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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<strong>AIC</strong><br />
"La grande muraglia"<br />
cinese, in quanto, come membro<br />
di una troupe all'estero,<br />
sembravo più ricco <strong>della</strong><br />
popolazione locale. Una volta gli<br />
lasciai più denaro di quanto<br />
necessario, quasi per farmelo<br />
amico. Gli avevo anche regalato<br />
un orologio. Ma il lunedì<br />
seguente non lo vidi all'uscita.<br />
Pensai: "Mi ha fregato, i cinesi<br />
sono peggio degli altri... appena<br />
beccano qualcosa di più, non si<br />
fanno più vedere". Solo, dopo tre<br />
o quattro giorni lo rividi col suo<br />
rishiò: era buio in volto, molto<br />
sciupato. Seppi così che gli era<br />
morto il figlio. L'uomo me ne<br />
raccontò la storia conducendomi<br />
ad assistere al funerale del<br />
bimbo cinese.<br />
Fu uno spettacolo straziante che<br />
to him, and he had wanted to invite me in and show me where he lived:<br />
however he was so poor that he didn't have any tea. The only thing he<br />
had was water, and he had heated some for me to show me his generosity<br />
and friendship.<br />
Almost certainly, that poor family had used the last of their oil to heat the<br />
water, and had to make do with a cold supper that evening.<br />
This, my first contact with the people of China, gave me the possibility of<br />
comparing our two systems of behaviour. Just think, if a Chinese had<br />
leant up against the wall of a house in Sicily... he would have been shot<br />
And even though they might not have shot him in the Veneto district, they<br />
certainly wouldn't have invited him in!<br />
After this experience, I began, to study all the Chinese with whom I came<br />
in contact, in an attempt to understand their character.<br />
When I left my hotel in Peking, I was always followed by about eight or<br />
ten children The shop assistants were always eager to help me. I had also<br />
made friends with one of the rickshaw bearers who take you on tours of<br />
the city, and found him waiting for me two or three times on. the trot<br />
I always gave him some Chinese currency as, being a member of a<br />
foreign film crew, I seemed to have more money than the locals. Once I<br />
gave him more than was really necessary, in the hope that he might<br />
become my friend I had also given him a watch The following Monday,<br />
he wasn't waiting for me outside the hotel, and I thought to myself<br />
"Fooled again.. The Chinese are worse than all the rest., as soon as you<br />
give them a little bit more, they vanish". It was not until three or four<br />
days later, that he reappeared, with his rickshaw, outside the hotel. He<br />
looked awful, and his face was very drawn I could see immediately that<br />
something terrible had happenend, and he told me that his small son<br />
had died He recounted the story, as I accompanied him to the funeral.<br />
ti fa piangere per dieci giorni.<br />
Il padre si carica sulle spalle la<br />
cassa che s'è costruito da solo.<br />
La porta a seppelire vicino a<br />
casa. Gli amici e i parenti hanno<br />
intanto costruito di carte o di<br />
legno i giocattoli più ambiti dal<br />
piccolo morto, tutto quello che<br />
pensano il bimbo potrebbe aver<br />
desiderato nella vita: un cavallo,<br />
una valigetta, una bambola, ecc.<br />
Tutti questi oggetti sono posti<br />
sulla tomba e dati alle fiamme in<br />
modo che il fuoco porti in cielo<br />
quei doni <strong>della</strong> vita terrena.<br />
Queste immagini struggenti mi<br />
hanno ancora di più legato al<br />
popolo cinese.<br />
A Shangai sostammo per oltre<br />
due mesi senza girare un solo<br />
metro di pellicola. In questa<br />
occasione io vissi sempre coi<br />
cinesi. La nostra troupe era<br />
divisa in due, noi e i cinesi. Io<br />
stavo coi cinesi, mangiavo coi<br />
cinesi, passeggiavo coi cinesi.<br />
Era nata un'amicizia<br />
indissolubile.<br />
In quel soggiorno ho potuto<br />
notare come funzionavano i<br />
treni a Shangai. La stazione giace<br />
nel centro <strong>della</strong> città e dista dalla<br />
periferia sei o sette chilometri.<br />
Prima di entrare in città il treno<br />
si ferma e i macchinisti<br />
scendono dalla locomotiva, che è<br />
sempre una di quelle enormi<br />
macchine americane a quattro<br />
cilindri, come i vecchi treni del<br />
West. Di fronte alle piccole ruote<br />
anteriori veniva applicata una<br />
tavola imbottita di materassi.<br />
Il viaggio riprendeva quindi<br />
lentamente verso la stazione e il<br />
treno impiegava anche un'ora e<br />
mezzo per coprire i sei, sette<br />
chilometri necessari.<br />
I macchinisti stavano affacciati e<br />
dalla locomotiva urlavano alla<br />
gente di scostarsi. Ogni tanto<br />
fermavano il convoglio e<br />
raccoglievano un maiale, delle<br />
galline, un bambino, che si erano<br />
parati davanti. Li sollevavano<br />
dolcemente e li spostavano ai<br />
lati. Una scena di un'umanità<br />
indescrivibile ma che, purtroppo,<br />
non fu possibile riprendere<br />
perché esclusa dal copione.<br />
In conclusione posso dire che<br />
quando si abbia un minimo di<br />
sensibilità, la fotografia non può<br />
prescindere da quello che è la<br />
storia del mondo in quel<br />
particolare momento. Che senso<br />
ha fare una "bella" fotografia?<br />
Non son mai riuscito a capire<br />
cosa ciò significhi!<br />
La mia fotografia, per modesta<br />
che sia, è sempre frutto del<br />
The little ceremony was so heart-rending, it made you want to weep for<br />
ever! The father himself carried the small coffin, that he had made with<br />
his own hands, on his shoulder. Meanwhile, relatives and friends had<br />
fashioned, either from wood or paper, all the toys they thought the small<br />
boy would have wished for, had he lived: a doll, a horse, a little case etc.<br />
These objects were placed on the grave and then set fire to, so that the<br />
flames might carry the terrestrial gifts to his spirit in the sky. This<br />
extraordinarily moving scene created an even closer bond between<br />
myself and the Chinese.<br />
We then moved onto Shanghai, where we stayed for two months without<br />
shooting a single foot of film Here, I actually lived with the Chinese. The<br />
film crew was divided into two camps: Italian ad Chinese. I threw in my<br />
lot with the Chinese, I ate with the Chinese, even went for walks with the<br />
Chinese. An incredible friendship had been born!<br />
While I was in Shanghai, I was able to see how the trains functioned The<br />
railway station itself, is located in the centre of the city, about six or<br />
seven kilometres from the outskirts. When the train arrives outside<br />
Shanghai, it makes a brief stop, and the engineers jump down from the<br />
locomotive, which is always one of those enormous four-cylinder<br />
American engines — like the trains of the wild West. It was at this point<br />
that a wooden board, padded with mattresses, was fixed onto the front of<br />
the train<br />
The train then continued slowly on its way to the station, taking about an<br />
hour and a half to cover the six or seven kilometres!<br />
The engineers would lean out of the engine, yelling to the people to move<br />
out of the way. Every so often, they stopped the train, to gather up a pig,<br />
some chickens or a young child that had wandered onto the tracks, which<br />
they picked up very gently, and carefully placed to one side, out of harm's