All language subtitles for Space Oddity - Interview with actor Venantino Venantini.English

— You ready?

OkaY-

Venantino Venantini.

Hi. How are you?

(eerie synth music)

So, what's going on?

You wanna know anything

about -- something about Alfonso Brescia?

My friend, movie director,

big, tall, and fat. Alfonso Brescia.

Well, my God, now I'm 77.

I was what?

34? 30, 33.

30, 34.

And he too. Too bad

he went away, went up,
up, up in the skies.

Very good director.

One kind of director.

Tarantino has revived them, you know.

Tarantino, as you know,

not long time ago as English
reevaluated the Italian field

the second series, you know, cinema

like Fellini, Rossi. But
it's other Italian directors

which we call B-series.

Those are really who they used to change

their name into English
names, because otherwise,

no one would've seen
those films here in Italy.

Alfonso was a very good director,

because he knew was how --
like a handcrafted film,

how to make a movie, how to do a movie.

He knew it mattered.

For many years, there been old
for all, I mean, forgotten.

Then, little by little,

be discovered again and
they switched their name

from English name into Italian names.

So many years went away and
so many years went away.

So now I have to...

Now I have to remind you
that it was a film --

not a very expensive film,
but difficult, because it was

the first time in Italy was made --

we made a movie about space,
you know, space ships.

So we had many difficulties,
because we didn't know

too much about what was the space

you know, those engines, those machinery,

the screen and the blue
screens and so forth.

But actually, we made
it. I mean, the story,

it's something -- and out
of this story, storyboard,

we, like a tailor, handmade film

little by little, you
know, technically speaking

and photographically
speaking, and so forth.

Of course there are
some sexual scenes, too,

which wasn't hard at all,
which you gives some pep

to the story.

Of course.

I mean, you see this film
today, you say, "My God,

it looks so old," but this is
why it's very important film.

He himself, as a person,
was a fantastic man.

Did very good films, like
black movies, you know,

cop films, police films and so forth.

And they had a very good technique,

because as a matter of fact,

if you look the film properly,
they hardly very bad scenes.

The way he hands the camera,

how he's just the lights,

you could do everything
to tell you really one

self-made man. I'm very melancholic.

And said, "Now you show me these things."

Which I --

I mean, I've of course forgotten,
being the age I have now,

but it's very good that, I mean,

you try to relive, to wake up this film,

because this kind of film,

they stay in the classical filmography

of this man, you know?

- (speaking Italian)

- Oh, the location was shot,
in part, in the studios

in the theater. In studios.

More to them in the...it
was an expensive move.

So we had to go in the
surroundings of Home, of course,

and also a lot in the case -- very famous,

of the Roman bats or Caracalla,
the emperor, you know,

in Rome itself, there's
big, huge public baths.

Baths and the underground

and all the gallery in tunnels.

We shoot the

movie there.

Tell again and again.

They can do anything

with a few beans, with a few things.

You know, we...

since we don't have much money,

you have to use this to make
you -- you know what I mean?

This is it.

I remember I was in Tahiti
when I did my first movie.

The artist say we in Tahiti
in 1960 and we were --

the crew was seven,
seven people altogether.

The actors, movie director, director,

the light director, so forth.

Then came Carol Reed, Marlon Brando.

But 4,000 people came.

But we did such a good
movie, because, you know,

when you have much of
this, you gotta use this.

And that's a big help.

Well, of course it's not Kubrick,

but I mean, you know.

- (speaking Italian)

- To tell you the truth, maybe, yes,

she was beautiful, ‘course
that was beautiful,

but I think she was with somebody else.

So I couldn't

I couldn't grab her.

The best memory? The entire movie.

The entire story of it. It's not only

because I worked on it,
because it was something new.

Truly. I mean, not even in Europe

we used to do this kind of movies.

i mean,

now is in space, you know,
space artists, of course not.

But it's the fact that we did this movie

with not much money and
it's called "economy movie."

But the screen is good.

It's wide, you know, it's beautiful.

And this is it.

Well, I mean, I've always been painting.

I got a scholarship in
Paris, 1960, and then

different painting, new museums since

and in Johannesburg, in
France, private collection.

I love paintings very, very much.

I was born to paint. I
think when I was born,

I already had my hand
with a brush already.

Yeah,yeah,yeah,yeah.

Already this and that.

And I did a movie in New York City,

an underground movie,
it's called Round Trip.

I had the leading part.

It was the story of a French painter.

We set out to Europe,
was shot in 1960, '63.

And I was this French painter.

He goes to New York City
and sees what's going on.

So I went there, I worked
with Larry Rivers.

It was Allen Ginsburg, the
poets, and all these guys

and these famous painters,
writers, poets, you know,

it was the real boom at that time.

We did the movie

in the 16 millimeters,
like Walter Reed, you know,

the movie director was a French guy.

His name was Pierre Gaisseau.

The movie's called Round Trip.

And it's the story

about this painter in New
York City, what's going on.

And we need the real happening, you know,

real happening or --

these kind of guys, very,
very interesting film.

Well, in the United States.

I love your country.

I always loved it.

You know, I was married there.

I married a beautiful woman there.

I got married there in New York City.

I lived for a year in the States.

I worked on a soap opera thanks to
La Cage aux Folles.

I had a beautiful role

in All My Children in New York City.

I worked for a year and a half.

Then I did another movie in San Fran --

in Los Angeles, called The Lucky Shot.

It's a movie

about a French father with a daughter.

And you know, it's very funny.

I love United States very much. New York.

It's only one New York,
I'm telling you the truth.

And that day I work in
main American films,

the English films and so forth.

And this is it.

OkaY-

Buh-bye.

Take care.

(eerie synth music)