01:01:10,500 because it leads to success and that means money. 715 01:01:10,584 --> 01:01:13,461 We all know about lines at the box office. 716 01:01:13,545 --> 01:01:16,715 It was an assault to see Africa Addio. 717 01:01:19,176 --> 01:01:21,678 No one wins and no one loses, once and for all. 718 01:01:21,761 --> 01:01:25,849 No condition is definite except for white and black deaths 719 01:01:25,932 --> 01:01:30,520 that together infect the ruins and dissolve, amidst the buzz of flies 720 01:01:30,604 --> 01:01:32,731 into absolute biological equality. 721 01:01:34,107 --> 01:01:37,694 As for the criticisms, they were ferocious. 722 01:01:37,777 --> 01:01:41,823 The public was not used to this kind of truth. 723 01:01:41,907 --> 01:01:49,748 People were very reactive to the idea of mistreatment towards blacks, 724 01:01:50,624 --> 01:01:52,500 towards Africans. 725 01:01:52,584 --> 01:01:55,545 The mere mention of the difference in skin color 726 01:01:55,629 --> 01:01:59,633 provoked violent reactions, no matter what you said. 727 01:01:59,716 --> 01:02:04,763 On our part there was absolutely no intention of racism. 728 01:02:04,846 --> 01:02:08,725 I counted 98 press conferences all over the world, 729 01:02:09,601 --> 01:02:13,980 always fighting to no avail. There was no point. 730 01:02:14,981 --> 01:02:17,692 It was like talking to a wall: "No! The film is racist!" 731 01:02:22,364 --> 01:02:25,450 On our left is one of the Davids of Donatello 732 01:02:25,533 --> 01:02:27,410 that we had the fortune of being awarded. 733 01:02:27,494 --> 01:02:29,579 This is the one for Africa Addio, 734 01:02:29,663 --> 01:02:34,251 the one that we did not receive from the hands of 735 01:02:34,334 --> 01:02:40,298 the Minister of Culture and Entertainment, who refused to do it. 736 01:02:40,382 --> 01:02:45,428 This is to point out again how lively the controversies were 737 01:02:45,512 --> 01:02:48,181 surrounding Africa Addio. 738 01:02:48,265 --> 01:02:53,478 Regarding the foreign language editions, 739 01:02:53,561 --> 01:02:57,315 I decided to personally oversee the French version, 740 01:02:58,233 --> 01:03:04,364 because I wanted a good translation. 741 01:03:05,198 --> 01:03:14,916 Cineriz Productions didn't spare any expense so it was a job well done. 742 01:03:15,000 --> 01:03:18,878 Then one fine day the copies are gone. 743 01:03:20,297 --> 01:03:22,257 Vanished. 744 01:03:24,217 --> 01:03:30,640 I did some research but got only vague replies. 745 01:03:33,893 --> 01:03:38,982 Then the truth is revealed. 746 01:03:39,065 --> 01:03:44,487 Politically, France's De Gaulle government, 747 01:03:44,571 --> 01:03:45,947 De Gaulle's dictatorship, 748 01:03:46,031 --> 01:03:52,287 formally asked Rizzoli not to distribute the film for political reasons. 749 01:03:52,370 --> 01:03:58,585 It was during the "Pieds Noirs" in Africa, the Algerian crisis. 750 01:04:00,837 --> 01:04:04,883 The compensation was generous, though. 751 01:04:04,966 --> 01:04:10,263 It included a Legion d'Honneur. To whom, I won't say, for discretion. 752 01:04:18,855 --> 01:04:24,194 The English version, unbeknownst to me, 753 01:04:24,277 --> 01:04:30,283 was entrusted to an English translator. 754 01:04:30,367 --> 01:04:32,035 But I couldn't oversee it. 755 01:04:32,118 --> 01:04:34,704 I was busy with other things. 756 01:04:34,788 --> 01:04:39,709 It ended up with a completely different translation, 757 01:04:39,793 --> 01:04:49,844 for fear of riots from the black population. 758 01:05:01,689 --> 01:05:03,566 For this great day of Uhuru, 759 01:05:03,650 --> 01:05:06,319 every party has promised its voters 760 01:05:06,403 --> 01:05:08,905 the prize of the land, livestock, houses and cars, 761 01:05:08,988 --> 01:05:10,448 of the whites that remained. 762 01:05:10,532 --> 01:05:12,450 An excess of caution, probably. 763 01:05:12,534 --> 01:05:14,536 The film was completely altered. 764 01:05:14,619 --> 01:05:20,250 Anyway, the film that resulted was not Africa Addio. 765 01:05:20,333 --> 01:05:21,543 It was something else. 766 01:05:36,057 --> 01:05:38,935 To this day I'm still indignant, 767 01:05:39,018 --> 01:05:42,188 and wish I could bash someone's face in. 768 01:05:42,272 --> 01:05:51,865 Unfortunately, I got to know about it when it was too late. 769 01:05:51,948 --> 01:05:54,159 Rizzoli had died, 770 01:05:54,242 --> 01:06:00,123 and I had to suffer the outrage of seeing the film I loved so much, 771 01:06:00,206 --> 01:06:06,588 a film that cost me sacrifice, passion, and youth. 772 01:06:06,671 --> 01:06:12,677 To see it castrated, and insulted. 773 01:06:12,760 --> 01:06:15,763 I felt rage and grief. 774 01:06:15,847 --> 01:06:18,558 "Blood and guts." Come on! 775 01:06:25,773 --> 01:06:29,402 Mondo Cane no longer exists, but Africa Addio still exists. 776 01:06:30,069 --> 01:06:31,779 If I had to reedit it, 777 01:06:31,863 --> 01:06:34,866 I would only change the voice over, the commentary. 778 01:06:34,949 --> 01:06:37,952 I wouldn't touch the images, 779 01:06:38,036 --> 01:06:40,830 because the film Africa Addio is still relevant today. 780 01:06:40,914 --> 01:06:42,749 This comforts me immensely. 781 01:06:42,832 --> 01:06:46,002 I'm really proud, not because it might be immortal, 782 01:06:46,085 --> 01:06:50,089 but because of how I intuited the future. 783 01:06:50,173 --> 01:06:52,217 Africa Addio is a film that I love very much. 784 01:06:52,300 --> 01:06:59,098 I remember it with pleasure and pain. 785 01:06:59,182 --> 01:07:01,142 Great pain. 786 01:07:01,226 --> 01:07:02,685 It was a beautiful film, 787 01:07:02,769 --> 01:07:04,020 an important film, 788 01:07:04,103 --> 01:07:09,192 shocking, full of events, violent. 789 01:07:09,275 --> 01:07:12,570 Very beautiful, it had it all. 790 01:07:12,654 --> 01:07:16,241 Africa Addio is the film I'm most partial to, 791 01:07:16,324 --> 01:07:18,868 the one that cost me the most effort 792 01:07:18,952 --> 01:07:22,497 that I had the most enthusiasm about. 793 01:07:22,580 --> 01:07:24,916 Africa Addio was a film with a soul. 794 01:07:24,999 --> 01:07:27,126 It was an act of love. 795 01:07:32,006 --> 01:07:41,724 After Africa Addio... you don't like to get so viciously criticized or insulted, 796 01:07:41,808 --> 01:07:46,396 especially after traveling for three years, risking your life, 797 01:07:46,479 --> 01:07:49,232 sacrificing so much to make a documentary. 798 01:07:49,315 --> 01:07:54,571 Upon receiving defamatory accusations as being racists etc., 799 01:07:54,654 --> 01:08:01,703 we tried to make a new film that would be clearly anti-racist. 800 01:08:12,255 --> 01:08:17,552 Once I got this idea, this intuition, 801 01:08:17,635 --> 01:08:22,640 to make a movie as if staging a newsreel back in past times, 802 01:08:22,724 --> 01:08:24,058 it would be something bizarre 803 01:08:24,142 --> 01:08:27,937 because certainly in the 1800's they wouldn't conceive of documentaries. 804 01:08:29,981 --> 01:08:33,026 The idea fascinated me. 805 01:08:33,109 --> 01:08:37,530 Also it would give me some respite from the toils of actual newsreel shooting, 806 01:08:37,614 --> 01:08:40,617 which is draining and unfulfilling. 807 01:08:40,700 --> 01:08:46,456 So we thought, "Why don't we do Mandingo as a documentary?" 808 01:08:46,539 --> 01:08:51,461 Like a vintage documentary, 809 01:08:51,544 --> 01:08:55,632 in the sense that we imagine being photographers 810 01:08:55,715 --> 01:09:02,972 coming to America in the 1800's to observe the situation. 811 01:09:03,681 --> 01:09:14,233 So we studied the subject, the history of slavery in America 812 01:09:16,402 --> 01:09:21,449 and began to film adopting, mind you, 813 01:09:22,575 --> 01:09:28,623 the viewpoint of men from those times regarding slavery. 814 01:09:42,428 --> 01:09:47,684 So you would see the English poet Thackeray 815 01:09:47,767 --> 01:09:52,689 visiting one of those gorgeous mansions in Louisiana 816 01:09:52,772 --> 01:09:55,024 like in Gone With the Wind, 817 01:09:55,108 --> 01:09:58,569 and witness the confusion that reigned in the house. 818 01:10:08,496 --> 01:10:11,958 In Goodbye Uncle Tom, the characters are not made up. 819 01:10:12,041 --> 01:10:15,503 They portray real historical characters, 820 01:10:15,586 --> 01:10:17,755 people who played a role in history, science, and religion. 821 01:10:17,839 --> 01:10:20,466 The reverend and his sermon; those writings are for real, 822 01:10:20,550 --> 01:10:23,553 not some screenwriter's dialogue. 823 01:10:23,636 --> 01:10:28,057 The theory of scientific racism is real. 824 01:10:42,280 --> 01:10:44,741 I was the one doing the research 825 01:10:44,824 --> 01:10:48,578 because of my professorial background. 826 01:10:48,661 --> 01:10:52,957 So I read all the documents I could find 827 01:10:53,040 --> 01:10:59,464 on the topic of slavery in America. 828 01:11:06,179 --> 01:11:08,347 The topic was very interesting. 829 01:11:08,431 --> 01:11:12,393 It was the time when racism and slavery were widely discussed. 830 01:11:12,477 --> 01:11:17,482 It was a time of redemption. It was the time of Martin Luther King. 831 01:11:17,565 --> 01:11:20,359 A topic very up to date. 832 01:11:28,034 --> 01:11:35,124 This was our idea, to demonstrate how such aberrations originate. 833 01:11:36,375 --> 01:11:46,886 Without softening it with our present day view of things. 834 01:11:46,969 --> 01:11:54,101 Without the hypocrisy of declaring that 835 01:11:54,185 --> 01:12:06,322 African slaves in those times were woefully aware of their conditions. 836 01:12:06,405 --> 01:12:08,991 Because for the most part they were not. 837 01:12:09,075 --> 01:12:14,247 They were stolen from their homeland, 838 01:12:14,330 --> 01:12:20,169 brought to another, totally different country, with a different language. 839 01:12:20,253 --> 01:12:25,758 Receiving no education, not going to school, without freedom, 840 01:12:25,842 --> 01:12:29,595 they could hardly have an idea of their roots. 841 01:12:29,679 --> 01:12:34,141 Just as the white owners had no conscience of doing something evil, 842 01:12:34,225 --> 01:12:38,521 they were righteous in what they did, based on religious beliefs, 843 01:12:38,604 --> 01:12:41,858 the Bible suggesting it. 844 01:12:41,941 --> 01:12:44,026 So they saw things differently. 845 01:12:44,110 --> 01:12:49,365 An African was a sort of animal to be used as a workhorse, 846 01:12:49,448 --> 01:12:55,413 and it was for their own good that they were taught to live that way. 847 01:12:55,496 --> 01:13:00,543 Let us not forget that for us Christians, Catholics, 848 01:13:00,626 --> 01:13:06,382 traveling along with Spaniards and Portuguese to America, 849 01:13:06,465 --> 01:13:08,676 the pagans didn't have a soul. 850 01:13:08,759 --> 01:13:12,054 I mean, literally, pagans didn't have a soul. 851 01:13:12,138 --> 01:13:14,307 So a slave was like an animal, 852 01:13:14,390 --> 01:13:19,562 he could be killed like we would kill a chicken. 853 01:13:19,645 --> 01:13:21,564 That was the concept back then. 854 01:13:21,647 --> 01:13:25,693 So in the film we tried to show that. 855 01:13:26,360 --> 01:13:29,530 But it was interpreted as cynicism. 856 01:13:29,614 --> 01:13:33,743 It was probably our mistake. We should have stated it clearly: 857 01:13:33,826 --> 01:13:39,248 "Attention, what you are about to see is the viewpoint of men of those times. 858 01:13:39,332 --> 01:13:41,000 It is not our viewpoint." 859 01:14:12,698 --> 01:14:18,579 As for the shoot, remember we were coming off Africa Addio, 860 01:14:18,663 --> 01:14:22,166 a project that lasted three years and cost us much sacrifice. 861 01:14:22,249 --> 01:14:26,128 Being away from home for three years is very hard. 862 01:14:26,212 --> 01:14:30,007 So for Goodbye Uncle Tom we planned three months of shooting 863 01:14:30,091 --> 01:14:32,301 like a normal film. 864 01:14:32,385 --> 01:14:34,470 So where do we shoot? 865 01:14:34,553 --> 01:14:43,938 It was going to be a fiction, for the first time in our lives, 866 01:14:44,021 --> 01:14:45,398 so we decided on Braazil. 867 01:14:45,481 --> 01:14:52,655 We obtained visas, passed medical tests and were granted permission. 868 01:14:52,738 --> 01:14:58,494 We left Italy for New York and were stopped by the Brazilian government 869 01:14:58,577 --> 01:15:01,914 with a counter order stating: 870 01:15:01,998 --> 01:15:04,875 "Stop the crew of Mondo Cane and Africa Addio." 871 01:15:04,959 --> 01:15:07,920 Our reputation had eventually caught up with us. 872 01:15:08,004 --> 01:15:10,923 "Stop this crew from entering Brazil." 873 01:15:51,714 --> 01:15:56,719 Papa Doc was in charge of everything. 874 01:15:56,802 --> 01:16:01,348 With the recommendation from the Italian ambassador, 875 01:16:01,432 --> 01:16:03,559 Papa Doc gave us a lot of help. 876 01:16:03,642 --> 01:16:12,610 Seven or eight cars with diplomatic plates, special permission, 877 01:16:13,319 --> 01:16:18,074 all in exchange for some chit-chat, some sympathy for this strange old man. 878 01:16:18,157 --> 01:16:22,369 I remember the dinners we had to attend every Friday night. 879 01:16:22,453 --> 01:16:26,916 He would treat us to stale bread, cheese and water from the swimming pool: 880 01:16:26,999 --> 01:16:30,002 the rhetoric of sobriety. 881 01:17:06,163 --> 01:17:11,794 It was fun, it was a new experience: 882 01:17:11,877 --> 01:17:17,633 putting on costumes, building sets, and writing dialogue. 883 01:17:17,716 --> 01:17:21,095 I had never done that before. 884 01:17:21,762 --> 01:17:23,013 They called me. 885 01:17:23,097 --> 01:17:28,644 I went and stayed there not too long, three or four months. I don't remember. 886 01:17:28,727 --> 01:17:32,648 Maybe two months. I stayed a very short time 887 01:17:32,731 --> 01:17:37,486 because the film was born bad and was going to end worse. 888 01:17:49,165 --> 01:17:54,003 The final scene was the story of Nat Turner, 889 01:17:54,753 --> 01:17:58,215 who at the height of the slave era 890 01:17:58,299 --> 01:18:06,182 was the first to revolt against the whites. 891 01:18:06,265 --> 01:18:07,933 So, what were we aiming for? 892 01:18:08,017 --> 01:18:11,979 The chance to have a conscience for blacks. 893 01:18:12,062 --> 01:18:18,819 The closing scene where the child wants his balloon back and he pops it. 894 01:18:18,903 --> 01:18:25,701 He does it just out of malice and I felt it wasn't gratuitous malice. 895 01:18:25,784 --> 01:18:30,372 I saw it as a legitimate moral vengeance from this man 896 01:18:30,456 --> 01:18:33,083 who had so much identified with that character 897 01:18:33,167 --> 01:18:35,002 who had been destroyed. 898 01:18:41,008 --> 01:18:46,180 It should go without saying that nobody today would endorse slavery, 899 01:18:46,263 --> 01:18:48,265 by any stretch of the imagination. 900 01:18:48,349 --> 01:18:54,647 So, a film that was made to respond to all accusations of racism 901 01:18:54,730 --> 01:18:56,899 from Africa Addio, to be anti-racist, 902 01:18:56,982 --> 01:19:03,072 turned out to be a reiteration of our alleged racism. 903 01:19:03,155 --> 01:19:05,699 Racism that, once again, we absolutely reject. 904 01:19:05,783 --> 01:19:07,701 It would be illogical, stupid. 905 01:19:07,785 --> 01:19:14,458 As for the film being... it is difficult to watch. 906 01:19:14,541 --> 01:19:18,087 Understandably so. 907 01:19:18,170 --> 01:19:24,426 Maybe we went a little too far 908 01:19:24,510 --> 01:19:28,639 and lost sight of the public. 909 01:19:28,722 --> 01:19:32,226 My theory is the public is always right. 910 01:19:32,309 --> 01:19:37,439 There's no such thing as the masterpiece that the public didn't get. 911 01:19:37,523 --> 01:19:39,733 I find the idea offensive. 912 01:19:39,817 --> 01:19:41,652 The public appreciates good things. 913 01:19:42,319 --> 01:19:44,446 But if it is rejected because it isn't understood, 914 01:19:44,530 --> 01:19:46,490 it means that it needed an explanation, 915 01:19:46,573 --> 01:19:49,243 and if an explanation is necessary then the film just doesn't work. 916 01:19:49,326 --> 01:19:51,036 It must be self-explanatory. 917 01:20:00,212 --> 01:20:03,632 Presenting this documentary about the slavery of black people 918 01:20:03,716 --> 01:20:07,303 without a word of introduction, 919 01:20:07,386 --> 01:20:13,642 it was inevitable that the authors' intentions would be misconstrued. 920 01:20:13,726 --> 01:20:15,436 It's our own fault. 921 01:20:15,519 --> 01:20:21,775 As for the criticism of the film, we had to accept it. 922 01:20:21,859 --> 01:20:25,654 Moreover, it didn't have the same success as the previous ones, 923 01:20:25,738 --> 01:20:29,533 and so evidently, something wasn't quite right there. 924 01:20:29,616 --> 01:20:33,412 The film aroused curiosity at first, 925 01:20:33,495 --> 01:20:36,915 then came the censors and it was banned. 926 01:20:38,417 --> 01:20:42,921 At the trial, it was discharged in full. 927 01:20:43,005 --> 01:20:45,549 Anyway, two months later the film is released again. 928 01:20:45,632 --> 01:20:48,344 It was not the success it should have been. 929 01:20:48,427 --> 01:20:54,099 Once a film has been removed, the public is rightly distrustful. 930 01:20:58,354 --> 01:21:01,732 It was a beautiful film in its intentions, 931 01:21:01,815 --> 01:21:05,027 but it came out wrong. 932 01:21:05,110 --> 01:21:09,239 After thirty years, I would redo the film. 933 01:21:09,323 --> 01:21:13,702 Redoing it, giving it a more documentary and scientific slant. 934 01:21:13,786 --> 01:21:20,042 I would explain situations, give dates, and data 935 01:21:20,125 --> 01:21:24,797 about the whole phenomenon of slavery in America, 936 01:21:24,880 --> 01:21:28,258 and how it all happened. 937 01:21:28,342 --> 01:21:31,970 Revisiting the film today, honestly, I would change a lot of things. 938 01:21:34,681 --> 01:21:37,768 I don't justify myself at all costs. 939 01:21:39,478 --> 01:21:42,898 I'm not after a moral justification. 940 01:21:43,565 --> 01:21:49,571 In my opinion, if you state a moral, 941 01:21:49,655 --> 01:21:51,740 you corner yourself. 942 01:21:51,824 --> 01:21:54,785 Finding morals is the critics' job. 943 01:23:13,572 --> 01:23:19,578 With Jacopetti and Prosperi there was precise research. 944 01:23:22,581 --> 01:23:28,337 Even if there was violence it had style and intelligence. 945 01:23:28,420 --> 01:23:31,173 It's not about art. 946 01:23:31,256 --> 01:23:34,843 There is no true art. Today it's all about shocking the public. 947 01:23:34,927 --> 01:23:43,810 There is no love of the movie-making culture. 948 01:23:43,894 --> 01:23:49,024 Everything that was done afterwards served no purpose. 949 01:23:49,107 --> 01:23:57,658 They were the true creators of this genre. 950 01:24:14,049 --> 01:24:19,221 The collaboration of Jacopetti & Prosperi lasted four, five years 951 01:24:19,304 --> 01:24:21,223 in perfect harmony. 952 01:24:21,306 --> 01:24:24,226 Extreme mutual politeness, extreme respect. 953 01:24:24,309 --> 01:24:28,814 We were still getting along great while filming Goodbye Uncle Tom. 954 01:24:28,897 --> 01:24:34,027 Our relationship cooled down a little while shooting Mondo Candido 955 01:24:34,111 --> 01:24:36,572 from Voltaire's Candide 956 01:24:36,655 --> 01:24:44,580 for reasons that are pointless to explain now. 957 01:24:44,663 --> 01:24:48,500 It was his lack of loyalty 958 01:24:49,793 --> 01:24:55,591 in terms of his partnership with me, from an economic standpoint. 959 01:24:55,674 --> 01:24:59,761 In the end, and I don't want to go into the reasons again, 960 01:24:59,845 --> 01:25:04,641 we had a final crisis and we parted. 961 01:25:04,725 --> 01:25:09,646 A decision kept to this day. 962 01:25:41,762 --> 01:25:46,183 This separation saddened me immensely. 963 01:25:46,266 --> 01:25:50,270 I understand that they had some argument 964 01:25:50,354 --> 01:25:56,318 and because of their strong personalities, 965 01:25:56,401 --> 01:26:01,823 they couldn't reach out to each other. 966 01:26:01,907 --> 01:26:04,660 They just stopped working together. 967 01:26:04,743 --> 01:26:10,082 It was a loss for the entire movie world. 968 01:26:10,165 --> 01:26:17,005 They had such great potential and capacity 969 01:26:17,089 --> 01:26:20,258 to create important and great films. 970 01:26:28,433 --> 01:26:32,187 I am sorry because you can't simply forget... 971 01:26:32,270 --> 01:26:36,858 but no resentment, nothing. 972 01:26:36,942 --> 01:26:40,654 It was always discussed in a civilized manner. 973 01:26:57,963 --> 01:27:00,215 We really went too far. 974 01:27:00,298 --> 01:27:03,468 The dangers, illnesses, accidents, 975 01:27:03,552 --> 01:27:07,848 but we never felt we were heroes or martyrs. 976 01:27:07,931 --> 01:27:09,433 It was always a pleasure for us. 977 01:27:11,893 --> 01:27:18,567 To this day I still have nightmares. 978 01:27:18,650 --> 01:27:24,197 I no longer have nightmares about graduating, about examinations, 979 01:27:24,281 --> 01:27:28,285 but I have nightmares about someone calling me 980 01:27:28,368 --> 01:27:31,496 and telling me to go organize and film something somewhere. 981 01:27:35,500 --> 01:27:37,961 This genre is attracting a lot of attention. 982 01:27:38,044 --> 01:27:42,591 I've received proposals. I can't accept them now. 983 01:27:42,674 --> 01:27:48,847 It's not my time anymore. 984 01:27:49,681 --> 01:27:52,768 At another time I'd surely like to take the plunge 985 01:27:52,851 --> 01:27:56,271 and do something contemporary. 986 01:27:56,354 --> 01:27:58,023 There's still so much to be told. 987 01:27:58,106 --> 01:28:00,400 It's not true that everything has been done already.