All language subtitles for Man.Woman.and.Beast.Featurette

Warning: The following
documentary contains spoilers

'Surrealism Or Extremism'

I was working as a television
announcer when I met Alberto...

He was looking for an
actress for a commercial...

Commercials were great back then.

I made a commercial for
Dulciora with Alberto...

And one for San Pellegrino.

We met.
We liked each other...

So he split up with his girlfriend,
and I left my boyfriend...

And five months later we
got married.

A wonderful romance.

And then, not even nine months
later, we had a child together.

And we started to make films together.
I stopped working with other directors...

And I was his actress.

I was his assistant on 'Quickly'
(Spari e Baci a Colazione)

The shooting title was
'The Kid Who Made Vesuvius Erupt'.

It was a musical but they were going out
of fashion so he stopped working on it...

Then he utilised various scenes
to make 'Quickly...'

And I was his assistant.

Then, when he went back to it,
he asked me to do the photography...

And I gave up everything and
started working for Alberto.

Maurizio Centini introduced me
to him, many years ago.

And I got to know him because
Alberto loved old things...

I also worked in this field,
with antiques...

Also in the cinema.
We got on very well.

What can you say...

I thought he was a splendid person.

Can you give me a light?

Want to come back to my place?
I can give you something to eat.

Then we can listen to some records.

I'm not hungry.

How did Spell come about?
Well...

I moved my family to a
village called Caste Nuovo...

And, after five or six years of living
in this place, Castel Nuovo...

Where I had seen these provincial
parties, these village parties, etc...

I hadn't seen anything like it...

And I had heard that this party
was the reason for everything.

It really was...
It still had the function...

...of a medieval carnival.

To have the possibility to
put everything on display.

Without fear,
because it was permitted.

During that period he struck
up a close friendship...

With a community in this
small village...

With all the...
As I said before, the merits...

And all the faults.
You just had to scratch the surface...

Not only there.
But in many places.

Yes, in fact the film was very well
received by the provincial public...

Possibly because they identified with it,
or recognised themselves in it.

But it wasn't well received in the cities.

Look who it is!
The Conquistador!

There's a funeral scene in the film.
That was a real funeral...

It wasn't a staged funeral,
it was a real funeral.

When the film came out,
I was terrified...

Because I knew everyone in Castel
Nuovo would go and see the film.

So, the next day...

At the premiere in Rome,
I kept my head down, etc...

But they all congratulated each other!
they were happy with how they appeared...

Because they were all
characters that really did exist.

A little exaggerated, perhaps.
But a lot of them recognised themselves.

No one complained.
Except for the priest...

Who was really pissed.

I like to make films that
are quite explicit.

When I wanted to do a reverse shot
I asked the priest to stop the funeral...

To give us time to move the camera.

He never forgave me for that.

Alberto wasn't extreme.

He was obstinate about
some things...

And his beliefs.
That's true.

But Alberto's extremism was centred on
his challenging of the world around him.

Sometimes it's good to see
what we look like inside.

Illusions disappear and
you're left with the reality.

Which, believe me, is the only
medicine you need to survive.

Dreaming won't get you anywhere.

I wanted to it to be very surreal,
also the way it was edited.

Alberto loved to make films
that challenged the status quo...

But they would be supported,
or broken up, with these visions...

Of a dreamlike, imaginary, world.

You can see this in Spell.

Spell is the story of a provincial town...

With all its graces and
all its defects.

Many of them.

Where this conformity sometimes
comes out into the light.

And underneath that, also in the
apparently more upright families...

More positive...
But they aren't, really.

Being with you has made me
forget how to dream...

Only nightmares.
You've driven me insane.

Don't come any closer.
You stink like a pig.

You're disgusting.
Disgusting!

Don't move.
And listen to me.

In some scenes, the relationship
between the husband and wife...

He certainly drew from
his own experience...

From our relationship.

I think it was perfectly normal...

To draw from something
you know very well.

And then to amplify it,
modify it...

There are certainly some elements
of our private life in there.

I played the role of a wife who
appears to be content...

But she's very unsatisfied.
Unfulfilled.

And there are a couple of scenes
that left an impression on me...

That I performed in.

One is an argument over dinner...

An argument with my husband.

Before the meal,
I'm cleaning a chicken...

I'm cutting it,
and while we're arguing...

I feel this kind of exultation.
And I cut this chicken...

In what must be for the spectator,
quite a cruel fashion.

As though I were cutting up my
husband while I'm arguing!

Then, after a lot of talking, it all ends
with plates flying everywhere...

Scenes of hysterics and so on.

But then there also love scenes,
peaceful moments...

Poetic scenes.

There's always been this alternation,
in all of Alberto's films...

Of tranquillity, serenity,
and hardship and violence.

Just like real life.

Did you enjoy the party?
I did but it's not enough...

I want to enjoy myself now as well.

Come here, let's do those
dirty things I like!

I don't want to.
-You like it too!

I want to fuck you.

Let go of me.

Scoundrel.

Stop treating me like an animal.

We were very good friends
with Martial...

He was a very sweet person.

He took his work very seriously.
A real professional.

Martial Boschero was a wonderful
person, like all French people...

Like they are.
They're very...

It's hard to define a
French person...

Some people don't like the
French, Italians hate them...

But I've had a lot of
dealings with them.

They're very affable people,
like us Italians...

They think like we do,
if you meet a French person...

And Martial Boschero really
was a wonderful person...

And very intelligent.

He was very close to his sister,
they had a great relationship...

That's Dominique Boschero.

He would be very concerned when
people talked about him...

Because they all referred to him as
Dominique Boschero's brother.

But he had his own very well
defined personality.

He was also an excellent
dubbing artist...

He had dubbed films in France,
dubbing them in Italian and vice-versa.

At the end of his career he'd set
up a dubbing school...

Alberto and Martial collaborated
artistically and remained good friends.

One of the female cast members
who I enjoyed working with...

Even if we didn't get the
chance to talk very often...

Was Macha Magall.

Of the other women, no.
Because Monika Zanchi...

...was always doing her own thing.

And because we were filming in a
village she had many admirers.

Some chic,
and some not so chic.

Josiane Tanzilli was quite
a lively character...

So it was very easy to
communicate with her.

She also had quite a lively boyfriend.

She was a nice person.
A little eccentric...

However...

Yes, I think Spell was the first film
I worked on with Alberto.

Yes, that's the one.
He let me act in it.

I had this small role.
I was a police inspector...

Who's an accomplice to a
murder in a pool hall...

There's a dead woman there...
(This scene was eventually cut)

The scene I think everyone
remembers most in Spell...

Is the scene in the
pool hall with Monika Zanchi.

She's lying on a pool table...

And there's this imaginative scene
with this very beautiful girl.

The spectators watching
this scene in this bar...

Obviously, they were all a bit surprised.

But it was a great scene.

I didn't watch them film the final
scene with Paola Montenero...

But I was quite shocked when
I saw that scene in the film.

It wasn't easy to do it.

He convinced everyone.
Slowly, you'd listen to him...

Convinced.
That's what he wanted.

He was very convincing.

Like always, whatever Alberto did,
even if you didn't agree...

You'd end up agreeing with him.
He'd always find a way to persuade you.

He was very good at getting
you to do what he wanted.

I remember Montenero didn't
want to do this scene at first.

However in the end she did it.

I must force myself to do it to
stop myself going crazy.

To not become an animal.
A thing.

I didn't want to do that
scene in bed...

This is always around that scene
when I'm reading the newspaper.

Because I had been asked to do a
scene more daring than I was used to.

So I didn't want to do it.

But in the end he convinced me,
and I did it.

But that scene got me into
a lot of trouble.

With my education at the time.

Perhaps now, after many years,
I wouldn't be so shocked now.

But at the time I felt very
uncomfortable doing that scene.

I felt so uncomfortable doing it
at Alberto's request...

And it was a scene with a friend.
That was Martial, obviously.

It upset me so much that I didn't
make any more films...

And I concentrated on
painting, writing and sculpture.

I found a silver bracelet,
it was near my side of the bed...

Perhaps you know about it?
But it doesn't matter...

He got his bracelet,
and you cheated on me..

You're wrong!
-You slept with him.

I betrayed you,
but I did it alone.

Our relationship on the set
was very pleasant...

Even if,
on some occasions...

I didn't feel a hundred percent free
to say no or to challenge anything.

Yes, you could but you couldn't tell
him in front of someone else...

It was always in private.

But it's right. It seems normal
to me, he's the author.

Another person can't tell him to
do it differently, it's ridiculous.

He didn't accept any criticism.

It was either yes or no.

Sometimes I did.
But I was always afraid...

...of putting Alberto in a bad light
with the rest of the crew.

Because, if I wasn't his wife,
I would've behaved differently...

A scene I didn't like,
or I could see differently...

I would've been quite blunt with
him, without any hesitation.

But in this case I felt conditioned
by the fact that I was his wife...

So I could tell him things and
he would accept them.

I mean he would've accepted them.

But that could have made him
uncomfortable with the other actors...

...or the crew.

In fact, it was more the other
actors who would challenge him...

About things they didn't agree
with, with Alberto, than me.

And between Alberto and me there
was also this understanding...

That in any case,
knowing me very well...

I would've said, yes, I agree.

Even if I didn't agree.

Whoever sells more tickets
gets more holy cards...

And whoever has more holy cards
wins a marvellous prize.

I think Alberto had a hard life.
He was unlucky, very unlucky.

I'd say a part of it was
his own doing.

Because his breakthrough came with
this film I've been told about...

...'Le Salamandre'.
An explosive film...

That made Alberto's name
as a director.

They asked him to make
the same film...

Knowing it would attract
more interest...

But he didn't want to make
the same film again.

I think it was one of
Alberto's biggest mistakes...

All he had to do was make the same
film again with more famous actors...

And that would've made him.
Like all the famous directors.

Alberto had all the qualities to
become a famous director.

I don't know, perhaps coming from his
ex-wife this might seem exaggerated...

And I don't know if I'd call
him a genius...

But he was a very prepared person,
and very good at his job...

Absolutely at the avant-garde
of the times, that's for sure.

Someone who challenged everything he
didn't think was right for the country.

He would never have accepted
any distribution deals...

If he had to cut any scenes
for political reasons...

Or to cut, I don't know...
To take out a Christ or to put one in.

Because he wouldn't compromise
about certain things...

Absolutely.

And, in any case,
he was a great director.

Subtitled by Clarence Bodicker
www.cultfilmsubs.com