(Photos and video gallery on https://www.instagram.com/charlie_curtis/)
On the third day in Rome, I’ve practically dedicated all my time to the Master. It’s a good thing that last night I had the scruple of trying to see if there was an open spot at the press conference so I could enjoy it up close.
The conference is at 1 pm, so in the morning I have time to get up calmly and write. I knew that this reportage would become a slavery, but when one has the writing bone there’s nothing you can do. I take my breakfast to my room and roll it out the second day on digital paper. Learned the lesson of the day before, I dress lighter and by 12:45 I am in the auditorium. There is obviously ferment in the air, but at least we’re able to enter on time.
Without further ado, Quentin Tarantino makes his entrance… And I feel like a fan girl, I even get a little weepy and I still don’t realize that there is no screen that separates us: it’s right there, 5/6 meters from me and as much as he’s not a handsome man, he’s really cool! The conference is super interesting, he talks fast but it’s easy for me to follow. He tells a lot of interesting things: about his writing process, about his love for cinema and about his book “Once upon a time in Hollywood”, that expands the universe exhibited in his latest film.
Quentin is quite a big man, with that pointed chin that distinguishes him and the LA-original talking. I am very impressed by the acuteness of his dialectics, the cunningness, the enthusiasm in his stories and the sincere honesty with which he reflects on the questions asked to him. Thanking God, he does not speak of the much feared retreat, he simply says that he does not know what will be his next film. When the questions are finished, I am caught unprepared by the horde of young people who rush towards the stage for autographs… But he doesn’t say no and so I throw myself into the turmoil… Failing miserably the enterprise! I was so enthusiast from what I just heard and seen that I didn’t really consider the possibility.
I get out of there like floating… What an experience!!! I stay in the Film Festival Village to eat a typical sandwich with Porchetta d’Ariccia (spit-roasted pork). I chat with a couple, he’s an actor, she’s beautiful and kind, both Romans, very chatty and nice. They’re the first people I’ve had the chance to converse with since I’ve been here, networking isn’t as easy as I’d hoped.
I have about 3-4 hours before tonight’s event, but I have no idea what to do. I had considered visiting the City Zoo but, when I arrive there, they tell me that it is not worth entering this late ’cause at 5 pm they start to close everything. The visit lasts about 3 hours and it is already 3.45 pm. So, 10 € worth of taxi wasted away -_-. Anyway, I decide to go back to the hotel. But since I have time to fuck around, I decide to understand how the scooters work. Rome is dotted with these electric scooters, at least 6/7 different brands minimum, which anyone can take and leave where he wants through an app.
More or less the rates are 1€ at departure plus 0.25 cents per minute. So, let’s try it!
Aaaaand no, I really suck on the scooter! After fifteen minutes to understand how the fuck it works, in the 600 m or less in which I use it, I almost get hit as soon as I start, kill myself in a hole and understand that I’m really no longer able to go on a scooter. I’ve spent 2.75€ on this bullshit. I leave the scooter and take the bus.
Almost arrived at the B&B, my friend Simi calls me Simi from Canada and keeps me company until it’s time to get ready again to go out.
As scheduled, this evening I flash my most studied outfit. I go again to enjoy the Red Carpet, the auditorium this time is super crowded.
Around 7.30 pm, on the pressing notes of “Don’t let me be misunderstood”, Quentin finally arrives on the Red Carpet, accompanied by his beautiful wife Daniela Pick, full black for him, white dress for her.
Now, the famous Santa Esmeralda’s song (which is an integral part of the first Kill Bill’s soundtrack), lasts about 10 minutes, and he needs them all to arrive all the way down the Red Carpet and get under the Cavea Centrale, where I am. In the meantime, he was stopped by a myriad of journalists and when he gets to the photographers he just wants to enter! So he waves at them, does a pirouette and insists on entering: even he knows that we have waited long enough!
This time, I’m back in the gallery but on the far right of the theater and luckily not in the front row. The view is not bad on the stage, a little less on the screen, where they will pass a series of clips taken from his masterpieces. The questions are fortunately different from the ones in the morning, so a lot of other interesting stories, like the direct testimony of when Leonardo Dicaprio hurt his hand on the set of Django but he still continued to act. The reminiscence on the collaboration with the late Ennio Morricone was also very moving. And as a surprise, just before the award ceremony, here comes a congratulations video from Samuel L. Jackson, John Travolta and Christoph Waltz.
To give Quentin the career award, there is Dario Argento, and between the two it is difficult to understand who feels more honored than the other, in this exchange.
And this daydream, too, ends.
I take some sushi to take away and I retire in my quarters, tomorrow free everyone and you go to discover another bit of Rome…