Dallo studioso Giuliano Vivaldi, impegnato sia nel Regno Unito che in Russia, riceviamo e pubblichiamo volentieri la testimonianza sul cineasta Pasolini di Nick Broomfield, uno dei più importanti registi inglesi di docu-film (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Broomfield).
Nick Broomfield, quando era ancora un giovane studente di cinema, ebbe modo di conoscere Pasolini mentre girava in Inghilterra I Racconti di Canterbury. Da lì un ricordo che dà testimonianza non solo del backstage di quel film, ma anche dell’ammirazione che da allora Broomfield nutrì per l’intellettuale-regista italiano e per il modo inimitabile del suo lavoro sul set.
Sul set de “I racconti di Canterbury”
Un ricordo di Nick Broomfield
Pasolini was directing Canterbury Tales, just outside Bath, when I met him in 1971. I had come uninvited as a student of the National Film School, but Pasolini was immediately open and insisted I accompany him over the next few days as he found locations, cast actors, and directed scenes.
It surprised me how he took so much trouble to explain to me, a film student, what he was doing. He was making Canterbury Tales, he said, because he wanted to make some commercially successful films that would get a bigger audience.
He cast people for the way they looked. We went into an unemployment office, where he chose a woman because one eye was permanently crying.
Pasolini was his own cameraman. It was all hand held 35mm with post syncing.
There was chaos on the set. All the actors he normally used, Franco Citti, Laura Betti, Ninetto Davoli, were hanging around on the set, eating the food that was supposed to be props. It was only when Pasolini himself shouted “Motore”, that the chaos died down. His set had an incredible electricity and anarchy about it. He cast the three villains with three actual thugs who I remember stubbing out their cigarettes on the horses. I remember Pasolini being enthralled and fascinated by their violence and craziness, and it gave the film a tension that I have never seen before.
I admired him, he was an incredible inspiration and a very generous man. We were in touch until he died. I had originally been attracted to the writings and intellectual film making background of Pasolini, but probably have been much more influenced by watching him working in his spontaneous and completely unique way.
