From his home in Rome, Vittorio Storaro ““ the Oscar-winning cinematographer of films such as “Last Tango in Paris,” “Apocalypse Now,” “Reds” and “Dick Tracy” ““ takes time to talk with the Daily Bruin’s Jake Ayres about his career and his newest effort, “Caravaggio,” an Italian film about the life of the famous painter. The film, which is not yet scheduled for an American release, screens tonight at 7:30 at the James Bridges Theater.
Daily Bruin: What got you into cinematography?
Vittorio Storaro: Practically, I am a kind of continuation of the dream of my father. My father was a film projectionist in a very big company in Italy. And of course in screening so many films, definitely he was dreaming to be part of the film (industry). So he pushed me to go to film school in Italy. And of course I was very young; I didn’t realize what photography or cinematography really means. But step by step, it got into me ““ it became my own dream.
DB: Your cinematic trademark seems to be your use of shadow. There’s a great shot in “Apocalypse Now” where the audience sees General Kurtz full-on for the first time, but you can’t really see his face because a shadow is obscuring it. Was that a conscious decision?
VS: Cinema, particularly, is different from any other art. Cinema today is the combination of every other art. Once I realized that, I felt personally that there are two main elements in front of me: light and darkness. And I realize I have to (relate the) two of them; there is not a monologue, but there is a dialogue between these two elements. The sequence in “Apocalypse Now” with Marlon Brando in darkness … at that time, my feeling was … that light is consciousness, and darkness is the opposite. We cannot see him in normal light, because at that moment, that character was really a major symbol of the dark side of what humanity has in itself when it imposes itself on top of another culture.
DB: In the United States, cinematographers are now commonly called “directors of photography.” Do you feel that the new title is more or less appropriate?
VS: Particularly in America ”“ it really starts in America. And (to) my knowledge, it was 1949 when the American society of cinematographers … changed the way they should be addressed to “directors of photography.” To me, it was a major mistake. … Cinema is a common work, it’s not a single work. It’s like an orchestra ““ there’s only one conductor. In the movie … the need to have only one director (is assumed). There was some kind of arrogance, in my opinion, from our side to say, “We also are directors. You are directing the arc of the story, we are directing the photography.” It’s a major mistake.
Second … from the Greek language, “photo” means light, and “-graphy” means writing. So particularly, you’re expressing yourself, you’re writing light in only one single image. That’s why cinematography is much more correct (for) what we’re doing, because cinema means motion. We are narrating a story visually, starting from the beginning; we have a development, and we go to an end.
DB: What were your experiences with the works of Caravaggio prior to working on the film?
VS: One day I went into a little church in Rome. I was used to going to church not only for research purposes, but because church, in Europe particularly, is like an open museum. And I discover(ed) a little chapel where there were three paintings in a kind of style I never saw before. And I realized that the painter was called Caravaggio. There was particularly one painting called “The Calling of Saint Matthew” that really shocked me because in the (left side of the) painting there are two people sitting on the table, on the right side there are two people standing and pointing the finger at somebody sitting on the table, and on top of that, there is a beam of light, very strong, that is separating the painting into two parts. I (have never seen) the visualization of light like in that painting.
DB: You work with the relationship between still image and moving image in your upcoming movie, “Caravaggio.” What inspired you to take this film?
VS: I realize that that mark (in the painting) was really the division between the human and divine. I was so shocked that I said, “Oh my God, I need to know the meaning of that light” ““ how he was able to reach visually those strong feelings. So that’s why I started to know more and more and more. Finally, a few years ago, a producer, Ida Di Benedetto … pointed the finger to me, and I felt like St. Matthew, you know ““ “Is it me?” Yes they said, “You should take care of the cinematography of the movie that they want to do about this painter Caravaggio.” And I said, “Oh finally, it’s arrived.”
DB: Do you think you understand his paintings better after having shot the whole movie?
VS: I don’t know if (my understanding is) true, but it’s at least my interpretation. … Probably somebody else would do a completely different movie.
DB: How do you see parallels between Caravaggio’s use of light and your own?
VS: If you see the films that I (did) in 1971 or ’72 ““ I’m talking about 35 years ago ““ there is a lot of the feeling of Caravaggio paintings, and I didn’t know (that at the time). Caravaggio gave me the confirmation that the way I was seeing was making sense.