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