Dear Diary (Caro Diario) (Caro diario)

ON MY VESPA -

DEAR DIARY, -

THERE'S ONE THING -

I LIKE THE MOST -

Summer in Rome cinemas are closed.

All you can see is "Sex, Love and Shepherding",

"Bestial Desires", "Snow White and the 7 Blacks",

or horror films like "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer",

or some Italian films...

I'm afraid to rethink my life.

I'm a coward.

What happened? Tell me.

I don't know any more.

Your temples are turning white.

The weight of defeat.

A series of defeats.

What has our generation become?

Publicists, architects...

brokers, congressmen, journalists.

We all changed for the worse.

Sold out, compromised, co-opted.

Why "all"? This fixation with us "all,"

"being sold out and co-opted"!

When did we last take a walk?

We stay together out of habit.

You're ashamed of me.

What a headache! Even Optalidon are different now.

Remember the rattle of pills in the old tube?

Everything has really changed.

Know what, Antonio? You have worsened.

You have no real feelings.

We're old, bitter, dishonest.

We used to shout awful, violent slogans.

Look how ugly we've gotten!

You shouted awful, violent slogans.

You've gotten ugly.

I shouted the right slogans and I'm a splendid 40-year old!

What I like the most is to see houses, neighborhoods.

My favorite neighborhood is the Garbatella.

I stroll through the old housing project.

I don't like to see only the facades.

I like to see the inside too.

I ring the buzzer

and pretend I'm location scouting... for a film.

The tenant asks me what the film is about.

I don't know what to say...

It's a film about a Trotskyst pastry chef

in Italy during the 1950s. A musical.

Not bad, a musical comedy about a Trotskyst pastry chef

in the conformist Italy of the '50s!

On my Vespa,

I enjoy looking at penthouses where I'd like to live.

I see myself renovating those penthouses,

whose owners... have no intention of selling.

One day, a penthouse which seemed more affordable

Silvia and I went up to take a look.

We asked the price.

"$700 a square foot."

$700 a square foot?!

"You can't talk square feet",

"via Dandolo is a historic street,"

"Garibaldi fought here."

I may be nuts,

but I love this bridge.

I need to cross it twice a day.

You know what I was thinking? A very sad thing:

even in a more decent society than this one,

I'll only feel at ease with a minority of people.

Not like in those films where a couple

fights on a desert island

because the filmmaker doesn't believe in people.

I believe in people. I just don't believe in the majority of people.

I'll always be in tune with a minority.

Good luck!

My secret dream has always been to dance well.

"Flashdance" was the film...

that changed my life.

It was a film about dancing, about knowing how to dance.

But in the end I just watch.

Which is fine, but it's something else altogether.

You know what my dream is?

To know how to dance.

I was never the same

after I saw "Flashdance", with Jennifer Beals.

Is that dancer Jennifer Beals?

Howl envy them! Is she Jennifer Beals?

Spinaceto, a recent housing development.

Bad-mouthed by everyone.

"This sure isn't Spinaceto!"

"You live in Spinaceto or something?"

I remember reading a story

called "Escape from Spinaceto",

about a kid who got out of there

and never went back.

So, let's go see Spinaceto.

Spinaceto! I expected worse. It's not bad!

I was just thinking that.

Casalpalocco. Driving by these homes,

I smell jogging suits,

video tapes, watch dogs in the garden,

pizzas in cardboard boxes.

Why did they come here 30 years ago?

Why did you move to Casalpalocco?

- This green, this peace... - Yeah, green...

- You moved here around 1961... - '62.

- 30 years ago, Rome... - Was a marvelous city!

It's different here.

But Rome was beautiful then!

That's what frightens me.

Watch dogs, videos, slippers.

Jennifer Beals?

- Yes? - From "Flashdance"?

- What'd he say? - "Who are you."

I'd always liked to know how to dance.

If I lived in Emilia Romagna,

there are old people's homes, hospitals that work,

dance schools,

tango, merengue...

When I hear music, I could dance instead of watch.

Those shoes are very comfortable!

So simple, yet... They must feel good on your feet.

Yes, very comfortable.

What'd say? "Crazy"?

Wasn't it "crazy"?

What does that mean?

Special, peculiar, almost crazy, but not quite.

Dumb, almost dumb.

Even in other cities

I only like to look at houses.

What would be great is a film just of houses. Panning shots of houses.

Garbatella, 1927.

Olympic Village, 1960.

Tufello, 1960.

Vigne Nuove, 1987.

Monteverde, 1939.

- "HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER" -

Hey. Am I stuttering? Fork over the $50 and go to hell.

Here's your 50 bucks.

Need a hand?

Otis, do you need a hand or can you do it by yourself?

I wander around the city for hours

trying to remember who said good things about this film.

I read a review,

I read something positive about "Henry"...

Suddenly I remember I find the review

and copy it in my diary. Here it is:

"Henry kills people, but he's a kind of good guy,"

"Only facts count for him."

"Otis is the real scum."

"Henry has a mad solidarity with his victims,"

"a prince of annihilation,"

"promising a merciful death."

"The director awakens the public"

"to its worst nightmare: a shower of gore,"

"impaled eyes, martyred flesh: abomination."

"Henry: the first to dismember"

"the criminal philosophy of the Hollywood racists."

I wonder if whoever wrote this,

before falling asleep, has a moment of remorse.

- When did this begin? When did all this begin? - I don't know.

Maybe when you wrote:

"This Korean film was a costume melodrama",

"Demented clothes and hats."

"Super-feminist, flamboyant and diabolical."

"Shot like Spielberg on acid"

"in futuristic rhythms and spaces."

"And then there's Cronenberg's 'Naked Lunch“':"

"pure high-budget underground pus."

"A real cult movie."

"It's not that J. Demme's women are superior."

"Not are they what the proletarians and lumpen"

"of the three circling worlds were for Lin Piao."

"But only his women"

"have the gumption to uphold the righteous side"

"in the War of the Imaginary, scalped in hand."

"Before Lula e Sailor join in for the happy ending,"

"murmuring 'Love me tender" ',

"Sailor will spend years in the pen"

"shattered human heads will fly,"

"dogs will grab cut-off hands,"

"hundred of Kools and Marlboros will be smoked..."

I don't know why, but I'd never been

where Pasolini was murdered.

ISLANDS -

The boat arrives in Lipari.

I'm visiting a friend who moved here 11 years ago.

Ever since, he's been studying Joyce's "Ulysses".

I'm beginning to write my film.

I've brought press clippings that I'll need for my work,

which I've been saving for years.

I know that I'll work in Lipari.

An orange juice, please,

and a sandwich

mozzarella...

If everybody went on foot, there'd be less accidents.

A sandwich...

Tomato and mozzarella. Thanks.

- What were you watching? - When?

Inside, on television.

It's not TV, it was a strange film: