ITALIANA - AIC Associazione Italiana Autori della Fotografia ...

S ob HO memoria
AICVITTORIO
•
dell 'immagine
"Il conformista" Come i tempi della vita, come le
stagioni della natura, come le
fasi dell'età dell'Uomo, la storia
di un'opera cinematografica
passa attraverso le varie
condizioni di: ideazione,
realizzazione, divulgazione,
conservazione.
Tutte porzioni di un unico
corpo, di una materia soggetta
Just as life has its various phases, the Age of Man has its different
periods, and Nature has its changing seasons, so the "life" of a
Cinematographic Work passes through a number of stages: Conception,
Realization, Divulgation and Conservation.
All of which are parts of a single work, created in a material subject to
Nature's laws and, therefore, to the modifications of time... "Nature
neither creates nor destroys; it merely transforms".
The Cinematographic Image which is so much a part of our
consciousness when we conceive it, realize it and divulge it, which is so
much before our eyes, and in our consciousness, up until this point,
suddenly becomes part of our past, something we leave behind us,
removed from us, which slips into our unconscious. Strangely enough, we
no longer concern ourselves with it, and it ceases to interest us, even from
the point of view of its Conservation. We imagine that someone else will
take care of this, or it will take care of itself. Unfortunately, this is not the
case.
The day I became consciously aware (thanks to what Martin Scorsese had
to say on the subject) that the colour images we put so much effort into
visualizing, composing and realizing are, in reality, far less permanent
than we imagine, I actually experienced something of a shock, followed
by a tremendous feeling of anxiety and transience that took hold of me
completely; so much so, that it turned the cinematographic dream I was
living at that moment, into a nightmare. I realized, to my horror, that all
the colour images I had helped to create, expending a great deal of
energy while I lived, thought, and even slept, were proceeding
unrelentingly on their journey of transformation, modification and
decomposition, to the extent that they were continually fading, and would
gradually vanish
alle leggi naturali della
modificazione nel tempo... "in
natura, nulla si crea, nulla si
distrugge, ma tutto si trasforma".
L'immagine cinematografica così
tanto facente parte del nostro
cosciente nell'atto di idearla,
nell'atto di realizzarla, nell'atto di
divulgarla, così presente davanti
ai nostri occhi, davanti alla
nostra coscienza sino a questo
specifico punto, viene poi
improvvisamente a far parte del
nostro passato, lasciata alle
nostre spalle, come rimossa,
posta nel nostro inconscio.
Curiosamente non ce ne
occupiamo più, non ci interessa
più nemmeno come viene
conservata; stranamente
pensiamo che qualcun altro lo
faccia per noi o essa stessa lo
faccia da sola. E purtroppo non è
così.
Il giorno in cui realizzai
coscientemente (grazie alle
specifiche dichiarazioni sul caso
di Martin Scorsese) che le
immagini a colori che tanto ci
affanniamo a visualizzare, a
comporre, a realizzare, erano e
sono in realtà molto più
temporanee di quanto la
immaginazione potesse
prevedere, ebbi un certo
sussulto, mi arrivò addosso uno
stato di angoscia e di
provvisorietà che mi prese per
tutto il corpo; mi cambiò
addirittura lo stato di sogno
cinematografico in cui a
quell'epoca vivevo,
trasformandolo in stato di
incubo. Tutte le immagini a
colori cui avevo collaborato,
spendendo tante energie della
mia vita, proprio mentre vivevo,
pensavo o dormivo,
proseguivano imperterrite un
Up until then, I had always been more or less aware that the positive
prints of our Films faded with time because of their continually being
run through a projector, but I had never ever imagined that the colours of
the Original Negative, the matrix of our desires, dreams, pleasure and
pain could slowly fade away.
I had always thought it was well-protected, wrapped in special envelopes,
placed in well-sealed cans, which were stacked in neat piles, on sturdy
shelves in the Cinema archives, where the Memory of our Cinema is
stored and preserved.
I also believe that, like me, almost all the people directly concerned with
the "life" of a Cinematographic work (producers, directors, co-authors,
distributors, critics etc.) never have had any idea, and perhaps the
majority of them still don't, that all colour photographic and film
material is perishable, and inevitably destined to vanish into the mists
of time.
At whatever temperature, degree of humidity, or in whatever state of
isolation a negative is stored, it will always be subject to Fading, which
cannot be stopped but can be slowed down, but only by strictly adhering
to the standards and instructions supplied by the companies that
manufacture film.
Unfortunately, this kind of technical advice is hardly ever followed to the
letter, either due to motives of speculation or profit, ignorance or sheer
indifference.
Producers of Italian Films have always abandoned their original
negatives in the printing and developing laboratory warehouses where
they are stored, without ever bothering to make the smallest financial
contribution to their being kept under the proper conditions.
Even as I write, the Colour Images of all the Films produced up until now,