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(film projector clicking)

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(engine whining)

(thrum of passing traffic)

(tram car trundling)

(bell ringing)

(water pattering)

When I see the first time, eight years old,

nine years old, in the studio,

I went to see all labs and this,

and my father, the first time he tell me,

"Look, come here, look in the camera."

I look in the camera and then...

"Yes, now move. What do you want to see?"

I move camera.

It even add another dimension to life.

(emergency brake clicks)

(door opens)

(movie dialogue continues)

(loud bang)

(gunshot)

After the war,

there was a great sense of solidarity.

We had a sense that we had--

the antifascist forces had won the war together.

That we were a united people

and we had strength.

And that led to a certain kind of cinema

which was about people,

it was about us,

what we had in common.

It was a sense that we were stronger as a team

than as individuals.

People had no money, no resources,

and people like Visconti and Rossellini

started to pick up the camera and shoot films

and Carlo was a part of that moment.

It was really an amazing moment.

I mean, I think the Italian neorealist movement

just--it really changed the face of cinema

in a significant way and he was there for that.

And those cameramen were doing

very different things with natural light.

They had no real resources, not a lot of lights,

and they just went out and shot things.

And I think that really had an effect on his style ultimately.

(bell rings)

I was born in '45

and Carlo is a generation older than me.

He was already working.

He was...present for La Terra Trema,

Ladri di Biciclette,

he was camera assistant.

Behind the camera

and even if you did pull the focus,

or if you're the operator, you were there

and you were essential.

So he lived all these movies

that are the basis of my education,

that's where I'm coming from, that's where I learned.

(din of traffic)

And that--that was in the end of '40s and the 1950s,

maybe the beginning of the '60s

and then there was a change in society, wasn't there?

And the right of the individual

and "You're not my comrade, you're my enemy

and I have to do a deal with you to beat you."

And the cinema again reflected that

and became a cinema of individualism,

a cinema of wealth, a cinema of greed,

a cinema of violence and antagonism,

and we lost that sense of community.

(indistinct shouting)

But I think things are changing now,

because with the economic collapse throughout Europe,

I think people are beginning to realize

that we need each other, we can't fight each other,

we don't struggle against each other,

we struggle together.

So I think maybe it's time we revive the ideas

of the Italian neorealist cinema

and we spread them across Europe.

(din of traffic)

(indistinct shouting)

(gunfire)

(harpsichord music)

In that film, those kind of quick cuts,

those kind of constant reframings that he does

really gives the film so much energy

and I know that that was very influential.

I mean, Scorsese has mentioned many times

how influential that film has been on him.

(engine rumbling)

(bell ringing)

Carlo, once again, is sort of a watershed moment

in film history.

For many people, almost the first true color film,

the first one where color is truly

a kind of aesthetic element within the film

in his work with Antonioni.

(otherworldly singing)

(rhythmic droning)

(laughter)

One thing that was good about that generation

was that they began in monochrome,

they saw photography in terms of shades

rather than color.

So that when he did come to use color,

it had an excitement for him

and his excitement communicated through his images, I think.

(boat horn blows)

I'll never forget the industrial landscapes of Red Desert.

There's nothing quite like it in the history of cinema,

the way those landscapes were shot.

They're both alternately incredibly fascinating

and beautiful and of course horrifying

because of the pollution that they were bringing to the world.

He just--he caught that and gave you a sense of that.

(loud hissing)

(water lapping)

(otherworldly noises)

What are you doing?

Stop it! Stop it!

Give me those pictures.

You can't photograph people like that.

Who says I can't?

I'm only doing my job. Some people are bull fighters,

some people are politicians.

I'm a photographer.

Right.

That's good, that's good, hold that.

Wonderful.

I realized how important colors work was,

especially on Blow-Up because, in many ways,

it's, visually, a very, very inventive film.

One of the few films at the time

who reflected the language of cinema

in its own story.

It's one of the few films

that really deal with photography

and deal with the essence of taking a picture.

Great.

And again, go on. Go, go.

Before they made Blow-Up,

Michelangelo Antonioni told him,

"The last film, we tried to do very three-dimensional.

Now I really want to show great spaces between people."

And then you see-- when you think of Blow-Up,

that's exactly what goes on.

I mean, it really is about people's isolation

and whatever, so once again,

the cinematographer found the way

to communicate the ideas a director

was hoping to somehow express.

(men chanting)

(whistle)

(glass shattering)

(cart wheels squeaking)

(vocalizes, plays piano)

(murmur of crowd)

One day, I was speaking with Bernardo Bertolucci,

and he said about Carlo,

"In cinema, Vittorio Storaro is my wife

and Carlo Di Palma my amante."

(hum of passing traffic)

(door slams)

(horn honks)

(engine rumbles)

(gulls cawing)

(footsteps)

When I was ready to do my first movie,

Take the Money and Run,

I had seen Blow-Up

and I thought it was a very beautiful picture

and I said, "Who did that?" and they said "Carlo Di Palma,"

and I went and I looked at Red Desert

and I saw that he was such

a strikingly beautiful color photographer.

I mean, it was just amazing.

I just thought since I was making a movie,

he was the best photographer

that I could have hired at the time.

But unfortunately, he had another picture

he was doing.

In my apartment in New York,

he came to the door

and he was very charming and very nice

and he spoke not bad English, not great but not bad,

and we spoke for maybe two hours

and talked about photography and movies.

We both had the same taste in many things

in terms of film and what film should look like

and what the color should look like

and the movement should be about.

And then we began.

Our first movie together was I think

Hannah and Her Sisters.

And Carlo lived up to all our expectation.

You know, it did everything correctly.

Moved the camera all the time

in an energetic way,

made beautiful shots,

it was easy to work with,

fun to work with.

And came away with a successful picture.

-Oh my goodness. -Oh, Elliot!

-Hi. -What are you doing here?

Well, I'm looking for a book store.

-In this section? -Any time I provided Carlo

with a pretty set, for instance,

and designed a shot that was artistic,

he always made it work.

He never said, "No, I can't do that."

"And now, and now, Carlo, and now."

Three shot. Two shot. One shot.

One shot. One goes up, one goes up, one goes up.

So boring, it's TV."

Hey, Hannah, I know I'm mediocre.

Oh, will you stop attacking Hannah?

She's going through a really rough time right now.

Why are you so upset?

You've been picking on her ever since she came in here

and just leave her alone for a while.

-I'm just suffocating. -What's the matter with you?

Why are you so sensitive all of a sudden?

Listen, you wanna write, write. Write!

Let's just not talk about it anymore.

-Good! -Take a year,

take six months, whatever you want.

Who knows, maybe you'll be sitting with a good play.

What's the matter?

What's the matter with you? You look pale. Are you okay?

Yeah, I think, you know, I'm just...

I got dizzy all of a sudden.

I have a headache. I think we need to eat.

And I think, also, when he worked with Woody Allen,

was that he took this sense of European cinema to America.

He avoided the overly commercial productions

and his work was very personal-- it stayed personal

and it stayed European.

And I think that was one of the quotas

he gave to Woody Allen's films,

and Woody Allen's films are great films.

They benefit enormously from Carlo's photography

and Carlo's cinematic sensibility.

But where he really could put his poetic soul to work

was on all those special movies,

those period movies.

I do a lot of period pictures

and Carlo was very, very happy when I did them

because he didn't have to do realistic lighting,

which he could do,

but you don't get a chance to express the poetry

and Carlo was essentially poetic.

♪ I'm gonna buy a paper doll that I can call my own ♪

I can never hear this song

without recalling my parents' anniversary.

It was the only time I ever saw them kiss.

It was a very wonderful memory.

♪ Flirty, flirty guys with their flirty, flirty eyes ♪

With Carlo, I learned about the needs

of a really-- an artist.

I really learned so much on Radio Days

about how to bring light into the space.

My most vivid memory connected with an old radio song

I associate with the time that Aunt Bea

and her then-boyfriend Chester

took me into New York to the movies.

It was the first time I'd ever seen

the Radio City Music Hall.

(insects chirring)

(piano playing)

I always remember there are many moments.

I remember in spite of the fact that September,

there's a scene on the porch by candlelight

and I often say to Woody,

"No one does-- no one lights from candles

the way Carlo did."

I said, "I can't believe he was a good Catholic boy."

But I said...

But even when he had one candle on the porch

and the actor sitting in a rocking chair,

it was so beautiful.

I mean, he had a touch

that was very beautiful and romantic

and as I said, very spontaneous.

You know, he was very surprising

and he would have a thought at the last minute.

I think that the sort of a spontaneity

of his work is what excited him

and you had to be ready.

But I mean, it's always, you learn from someone like that

to try to have options.

Sometimes if you make a film that is a good film

in the Hollywood system,

it's a lucky accident, you know?

That system is designed

to make money, not make good films.

If the film is good, okay, then we'll take it.

It was just a--you know, it was just a pleasure to work with him

because we both worked the same way.

That very improvisational, you know,

lazy...instinctive way.

We both didn't know what we were doing.

I never know what scene I'm shooting that day.

He didn't know.

And we'd go-- they'd give us the pages.

He had a great, great eye for composition,

great flair for color,

who just instinctively knew what to do.

Whatever he did just always looked good.

I did a film with Woody in 1991,

the movie Alice,

and then he and Woody made many great films together.

Carlo was very helpful to me

because Woody is very shy, he doesn't speak.

-Sweetheart, I'm home! -Hi!

-I sold the picture! -You did? That's great!

-Which one? -The nude of you.

-Oh, really? -Stop looking so grim.

You're beautiful without clothes.

The relationship between the actor and the cinematographer

can be so important.

The great, great, great cinematographers,

they give you a little gift

and that is when you do a good take,

they are next to the camera and the operator's operating

and they are watching and then they say, "Cut!"

And the great cinematographers, they look at you, they go,

"Very good.

Very good."

They give you a little package, you know?

Which is important, because they are looking.

All of the great, great, great cinematographers

of the last 25, 30 years,

and for Carlo for many years,

they are the same.

They focus you.

They remind you it is an art,

we are here to make art.

When all of the most talented people come together

to make Blow-Up and Radio Days

and all these very beautiful films,

it is art

and the older I get, the more I realize

art is as important as everything else,

maybe more important.

Of course you could never go and see Woody

shoot and work.

You know, you could come, say hello,

and then you had to go away.

And I was immediately struck among all these people,

you know, pretty badly dressed in New York.

There was one sticking out, you know,

elegantissima, and that was Carlo.

Just observing him when he was working with others,

what struck me is

This feeling for the people.

We don't care about colors or light here or there,

it's all about the faces and the communication

with people.

Just the people

and how can I best get the people over.

I saw him at the European Film Awards

when we had this as a great master of these films,

of Deserto Rosso, and it was so fantastic,

so I have him just in my mind.

Look at this poster you gave me in 2005.

And surprise, surprise, I have him here!

Look at this.

Long time ago, it was at the European Film Academy,

I said hello to him because I admire his work

and he was very good teacher for me

when I was younger.

Enjoy. I ask every time to my crew

and also all director I work with,

I ask, "Please, enjoy.

Not for laugh. But enjoy."

You don't like this job? Change.

(laughter)

I don't like to drive. I walk in the street,

I walk and I go into many cafes, many--

for city people

for understand in the street.

All the times I shoot one movie in the street,

I work in the street, I shoot my movie.

I remember, example, yesterday,

I see in the street one very, very, very funny story

that did the people, very, very strange.

Maybe for another ten years, I use this idea.

I think he was feeling a little bit the same like I do.

We liked movies that were made for the people

about love and about emotion.

I think it's so important to do emotional movies

because our world is rare of that.

And he did these kind of movies with wonderful directors,

telling stories, telling stories for the people,

to enjoy them and to think about it.

When I wanted to do a very crude picture

like Husbands and Wives,

with nothing matching and jump cutting

and handheld things, he did that perfectly.

There they are.

Guarantee Jack is gonna want to take us

for Chinese food again.

I think Sally's getting a little tired of our pasta places.

Jack and I are splitting up.

Oh, I see. It's just nothing serious.

Hey, we discussed this for a long, long time

and we both think it's for the best.

I really think it's a masterpiece,

it's just one of the great American films

of the last 30, 40 years,

and, you know, in that film,

the style of the camera,

the sort of way in which he sets up

those dialogue scenes and whatever,

it's just remarkable.

I mean, it's the film of two very, very young men

and yet, neither of them were particularly young

when that film was made

and yet you feel the energy,

the ideas, the inventiveness.

It's a film that today still startles students

when I show them what camera movement can be like,

how it can work.

-And Dostoyevsky? -Dostoyevsky is a full meal

with a vitamin pill and extra wheat germ.

"I fall upon the thorns of life,

I bleed."

I used to think that was so romantic.

(water bubbling, fire hissing)

He takes these guys out of--

it's almost like he brings the director

out of his comfort ground.

You just feel the cameraman.

You know, the reason I love to work in Italy.

I mean, the guy just loves movies

but understands them, gets them,

can talk about 'em, can philosophize on 'em,

and it was a whole tradition that I learned about.

And I know Woody just

embraced him for that, you know what I mean?

For that something that's sometimes missing

when you're a New York filmmaker, you know?

That's what I said, genius, he's out of focus.

No, no, I don't mean the lens, I mean Mel himself.

Let me see that, get the hell outta here.

I don't believe it, you're right, Mel's out of focus.

What? What the hell are you talking about?

I said the actor's out of focus.

-What? How can this be? -Is there something wrong?

-Mel, come here. -What?

I don't know how to tell you this

but, um...you're soft.

Well, I've gained a little weight--

No, no, it's not that.

You're soft.

You're out of focus. I don't know why.

Is there anything we can do about that?

Just look at yourself. Look at yourself.

(overlapping chatter)

Carlo was one of the few...

close people that I...

made friends with in all the years I've been

in the movie business.

I'm not normally a social person

but Carlo was so easygoing, you know?

He had lunch--

I would have lunch with him on the set

and dinner with him in the evening.

Have lunch with him on the set

and dinner with him in the evening.

You know, and between the two of us,

it was never about work.

We were always, "Where are we gonna eat tonight

and where should we go?"

So you know, I had a very, very,

very, very positive time with him.

(traffic sounds)

(murmur of crowd)

(engine puttering)

In my youth in life,

I used to really look up to him

as a kind of guru of light.

Every film was different.

It wasn't like, oh, you know what a Carlo Di Palma film

is gonna look like.

It's people like Carlo who fuel me, you know,

who teach me that there is never a resting place in a way.

That you have to keep pushing the envelope,

you have to keep reinterpreting how you see.

You don't exist in some cinematic bubble,

you have to be part of the world,

you have to be part of that struggle,

and more importantly, you have to decide

which side you're on.

You're either on the side of the money and the greed

or you're on the side of the people

and I think he would say

you have to be on the side of the people.

To be honest, I think one of the things

about his image is I think he really often

makes people confront what's really going on,

and often what's going on isn't right in front of them,

it's what's inside them.

So I think he would continue to send that message

of be truthful, especially to yourself.

And even if you saw Carlo across the room,

you would feel his eyes on you

and you would feel that they came

from a soul that loved people.

And that's the essence of his cinema,

I'll say, is who are we?

He was a master of the close-up.

I mean, not many cameramen can really do close-ups that well.

He was a master of the close-ups

because he loved eyes and he loved to show eyes

and his message is

to trust in our eyes when we make movies

and to show our affection in our work.

If Carlo was sending a message,

he was saying, "Is it possible you could get me a drink?"

(thrum of tram car engine)

(rain pelting)

-And set. -Action.

-Ciao, Carlo. -Ciao, Carlo.

(marker snaps)

Ciao, Carlo!

Ciao, Carlo.

(marker snaps)

(laughs) Ciao!

-(marker snaps) -Ciao, Carlo.

(snaps)

Ciao, Carlo.

Ciao, ciao, ciao, Carlo, ciao, ciao, ciao, ciao.

Ciao, Carlo!

Salaam, Carlo. Namaste, Carlo.

Ciao, Carlo.

(snaps)

Ciao, Carlo.

(snaps)

Ciao, Carlo.

(snaps)

Ciao, Carlo.

So, Carlo is looking at us

and, as always, it warms my heart.

Ciao, Carlo. And...

Ciao, Carlo, ciao.