BocelliOnline

[Melodie]

An interview done in 1996:

V.O.I. - Can you tell us something about the beginning of your career?

I am a lucky person because since I was a child I wanted to be a costume designer. Actually, I was fascinated by the archaeological side of this job, I was interested in the historical ages of the past. I keep on saying that if I hadn t become a costume designer, I would have been an archaeologist. I studied at The Art Institute at Porta Romana in Florence and successively at The Academy of Fine Arts, without finishing it. I decided to go to Rome with my suitcase under my arm, going aro und asking if they needed a costume assistant. The first person I worked with was the art director Pier Luigi Pizzi. Then I met Umberto Tirelli, the founder of the homonymous prestigious tailor s workshop. It had all been very easy and I am sorry to say that as I understand that for young people nowadays it is not like that. When I began, in the years 1966-67, there was less competition.

V.O.I. - Did you immediately begin to work for cinema or did you first give yourself up to theatre?

Cinema has always been my great love; therefore, I immediately begin to design costumes for films. Now I also work in the theatre, for the setting up of opera houses, which amuse me a lot, but cinema remains my great love.

V.O.I. - How do you feel working abroad and why did you decide to give yourself up to big American productions?

Unfortunately, my job requires a lot of money; otherwise, I am not able to carry it out and in America they have big budgets at their disposal. Only in this way can I realize so many new costumes. Comparing it to Italy, I miss the feeling with people, but I think it depends on the language (I speak English badly) but also on the different culture. At the age of 20 you can change country, at my age it is more difficult.

V.O.I. - How do you get ready to face the realisation of costumes in a determined historic period?

It is vital to gather information appropriately, especially about painting; usually, only refers to portrait-making, which nonetheless has nothing daily. For those historic periods which, on the contrary, have come after the coming of photography, everythi ng is easier because photography succeeds in giving you more daily details than what even the most spontaneous painting could ever give. Literature is full of indications, too. Once the research work is finished, designs are realized. Then the maybe most industrious phase takes place: looking for the right fabric. It is always very difficult because factories now produce only those materials which are in fashion at the moment, which p ret-a-porter or haute couture require. Therefore, there are always great difficulties to find the right materials.

V.O.I. - Do the directors let you free to realize your costumes in absolute autonomy or do you always have to submit to their instructions?

The more intelligent the directors, the freer they let you, the meaner the more they try to dominate you. Usually they let me free: you talk you them, show them the main characteristics of the historic period you are dealing with... The problem is that it is not easy to find a director fond of painting; most of them have a vast literary or musical culture, rather than a pictorial one. Fellini, Sergio Leone, Terry Gilliam loved painting very much... I grasp things at once with Terry because he has an enormo us pictorial culture. But it is difficult to find directors like that.

V.O.I. - You are simply enthusiast of your job, aren t you?

Of course, I love my job! But I do not like considering myself an artist at all: I am a craftsman. I work as a clerk: I enter the tailor s workshop at 9 and I go out at 8 in the evening; and I make a costume as an architect builds a palace, slowly, with small steps. It is really enjoyable, really amusing. It is an extremely creative job.

Edited by Mauro Tinti
Translated by Francesca Fontana Elliott

Rome, March 1996

http://www.tinet.ch/VOI/donne/pescuen.htm

[AngelB]

Very interesting! Most people going to a movie, a play, or an opera, would never imagine how much research goes into a production. I'm curious to see what he interprets as 1930's French apparel! From the pictures of the rehearsals on the official site, it looks like trench coats were worn by both men and woman at the time.
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Angel