The full name of Dreamworks - the mini-major founded by Spielberg more than a decade ago and, recently absorbed by Universal, is "Dreamworks SKG". In this acronym, Jeffrey Katzenberg is the "K" (the "S" is the director of Duel, of course, while the "G" is David Geffen, tycoon discography) e all'epoca della fondazione qualcuno aveva fatto notare che, dei tre soci fondatori, fosse l'unico che non portava in dote un capitale miliardario ma solo il talento dimostrato negli anni passati alla Disney, dove aveva avuto un ruolo determinante (sia pure, da qualcuno, ridimensionato rispetto a quel che si diceva in giro) nel rilancio del cinema d'animazione sul finire degli anni Ottanta. A Katzenberg si attribuisce in gran parte la responsabilità della doppia svolta avvenuta con La sirenetta - il film con cui la Disney uscì dalla crisi che ne attanagliava da tempo la produzione di lungometraggi animati, riaprendo il mercato, da tempo ridottosi a quello dei ragazzini, anche al pubblico degli adolescenti e degli adulti - And the cornerstone of Who Framed Roger Rabbit .
With "DreamWorks' Katzenberg has alternating high and low - nothing revolutionary, in fact, but at least two sets of overwhelming success as Shrek and Madagascar and average production is more than adequate. And now, with Monsters vs. Aliens , which appeared in our country on April 3rd (just a week after the U.S. release) is launched on the market with the decision of three-dimensional cinema, swears, is the future of cinema itself. Is it true? Of course, less than sixty years since its first mass-market debut in film (the film was Bwana Devil , 1952), 3D seems to have achieved thanks to digital quality can compensate for the discomfort of viewing with the infamous glasses - which, moreover, have become sophisticated enough to reduce almost to zero in the past complained of discomfort from some viewers.
In terms of history, Monsters vs. Aliens does not say much new, but the technical level of 3D certainly deserves a chance to see him - at the cost of chasing the rare film in which salt is proposed three-dimensional version, just 60 screens on 550 (and no one in Rome: what a shame). With Katzenberg, compared to the years that Disney claims to have reduced much of his creative efforts on films it produces, in favor of a more organizational and, say, the facilitation for authors who work for him, I spoke mainly of technological innovation and new perspectives. Below is the full transcription of the meeting.
is usually said that cinema is more than half based on the figure of the director while the TV is connected to the producer. At that point we can locate the animation? Halfway between one another, or anywhere else?
is different from both. The analogy that I have always done is ... I think that the films are driven by true mostly by one person. And all are in the service of that one person. Animation - In which every single thing you see is produced by the imagination of someone is more like a team effort. It's like football. Do you want us attackers, scorers, defenders - a whole group of very different talents. There is a team leader, of course, who is the director of the animation. The wonderful thing about animation is that we are almost the opposite of cinema from the truth. The live action film are made from a series of compromises. Each obstacle on the road, every practical matter force you to find a compromise. And the difference between a good movie and a bad film makes those who can anticipate compromised or circumvented. Spielberg: the shark and he stops working on moment, a sudden brilliant way [to evoke]. For us ... we do not compromise - for almost nothing. It is a process so long that we can see what we're doing and improve it constantly.
So, how far she has creative control of a film like Monsters vs. Aliens ? In this case one of the directors is also the author of the screenplay, which does not happen very often.
I believe in the mythology of what I do and the fact there is a big difference. (Laughs) Well
, Disney spoke of himself as a busy busy bee to pollinate the work of its employees - but his were mostly Disney films ...
My job is to put together a great creative team. And then support them, encourage them and give them the resources they need, challenges for the entire journey. It's a little 'what makes a good editor with a writer. I do not write anything but help them to realize the best version of what they want. But it is true that once was not. When I started I was an author, contributed to the film, I attended every day to achieve. But do not do it again some time - which is probably why the movies are better!
In over twenty years of his career, quanto è cambiata l’animazione? Lei ha avuto un ruolo fondamentale in due dei film che di fatto hanno rilanciato un genere che alla fine degli anni Ottanta sembrava in crisi - La sirenetta e Chi ha incastrato Roger Rabbit ...
Trovo che sia più interessante il fatto che fra tanti cambiamenti sia rimasto invariata l’importanza capitale del modo di raccontare. Gli strumenti e i mezzi sono passati attraverso una quantità incredibile di cambiamenti e innovazioni - ciò che la tecnologia offre continuamente di nuovo ai narratori è stupefacente, ci sono stati cambiamenti mozzafiato. E questo è vero nell’animazione molto più che nel cinema dal vero. Keep up with all this is a big investment but it also offers immense opportunity - every time someone sees one of our films there is always something that drives us to say "Wow, these people continue to raise" ... and it is so for fifteen years. And when I ask what can we expect for the future I say "more." The future is more .
Increasingly, a film is no longer just a movie but the center of a number of operations performed on different mediums - from animation has always been a vehicle for merchandising. With that advance studies the synergy between the film and possible parallel applications the characters?
Almost does not happen. The ideas are from the perspective of the film story - some have great potential for the merchandising, others do not have it at all, and this has no weight in our decision whether to make a film or not. For this film we have designed the monsters in a way that best serves the narrative purpose of the film - and then some people came and told us: "Oh, we could make toys ... but not vice versa. We have not called toy manufacturers asking them: "Describe the toys and then try to do a movie."
The 3-D exists in several versions, for quite some time - but this is perhaps the first time that many filmmakers series A show a real interest in this technology. What, in the past two or three years, pushing many directors to overcome the obstacles that until now had always stopped the spread of three-dimensional cinema?
The film saw him, no? Have you ever seen something like this? I do not want to do but to answer a rhetorical question. You can see today what we saw three years ago, something amazing, something that changes everything he knew of cinema. And all the best filmmakers - those who have always been pioneers in adapting and exploiting new technologies, Spielberg, Zemeckis, Jackson, Lucas, Cameron - sono quelli che sono sempre stati all’avanguardia della tecnologia. Tutti noi abbiamo capito nello stesso momento, tutti noi ci siamo detti: “Questo è il futuro”, e ci permette di raccontare meglio le nostre storie. Per cui siamo saltati tutti sul carro.
Quindi a fare la differenza è la maturazione della tecnologia? All’epoca del primo boom del 3D forse fu Hitchcock il solo regista di serie A a cimentarvisi, e in un film soltanto...
Non c’è dubbio che sia la tecnologia. Bob Zemeckis è la persona che si è lanciata per prima in questa avventura tre anni e mezzo fa, con Polar Express . E io posso parlare della mia esperienza. Ho visto Polar Express in 3D in una sala IMAX e ci sono rimasto secco: fu una esperienza sensazionale, eccezionale e ho capito che dovevo capire come fare qualcosa del genere nel mio settore. Sono tornato al mio studio e ho detto ai miei responsabili della tecnologia: “Questo è il futuro, dobbiamo farne parte”. E tutto si riassume in una parola sola: digitale. Digitale, digitale, digitale. Proiezione digitale, strumenti di authoring digitali, distribuzione digitale - è tutto questione di digitale. Cambia tutto. [impugna un Blackberry ] Pensi a cosa fa questo oggetto. Non esisteva nemmeno, dieci anni fa - non esisteva nemmeno cinque anni fa. Quando pensa all’iimpatto che questa rivoluzione digitale ha sulla qualità delle nostre vite, beh, adesso sta accadendo anche nel cinema.
Al di là dei film realizzati direttamente per il 3D, si parla anche di tridimensionalizzare film realizzati in precedenza con metodi tradizionali - da Guerre stellari ma risalendo anche a Casablanca . La cosa interessa anche il suo settore?
So che c’è chi ci sta lavorando ma non sono aggiornato su a che punto sia la ricerca in proposito e a che livello di qualità siano arrivati. Ma non è che ci tenga a vedere realizzata questa particolare iniziativa - così come non ci tenevo a vedere cosa sarebbe successo quando hanno cominciato a colorizzare i film in bianco e nero - qualcosa che non mi è mai piaciuta, perché non penso che fosse un miglioramento. Potrebbe essere una sfida vedere se sia possibile prendere un vecchio film in 2D e rielaborarlo in postprouzione ottenendo una versione in 3D con una qualità che giustifichi lo sforzo. Posso dire che se un film non è stato prodotto in 3D, a livello di progettazione delle inquadrature... beh, è come ai tempi in cui operatori e registi giravano film in bianco e nero, li studiavano sulle sfumature del grigio fra il nero e il bianco - non c’era proprio l’intenzione del colore. Penso che il discorso valga anche in questo caso: in un film in 2D non c’era l’intenzione della profondità e di come la camera will move. So I am curious to know how to do. I'm not skeptical, I'm just curious. I do not know. I know that give color to black and white film did not work.
Well, in the case of computer animated feature film produced by Dreamworks - in a sense are 3D, as any object or character, there is a three-dimensional model. It would be relatively easier to recover material for a possible three-dimensional version? And there are plans in this regard?
We could do it, but not now. Today, still costs too much. To do so, and maintain a quality to match our needs we should spend an excessive amount - but it is technically possible. We should go back and start again with a lot of render elements, drawings, models of things that work perfectly in 2D but also in 3D, and therefore should be redone. The cost of such an undertaking for a 90 minute film is still prohibitive.
Three out of four monster characters are virtually identical to the SF American cinema of the fifties - the monster from the Black Lagoon, the 50-foot tall woman and the blob - another is clearly inspired by the scientist of The Fly. The subject had characters like the originals or from the beginning the idea was to take inspiration from them without them directly?
the outset, the intention the authors was to pay tribute to those characters without having to use literally.
Monsters vs. Aliens has some scenes that use 3D so presumptuous as it was once - even the scene of the racket on the ball spring is a quotation of 'House of Wax André de Toth - but overall it seems to avoid the temptation to use 3D as a gimmick. How did you work to integrate technology in history?
Every single shot has been thought of in terms of 3D. I think that's why there is a quality and unique immersive experience that 3D had never given before. The script has worked for over a year and a half each from the first storyboard artist who worked on the film he thought everything in three dimensions.
"Eudeamon" (2009) by Erica Moak (Zero91 Publisher)
is now in the library "Eudeamon", a book whose publication is Part of the responsibility - to the point that the publisher asked me some time ago a sort of afterword. Here it is, with the permission of Zero91, which of course thank you.
"Everyone here are from Rick," said Captain Renault to Major Strasser in one of the opening scenes of Casablanca , and he was right: between smugglers and spies, pickpockets , Nazis, spacciatori di lettere di transito, partigiani, nobili decaduti, al Rick's Café Americain si poteva incontrare un campionario umano estremamente variegato che rappresentava trasversalmente la maggior parte delle nazioni del mondo sconvolto dalla Seconda Guerra Mondiale. E sebbene il film sia del 1943, la tradizione continua: il libro che avete appena finito di leggere non esisterebbe, probabilmente, se non fosse per un incontro fortuito, avvenuto al Casablanca Café - un night club ispirato al film che, per un po' di tempo, ha costituito un ritrovo ideale per i cinefili del metaverso.
Coniato dal romanziere Neal Stephenson nel suo fondamentale Snow Crash (1992), il termine metaverso indica un ambiente virtuale tridimensionale nel quale gli esseri umani possono entrare in qualità di avatar (rappresentazioni grafiche di se stessi) interagendo fra di loro ma anche con semplici software più o meno evoluti. È quel mondo che qualcuno ancora chiama realtà virtuale, che sempre più si delinea come uno degli sviluppi più interessanti dell'interazione a distanza, e di cui Second Life è, a tutt'oggi, la modalità che fin qui ha suscitato più eco attraverso i media - prima grazie un hype forse esagerato, in seguito a causa del prevedibile contraccolpo. Il destino di qualsiasi moda, si sa, è sempre il passare di moda and this is also the case for the metaverse created by Linden Lab, which has slowed its exponential growth but which continues to thrive and, for years now, the virtual world is far richer, more complete, diverse and stable that has been achieved . The Casablanca Café, like many companies in the real world, have recently experienced some vicissitudes related to the recession, but in 2008 I happened to like to spend several evenings, mainly to earn a few dollars by participating in the virtual cinema quiz organized by the owner, Daedalus Lemuria. And it was one of those evenings that I happened to meet Winthorpe Foghorn Zinnemann.
There and then nothing Win distinguished from many other avatars that I had not crossed during my frequent explorations on Second Life (the metaverse are almost all young and attractive), but I realized very early on that film knew enough to be a formidable competitor: when she was there, my earnings are halved. Perhaps less known titles than me, but type a lot faster and ended when both knew the answer almost always beat for a few seconds. When I discovered that, despite its name, was Italian, we began to chat about this and that. It was precisely at the tables of Casablanca after one of those races, Win began to talk about Eudeamon .
The premise was not the most convincing. He had heard of the book, I said, Blog Marine Kelley - a name that meant nothing to me but I have found to be a kind of myth to a certain category of visitors to Second Life . A couple of years ago, Marine Kelley began producing and selling a line of objects in the metaverse Real Restraints baptized and whose functionality is very special: it's handcuffs, ropes, belts and gags designed to simulate all ' Internal Second Life, the feeling of being prisoners of someone. The avatar who buys them and wears them becomes, from that moment, vulnerable the activities of other avatar who can steal the keys and handcuff him, or tie or otherwise make prisoner without the victim can no longer rid itself. These objects run in a particularly effective with a specially modified version, the same Kelley, the client of Second Life (ie the launching program which you can enter the metaverse) and there is a vast community of people who make point of honor to use only one. Boasting that, if they are captured by someone in those conditions, have no way to free yourself up to when their captor not deign to give them freedom.
Win I discovered at that time, was one of those fans virtual bondage. Not only intensely lived his second life , going looking for trouble and adventure in areas filled with cages, chains and traps, but told in detail in a blog illustrated by photographs, that she snapped, as she put it, in-world. A blog, however, rather than followed by several loyal readers that, as I have seen often Win attended the metaverse, and sometimes they themselves came to be part of the game - and I say game in the absence of a better expression, because I had the feeling that many (and Win it) sometimes take it very sul serio. Andai a leggere la pagina del blog, in cui Win si entusiasmava su Eudeamon paragonandolo a grandi autori di SF come Philip K. Dick e Robert Sheckley, poi andai a leggere quello della Kelley trovando anche lì lodi sperticate. E scoprendo, come se non bastasse, che la creatrice di manette aveva messo a punto, all'interno di Second Life , un suo personale Progetto Banishment che consentiva a chiunque lo desiderasse di provare direttamente (o meglio, per interposto avatar) un'esperienza analoga a quella della protagonista, Katrina Nichols. Win stessa, scoprii, era stata in passato un Bane e, da qualche tempo, era entrata a lavorare alla Kelley Technologies come Bane Operator .
There was a bit 'of fanaticism in all this? How was it possible that if the novel really was so nice to unleash the phenomena of religion, had not yet found a publisher, and was freely downloadable from the author? Yet all this excitement I felt at least necessitate a review: I went to visit Erika (a site that is itself a world, and sometimes disturbing, to be explored: http://www.evil-dolly . com / ), I pulled down the Word file and I began to read. Will soon realize that those pages, which I expected, at best, a form of fan fiction more or less were acceptable, however, quite different: an articulate and compelling story to begin with, but above all able to move from fantasy fetishist who undoubtedly had inspired the idea central to the upper level of a text full of metaphorical meanings ... a book about loneliness and love - indeed, of Love with A, and maybe all the other letters, upper case ... an all-encompassing love, total acceptance of others and the fact that, for this very reason, perhaps the only religion or insanity, or narcissism led to the disease, they can promise in this world. A love that is then turned down by the author in ways that lead far from trivial, to quote the same Win, a "moving developments, full of joy, even exciting ... but also of mourning, desire for revenge, and, ultimately, solidarity, love for others, desire to share the most extraordinary gift of life - at least those who have the courage to openly address their most secret desires. "
But there was something else: even if it is set in a metaverse, Eudeamon has to do with virtual worlds, today fewer and fewer products from drugs and more driven by technology - worlds together new forms of communication are changing very rapidly and deeply the very way we perceive and decode the world around us. Seizing perfectly what it means, in this era of globalized communication, instant and ubiquitous, the denial of the communication.
arrived last page I agreed with Win and the Kelley: Eudeamon was left for too long a jewel reserved for the worship of a few fans, and absolutely necessary to find a publisher. Win had already obtained an approval in principle by Erika Moak, but had made contact with a couple of small publishing houses that had not shown particular interest - perhaps because it is difficult for a publisher to take seriously proposals from an avatar of Second Life that refuses to reveal the slightest details of his real life. My one small matter, throughout this story, was to act as an intermediary between the virtual and Win Two concretissimi, founders of Zero91 (whom I knew as my father's last novel publishers, L 'Invasion of Ultragay ) and suggest that they would read, evaluate and, where appropriate, published. The outcome of these negotiations is in your hands: this Italian translation is still the only printed edition of Eudeamon is from here that beyond the metaverse. And we only weekly quiz at the Casablanca Café, and my encounter with the charming girl of pixels I spoiled the square.
That girl, however, later proved far less innocuous than it seems when en passant, I was informed of the initiative I mentioned above - that of the virtual banishment organized by Marine Kelley. If, as was obvious, the book I liked so much, why should not I try to live a similar experience in Second Life? After all, Win now worked for Kelley as Bane Technologies Operator, and I have reserved a special treatment, and, indeed, in my case, she was prepared to anticipate the security that I had to pay, and I would pay her his skin And it was a unique opportunity, and then I could tell it around, and after all I might have understood how the experience could be intense. E, e, e. .. at the end, I must admit, I was convinced. I downloaded the modified client (essential and indispensable), I logged my avatar to the metaverse and I introduced myself to Zhora, home of the Kelley Tech, where Win had given me an appointment. To become a Bane.
omit the details of the "procedure" to which I, or rather my avatar unfortunate, was the subject: those who have read the novel know that the experience was very similar to that of Nichols, and simply report that the cordial Win friendly and I had met at Casablanca has dissolved completely, becoming a professional in the banishment cold, relentless and ruthless. It transformed me into yet another faceless Bane, for wandering around Second Life without being able to communicate with anyone. The slightest breach of an impressive list of rules is punished by sentence extensions for hours. I had opted for a sentence, which seemed to me an interim of 24 hours per game, but the violations that I almost immediately started to accumulate rapidly brought me over a hundred hours to be served. At this point, I doubt that the commitments of my real life will allow me to connect to Second Life for long enough to allow me never to leave my banishment virtual: the rare times that I still can not connect are reduced to wandering aimlessly, looking at other avatars from far away, unable to communicate with not many people that I happened to attend. And sometimes I hear inside my helmet, the mocking voice of Win, my relentless Operator, which occasionally allows me to communicate with her through the Vox , the tool that makes it, temporarily, the voice of the Bane.
I could reconnect with the client normal, and get rid of the infernal Custodian , but it would be like cheating - and on Second Life, Win only repeats with a lovely smile and even affectionate way, cheating is considered a capital offense. In those circumstances, frankly, I begin to lose hope of seeing my avatar back, one day, his (second) normal life. I still do not know if Win decided to wait until I find my personal Eudeamon or if you simply likes to keep me prisoner. Certainly, the restrictions imposed by Banesuit prevent me to investigate about the merits of a terrible suspicion that, recently, came to my mind - that took advantage of Win Banishment to back off of that, to the film quiz Casablanca Café was a competitor for her a bit 'too annoying.
The only person you can ask and Win but in the rare cases in which I will return the word is she lead the conversation. The few times I try to make them the question, smiling enigmatically. It disables the Vox. Help .
Double DVD: "The Eschnapur tiger "and" tomb "Indian Fritz Lang
video library has been released in a box set that brings together two of the diptych Indian film directed by Fritz Lang at the end of his career. Courtesy of the publisher given below the text that I wrote for the booklet attached.
The path that a director must take to transform a project into a film itself is almost always a minefield fraught with difficulties which may require dedication and persistence well beyond what you think. Ma anche con questa premessa, il fatto che Fritz Lang ci abbia messo 39 anni a portare sullo schermo La tigre di Eschnapur costituisce, se non un record assoluto, quantomeno un caso limite. Quella che avrebbe dovuto essere una delle primissime opere del regista viennese ne è diventata praticamente il canto del cigno, di modo che l’inizio e la fine del progetto appaiono delimitano l’alfa e l’omega di una brillante carriera - determinata in gran parte, come si vedrà, da una combinazione di audacia e di coincidenze più o meno fortunate.
Nato a Vienna alla fine del 1890, dall’architetto Anton Lang e da Paula Schlesinger, il giovane Lang accetta inizialmente di frequentare studiare engineering, but in reality is determined to become a painter. As it starts to get busy with paintbrushes, drawing mainly Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt, Lang uncovers a passionate womanizer, "I was early and I started very early," he recalled in an autobiographical sketch written by Lotte Eisner, "The Viennese women were the most beautiful and most generous in the world. It was common custom to meet secretly in some cafe in Vienna during the interval of a play or, by chance, after 11, in a cabaret or a nightclub. "
Maybe even easier to indulge in these pleasures, Lang found a job as master of ceremonies in a couple of cabaret (The Femina and Holle, or "hell"), even if he has to stop immediately when the father is informed. Following his father's reaction, the young man escapes the house and certainly went first to Belgium and then get to travel around the world: North Africa, Turkey, Asia Minor and even Bali. At the end happened to be in Paris. I earned a living by selling hand-painted postcards, my drawings and, occasionally, some cartoon for newspapers. " In the French capital, Lang attended the day school of painting by Maurice Denis, and at night he went to study at the Academie Julien drawing the nude. But it is at this time begins to receive regular movie theaters, with a growing interest in the potential of the moving image.
"I lived in Paris until August 1914. I remember that in those days no one really believed in a war between France and Germany. I was sitting in a small cafe in Montmartre with some friends when someone came running in, 'Jaures a murderess par camelot du roi'. It was the beginning of the end ". On August 5, Lang runs back to Vienna and opened his own studio, but was soon enlisted in the army for a year. During the war, is an officer, wounded several times and get some medaglia. Durante le sue degenza negli ospedali militari comincia a scrivere per il cinema: “Un film di lupi mannari che non riuscii a vendere e poi due sceneggiature, Die Hochzeit im Excentricclub e Hilde Warren und der Tod , che vendetti entrambe a Joe May, all’epoca un noto produttore e regista berlinese”. Quando il film tratto dalla prima viene finalmente distribuito, Lang resta molto deluso dal fatto di non essere citato fra gli autori - e giudica per giunta che la realizzazione della storia da lui concepita sia molto lontana da quella che aveva immaginato: “Penso di aver deciso allora, nel subconscio, che sarei diventato un regista cinematografico”.
But there are still some way to go. In 1918, after an injury that occurred on the Italian front, Lang is now declared unfit for further duties on the frontline and discharged. After two months in hospital, he was allowed to spend their days around Vienna, provided that fits within eight in the evening. One afternoon in a cafe, someone comes up to him and offer him the hand of a lieutenant in a play entitled Der Hias . Lang accepts (1000 Crown alleged that instead of the 800 they gave me ") and the choice is particularly lucky in one of the representations is noticed by producer Erich Pommer, who offered him a contract with the Decla (the production company he founded Just two years earlier) and invited him to Berlin.
For Lang, the experience is exciting despite the gains are very scarce. Pommer to work first as a player and then as a writer of screenplays on his own, but to supplement the revenue participation as an actor in three films written by him (her roles are, respectively, "a German courier, an old priest and Death" ) until the day he gets the job of shooting his first film as director, Halbblut , a drama of love shot in just five days, followed immediately from the analogous Der Herr der Liebe , the first the thriller Die Spinnen (the episode was entitled Der Goldene See ) and finally Hara Kiri, a reduction of the classic Madama Butterfly. Pommer is at this point that suggests the young director a person entitled des Doktor Caligari, Das kabineta . Lang reads it carefully and then feel a producer: "Erich, the public will not understand anything about a film such expressions, with distorted perspectives, etc, unless you put a scene at the beginning of the film with two people talking in the normal way in setting realistic so that the public is aware from the outset that the story is told by a madman. " Although the author's original screenplay is absolutely contrary opinion, the manufacturer accepts the idea with enthusiasm, only that Lang is a victim of its own success: "The owners of the rooms had a lot of money with the first episode of Die Spinnen who immediately wanted a second. So Caligari Pommer was forced to take off so I could finish the series. " Thus the title of German parent is directed by Robert Wiene, while Lang is dedicated to Das Schiff Brillanten - and despite the commercial success of this second and final part of series Die Spinnen , it's no wonder that at the end of his contract with Pommer the director decides not to renew it. Accepts, however, an offer from Joe May - with whom he worked for some time a popular writer named Thea von Harbou.
In 1918, the year Lang was discharged from the army, the Von Harbou had with the publisher Ullstein Verlag published a novel called Das Indische Grabmal that quickly turned out to be a great success - and instructs May Lang work with you to bring out a screenplay. A convict labor: the encounter with the writer of the thirties film is a stroke of lightning whose effects are manifested simultaneously on an artistic and personal. Married since 1914 to actor Rudolf Klein-Rogge, the Von Harbou it will separate very early and, after divorcing in 1921, will become a year after Mrs. Lang Not before, however, that Joe May has, for the second time , dealt with the director a new and even more bitterly disappointed.
"Me and Mrs. Von Harbou worked on the script and the theme was extended to become a two-part film (...). When we finished the script - I'll never forget - I and Mrs. Von Harbou we went to Joe May, who began to read it. Gave it to his wife, Mia May, and her daughter read it and rilessero everyone. E lui disse: "È fantastica, magnifica - magnifica". Mi chiamava Fritzska - perché, non lo so. Così io e la signora Von Harbou tornammo a casa molto contenti. Tre giorni più tardi lei venne da me e mi disse: "Fritz, ho delle notizie molto brutte per te". Io chiesi quali fossero e lei rispose: "Per venire subito al sodo: non puoi girare questo film". "Perché no?", dissi io. E lei: "Joe May mi ha detto che la banca non gli darebbe i soldi se lo dirigessi tu, perché sei un regista troppo giovane per un film così costoso". Era una bugia. Perché in realtà il signor Joe May era convinto che questo film sarebbe stato un grande successo e voleva dirigerlo lui stesso. Non potevo fare niente - il film was finished for me. " As you can imagine, the partnership with Joe Lang May runs out very soon and the director back to work for Erich Pommer directing Destiny (Der Tod Müde, 1921) Von Harbou screenplay, a film that became his first great personal success. "But not right away," Lang recalled, "When it was first shown in Berlin critics, for reasons that have never been able to understand, tried to kill the film. One of them said that the film makes the viewer to look tired, "an obvious reference to the film's title, literally translated as Death tired. To save the career of the director with decades of advance on the rediscovery del periodo americano di Lang da parte dei Cahiers du Cinéma , è la critica francese: “Dopo due settimane fu ritirato dalle sale di Berlino: ma uscì poi a Parigi e altrove ricevendo le recensioni più incredibili. Uno dei critici francesi scrisse: "Questa è la Germania che un tempo amavamo" - tutto questo subito dopo la Prima Guerra Mondiale, ricordate. Poi il film fu ridistribuito in Germania e divenne un successo mondiale”.
Nella versione originale diretta da Joe May, il Maharaja di Eschnapur è interpretato da Conrad Veidt, uno dei divi più celebri del cinema tedesco di allora (oggi ricordato soprattutto per aver interpretato in Casablanca il nazista maggiore Strasser - destino ironico per un attore che si era trasferito negli Stati Uniti proprio in segno di rifiuto per l’avvento di Adolf Hitler). Un architetto europeo viene da lui convocato in India per fabbricare un tempio più grande del Taj Mahal - ma ben presto scopre che questo ambizioso monumento dovrà servire a seppellire viva l’amante infedele del committente. Girato interamente in Germania, il film viene distribuito in due parti per via della lunghezza (i titoli degli episodi sono Die Sendung des Yoghi , “la missione dello yogi”, e Das Indische Grabmal ) e sembra ispirarsi a modelli decisamente alti, come spiegano Meenakshi Shedde e Vinzenz Hediger nel saggio Come On, Baby, Be My Tiger - Inventing India on the German Screen in Der Tiger von Eschnapur and Das indische Grabmal . Il film, a loro dire, “fa pensare in modo inquietante a un’opera di Richard Wagner in termini di ritmo e dell’accento che pone sui tormenti emotivi dei personaggi piuttosto che sull’azione fisica – per non dire della fidanzata dell’architetto che ha l’aspetto di un’eroina wagneriana, una Valchiria bionda e tarchiata”.
Non che si tratti di un salto interpretativo rivoluzionario, soprattutto se si pensa che nemmeno tre anni più tardi il duo Lang/Von Harbou dichiara, in buona sostanza, i propri modelli realizzando il dittico I Nibelunghi (Die Nibelungen, 1924; i due episodi si intitolano Siegfried e Kriemhilds Rache , “Sigfrido” e “La vendetta di Crimilde”). Ma quello wagneriano è un modello che si perde in gran parte in un primo remake del Sepolcro indiano realizzato già nel 1938 da Richard Eichberg e che, a differenza della versione precedente, si gira in India a Udaipur, nel Rajasthan. La trama si complica notevolmente con maggior attenzione alle scene spettacolari, l’aggiunta di personaggi russi, di una scimmia bevitrice di whisky e qualche notevole modifica negli snodi narrativi. Se nel primo film l’architetto veniva convocato in India da uno yogi specifically raised by the maharaja (hence the title of the first of two episodes), here we meet the more prosaically, the plane that is bringing it to your destination and it is clear that the message was delivered with the traditional media of the era of telecommunications. The task for which the maharaja has called, among other things, is no longer the erection of a temple of love lost but a model city. As for the final, lover sentenced to a premature burial does not end as a suicide in the previous version, but manages to escape with her lover. The choice to shoot on location did not appear impressed cast members. In interviews of the time you read statements to this effect: "It was terribly difficult to work with the people there (...) They work like snails and some of the natives were so stupid that we would first train a dog." In addition, some members of the crew complained about the fact that it was impossible to shoot scenes with women who were bathing because the director did not allow the touch. Comments where you feel the item too racist ideology that has been launched by Germany towards a future disaster and trigger, predictably, a controversy that begins with an article about India's Film Baburao Patel: "In total arrogance national pride and power of a newly conquered, the modern German has become blind to the subtlety of the feelings that distinguishes the best of human beings ... The Tiger of Eschnapur , is simply a despicable film that at this moment does the dirty work in European countries defaming and ridiculing the Indians before the world ... In the spirit and essence is anti-Indian. "
almost unnecessary to note that, as far as we know, Eichberg of the film was never distributed in the Indian market. What should be stressed however is that when the movie comes out in Germany, Lang's life has a long way. It's the same director to tell, in his autobiographical notes, the episode that made him decide to leave the country, and that occurs some time after the banning of his The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (Das Testament des Dr, Mabuse, 1932) , in which the director and his screenwriter had put in his mouth to proclaim Nazis eponymous supervillain: "I was summoned by Goebbels, as I feared, to be called to account for the film, but to my surprise to hear that the Reich Minister of Propaganda asking me to accept the position of Supreme Director German film industry. " Lang, who on his mother knows he does not belong to the pure Aryan race courted, he points to Goebbels to be part jew, but it freezes the answer: "Herr Lang: but we we decide who is jew." The reaction of the director, not just laid off from his powerful host, it was almost instantaneous: "I left Germany that night. With Goebbels The interview lasted from noon to 14.30 and hour banks had closed and I could not withdraw money. I had just enough to buy a ticket to Paris and arrived at the Gare du Nord virtually penniless. "
In Paris, Erich Pommer and Lang found, obtained a work permit, he realizes with Liliom for Fox before accepting a contract with MGM and moved United States. But unlike her husband, Thea von Harbou decided to stay in Germany instead of embracing the cause of National Socialism - which can only put an end to marriage which is the artistic collaboration. Space does not permit here to dwell on the parallel development of their careers. In a sort of fast forward on Von Harbou, is worth to note that once separated from her husband, the writer will go in person to the director (finding, inter alia, to direct her first husband, Rudolf Klein-Rogge, however, already starred in several films of the same face and Lang, among other things, his aforementioned Dr. Mabuse). Participation in a personal capacity production of various film propaganda, does not facilitate the career after the war, without bringing it to a real professional marginalization. For tragic fatality, the indirect cause of the untimely death of the writer will be that first hit film Lang made after the betrayal of Joe May: in 1954, attending a screening in honor of Destiny , the Von Harbou accidentally falls and suffers a trauma that leads quickly to death.
As for Lang, although none of his American films have titles such as the scope of Metropolis (1926) or M, il mostro di Düsseldorf (M, 1931) , riesce nonostante le immaginabili avversità ad affermarsi anche a Hollywood come regista di prodotti di serie A, procurandosi rapidamente una fama di perfezionista incontentabile e, per qualcuno, addirittura temibile. In vent’anni, il regista realizza importanti titoli di impegno sociale come Furia (Fury, 1936) , noir memorabili quali La donna del ritratto (The Woman in the Window, 1944) , western, film polizieschi e spy-stories. Per due decenni, Lang mantiene all’interno dell’industria americana una voce quasi sempre personale, riuscendo spesso ad aggirare o addirittura ribaltare le convenzioni e stereotypes of gender in which they ventured. Until, after a couple of work made difficult by his relationship with RKO, said she'd had enough and be willing to explore new avenues.
is one of them to bring it back to the East. Lotte Eisner recalls that "in 1956, Lang urged the Indian government in India to make a movie. The project was centered on the maharaja of the 17th century who built the Taj Mahal in memory of his beloved. Lang abandoned the project when it became clear that the Indian ideal of beauty was completely different from Europe, so the casting became a big problem. This stay of several weeks, However, it was a great help later for his German films set in India. " The occasion does not hesitate for long: the German producer Arthur Brauner, director of CCC Films has acquired the rights to the original script Das Indische Grabmal and propose to the director complete creative freedom, a more than decent budget and the possibility to shoot on location . Lang agrees with some enthusiasm, perhaps attracted by the idea to take finally revenge on the theft of Joe May, perhaps to return at the end of his career, a story that brings him back to the years of her invincible youth.
Just as the original directed by May, this third version of the story comes on the screen divided into two parts - and the perceived desire for Lang to make up almost naive adventure of many years ago, the concept of serial and taste for the return of narrative conclusion the next episode, all but means much more substantial benefit of color, mostly real locations and four decades of experience. Operation, to think of it, which anticipates more than twenty films like Raiders of the Lost (Raiders of the Lost Ark, 1981) but that most critics are not willing to endorse. Overall, the film is judged by German press of the time anachronistic and without interest - completely ignoring the fact that the reference to the nostalgic past is the main essence. But beyond the nostalgia for the sentiments perhaps naive film before the war, evasion of taste end in itself, the evergreen appeal of exoticism, the connoisseurs of cinema in the film by Lang were able to appreciate the taste for set design, the reference to issues already appeared in the past (the scene in the cave of lepers, creatures that closely resemble the workers reduced to automatons Metropolis and, curiously, also anticipate a decade of the Living Dead George A. Romero ) which, to quote Robin Wood, are "implemented with a purity of line and an economy of means learned in Hollywood. "
the negative reaction of the reviewers of the time, Lang somehow had to be prepared if, in an interview in 1959 in Jacques Rivette and Jean Domarchi for Cahiers du Cinéma (the magazine in which for the first American cinema of the time Lang had been a bit 'of serious critical attention) said: "Critics are too sophisticated now and prefer to ignore the fact that we really love a woman and she is fighting for something important and necessary. While preparing for Eschnapur The tiger, I had a discussion with my dialogue because I wanted to say al Maharaja: "Se mi date la vostra parola d’onore, vi lascerò libero nel mio palazzo". E lui mi ha risposto: "Stammi a sentire, il pubblico si metterà a ridere. Al giorno d’oggi, la parola di un uomo non vale niente". È triste, bisogna ammetterlo”. Ma se questa consapevolezza non poteva certo bastare per guadagnare al film l’approvazione della critica, almeno il pubblico reagì favorevolmente, tanto che Brauner convinse Lang a un altro revival, producendogli Il diabolico dottor Mabuse (Die tausend Augen des Dr. Mabuse, 1960) . Per Lang, questi ritorni al passato avevano, fra l’altro, motivazioni di strategia professionale che sulla carta appaiono validissime ma which, unfortunately, would prove futile: "I did those films because they were important but because I hoped that if I made a big commercial success for someone I had the opportunity again - as I had had with M - to work without restrictions. It was my mistake. " In fact, the last return of Dr. Mabuse also marked the final conclusion of Lang's career as a director.
Around 1960, recalls Lotte Eisner, "in Lang was offered the opportunity to shoot two more films set in India. However, projects were eventually abandoned when the Italian manufacturer insisted on certain changes to the script despite the contract with Lang guaranteed the director complete artistic control "*. But apparently fate had decided otherwise and Lang would not return behind the camera. It would instead appear in the part of himself in the film Contempt (Contempt, 1963) Jean-Luc Godard, filming a bizarre version of the Odyssey.
Outside of Germany, Eschnapur of The Tiger and The tomb Indian fared pretty well at the box office despite some accident of course. In the U.S., the diptych suffered the same fate at the time the two parts of the version Joe May: two films lasting about one hour and forty each, the distributor American International I get one from a little over an hour and a half, redubbed and summarily dealt with under Journey to the Lost City (Journey to the Lost City). In Italy, things went a bit 'better, even if the complaint Democrat lightened here and there the more daring scenes depriving the spectators, among other things, much of the spectacular dance sexy Debra Paget in front of the cobra. The restored edition that you are holding the movie back to its original splendor, restoring the deleted scenes and offering adventurous film a real missing link between the Classical and the Postmodern.
Alberto Farina
* "The film would Kaly Yung covered the largest criminal conspiracy of Indian history, the brotherhood of the Thugs. Over ten million innocent travelers had been strangled with rumal , a curiously knotted handkerchief on the corners, presumably in honor of the bloodthirsty goddess Kali, to rob them of valuables. The fact that also belonged to this secret organization Mahradschahs and other high-level authorities made English even more difficult to eradicate the evil cult. Set in 1875, the film centers on a young doctor who runs a clinic to treat cholera. When his Sikh disappear during a mission to provide supplies, ask a guest to investigate but this, a sick old man who does not want trouble, he refuses. The matter is further complicated when the doctor discovers that the girl he loved in England was already old wife. Is guilty of murder at the hands of thug and suspicions are directed to the doctor. In an attempt to exculpate these starts to investigate himself with an Indian friend (a dancer leads by Thug) and ends up involved in various adventures. Her love and understanding for India prevail, the thug is murdered and his name rehabilitated. "(Eisner)
The full name of Dreamworks - the mini-major founded by Spielberg more than a decade ago and, recently absorbed by Universal, is "Dreamworks SKG". In this acronym, Jeffrey Katzenberg is the "K" (the "S" is the director of Duel, of course, while the "G" is David Geffen, tycoon discography) e all'epoca della fondazione qualcuno aveva fatto notare che, dei tre soci fondatori, fosse l'unico che non portava in dote un capitale miliardario ma solo il talento dimostrato negli anni passati alla Disney, dove aveva avuto un ruolo determinante (sia pure, da qualcuno, ridimensionato rispetto a quel che si diceva in giro) nel rilancio del cinema d'animazione sul finire degli anni Ottanta. A Katzenberg si attribuisce in gran parte la responsabilità della doppia svolta avvenuta con La sirenetta - il film con cui la Disney uscì dalla crisi che ne attanagliava da tempo la produzione di lungometraggi animati, riaprendo il mercato, da tempo ridottosi a quello dei ragazzini, anche al pubblico degli adolescenti e degli adulti - And the cornerstone of Who Framed Roger Rabbit . 
With "DreamWorks' Katzenberg has alternating high and low - nothing revolutionary, in fact, but at least two sets of overwhelming success as Shrek and Madagascar and average production is more than adequate. And now, with Monsters vs. Aliens , which appeared in our country on April 3rd (just a week after the U.S. release) is launched on the market with the decision of three-dimensional cinema, swears, is the future of cinema itself. Is it true? Of course, less than sixty years since its first mass-market debut in film (the film was Bwana Devil , 1952), 3D seems to have achieved thanks to digital quality can compensate for the discomfort of viewing with the infamous glasses - which, moreover, have become sophisticated enough to reduce almost to zero in the past complained of discomfort from some viewers. 
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Trovo che sia più interessante il fatto che fra tanti cambiamenti sia rimasto invariata l’importanza capitale del modo di raccontare. Gli strumenti e i mezzi sono passati attraverso una quantità incredibile di cambiamenti e innovazioni - ciò che la tecnologia offre continuamente di nuovo ai narratori è stupefacente, ci sono stati cambiamenti mozzafiato. E questo è vero nell’animazione molto più che nel cinema dal vero. Keep up with all this is a big investment but it also offers immense opportunity - every time someone sees one of our films there is always something that drives us to say "Wow, these people continue to raise" ... and it is so for fifteen years. And when I ask what can we expect for the future I say "more." The future is more . 
The 3-D exists in several versions, for quite some time - but this is perhaps the first time that many filmmakers series A show a real interest in this technology. What, in the past two or three years, pushing many directors to overcome the obstacles that until now had always stopped the spread of three-dimensional cinema? 
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Three out of four monster characters are virtually identical to the SF American cinema of the fifties - the monster from the Black Lagoon, the 50-foot tall woman and the blob - another is clearly inspired by the scientist of The Fly. The subject had characters like the originals or from the beginning the idea was to take inspiration from them without them directly? 
