BY TODD GARBARINI
In
the pantheon of great cinematographers there are certain names that immediately
come to mind: Gregg Toland (Citizen Kane, 1941); Robert Burks (Vertigo,
1958); Owen Roizman (The French Connection, 1971; The Exorcist,
1973); Gordon Willis (The Godfather, 1972; The Godfather Part II,
1974); Vittorio Storaro (The Conformist, 1970; The Last Emperor,
1987); and Sven Nykvist (Persona, 1966; Cries and Whispers, 1973)
to name just a few. The late great Carlo Di Palma, who passed away in 2004
after amassing just over 60 screen credits, is one such master and is the
subject of the 2016 documentary Water and Sugar: Carlo Di Palma, The Colours
of Life, which opened in Manhattan on Friday, July 28, 2017.
The
film performs a tightrope act of trying to be both a loving tribute to an
artist by director Fariborz Kamkari, who mixes scenes from the films that
Signor Di Palma cut his teeth on in the business and also an appreciation by his
widow, Adriana Chiesa Di Palma, who appears in much of the film as a gateway to
many film industry people who offer up their thoughts on Sig. Di Palma, often interjecting
their own feelings and impressions of his work. The film is at its most
interesting, however, when looking directly at his career through past
interviews and behind-the-scenes stills, beginning in Italian cinema in the
early 1940s as a focus puller and camera operator – at the age of fifteen no
less! - for notable Neo-Realist director Luchino Visconti (Ossessione,
1943) and later for Vittorio DeSica (The Bicycle Thief, 1948), while
graduating to more high-brow and intellectual fare. Specifically, these were the
films he shot for the highly acclaimed and award-winning Italian master Michelangelo
Antonioni: Red Desert (1964) with its colorful, pollution-drenched
cities swallowing up everyday people; Blow-Up (1966) with the message
that one must create their own reality; and the Cannes Film Festival
Award-Winning Identification of a Woman (1982) with Tomas Milian as a
divorced filmmaker trying to understand women.
Sr.
Di Palma worked most prolifically with Woody Allen beginning with one of the
director’s greatest films, 1986’s Hannah and Her Sisters and the period
films Radio Days (1987), Shadows and Fog (1992) and Bullets
Over Broadway (1994). His hand-held work on Husbands and Wives
(1992) is also dissected. Ample time is allotted Mr. Allen, who recalls his
experiences working with the cinematographer and how they discussed films over
lunch and dinner.
The
juxtaposing of interview footage with the film’s subject and comments from
contemporaries, such as the late great Bernardo Bertolucci who worked with Sig.
Di Palma on 1981’s Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man, are insightful and contemplative;
there is also the amazing recollection of how a very young Sven Nykvist happened
upon Sr. Di Palma, a fact verified decades later; and finally, the explanation
for the film’s title.
Alec
Baldwin, who appeared in Mr. Allen’s 1990 fantasy film Alice, makes the
case that movies like the ones shot by Sr. Di Palma are art. It makes one
wonder about the wisdom on the part of the distribution companies that offer up
documentaries about cinematographers, generally only presenting them in the
standard definition format of DVD. Without taking anything away from Disney and
big-screen Marvel Comics epics that rule home video in 4K Ultra High Definition
and Dolby Atmos, would it not make sense to showcase the stories of cinema’s
finest visual stylists on Blu-ray as well? The scenes offered up in Water
and Sugar examples of the beautiful color palettes of Sig. Di Palma’s greatest
works which aided in the accolades bestowed upon these films. The Kino Lorber DVD includes the original trailer as the only bonus feature.
Last
of all, can someone please correct the indignity of Sig. Di Palma’s profile pic
on his IMDB.com page? It erroneously depicts Italian cinematographer Marco
Onorato accepting an award at the European Film Awards on December 6, 2008 in
Copenhagen, Denmark. While no disrespect is meant to Sr. Marco Onorato, who
sadly passed away at age 59, the least that the IMDB can do is correct this
unfortunate and persistent oversight.
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