Director Fausto Brizzi with American Actor Daniel McVicar

I just finished work on a film here in Italy, Maschi contro Femmine.  I played the part of Captain William T. Bell in the romantic comedy directed by Fausto Brizzi and produced by Italian International Film for RAI Cinema.  It will be in the theatres in late October here in Italy.

My scenes were part of a story with Alessandro Preziosi, the delightful Paola Cortellesi, and Paolo Ruffini.

Fausto Brizzi is one of the premiere directors in Italy who succeeds at the box office and with critics alike.  To me, his movies have the heart of a Frank Capra, with a very modern sensibility.  And they are wonderful to go to with a date!

getting the charge on

I arrived to the Ischia Global Fest, and saw Eric Lewis, now known as ELEW.

First saw him at TED and I catch up with him on TechCrunch.

Amazing.

Watch from TED:

Here are the comments that I left on archive.org:

PRODUCT OF A PLANNED COMMUNITY

This was amazing to see and to find.  I was raised in Broomfield.  I was 5 years old when my family moved there, and started attending Kohl Elementary School, and later attended Nativity School.

Now looking back I see that I am a product of a planned community.  The documentary brought back early memories, and I must say that growing up in Broomfield at that time was a special experience.  Front doors unlocked, parks to play in, the city within the highways was open and safe.  The ideals that were expressed in the documentary are some of the best things that I carry with me now.

I have now moved around the world a lot, seen many things, filled my head with ideas and information that was only available at the time from Mamie Doud Eisenhower Public Library, right next to the Dentist Office and the Broomfield Star Builder Newspaper office.

It was a town where we had “The Bank”, “The Grocery Store”, “The Drug Store”.  The city fathers put gas stations at the entrance to the town, so we could get our car filled coming and going.

Mostly it was a place to grow a family, and as our large family grew we had a safe place to go all over town.  The bowling alley was considered dangerous.  They had pinball machines.

My parents are still in the house that I grew up in, and looking at this documentary I see them searching for a place to raise a family, choosing Broomfield, and moving us there. I see my mother and father in these images, with the clothes of the era, and the hope and ideals that were from a time that Eisenhower passed the Presidency to Kennedy, and a torch was passed to that generation.

Looking at this did not make me want to return to the past.  That is never possible.  It was also a past where in first grade the whole town had regular drills with air raid alarms that “warned us” of a nuclear attack, and we were instructed to duck under our desks at Kohl School and cover ourselves from broken glass.  Of course, our skin would have melted, but we were prepared.

No, we can’t return to the past.  I am cautious about that idea.  That was then.

Now we can plan our own communities, in whatever manner we are able to arrange them.  Hopefully with tolerance and open hearts.

This documentary makes me appreciate the gift that I had to be raised with an ideal, albeit naive, that I can carry with me now.

Carlo Verdone Daniel McVicar foto by Roby Buscemi

I attended a marvelous screening from the Museum of Cinema here in Torino yesterday. Jacques Tati’s “Playtime”, an extraordinary film achievement that had recently been restored. The great film, putting Tati’s character Hurlot in a “modern” Paris was introduced and presented by one of Italy’s modern filmmaking treasures, Carlo Verdone.

Carlo Verdone has consistently been an inventive and successful filmmaker. His latest work, Io, Loro e Lara (Me, Them and Lara) is a great critical and box office success.  He was elegant and intelligent, and talked about “Playtime” in a way that put it in perspective with works today, as well as the great works of Buster Keaton.

It was a pleasure to great the Maestro, and enjoy a delicious evening of film magic.

Carlo Verdone Daniel McVicar foto by Roby Buscemi

The Powerbook 170

I was thinking back to old times, to former loves today. I came across a picture of a baby that I once had. It was back in 1991.

She was gorgeous, quite advanced at the time with 80 mb of hard disk storage, and I could upgrade to 8 whopping mb of ram.

Oh, the feel of the trackball on the Powerbook 170.  It could fax!  And the black and white screen was clear and beautiful.  She only cost $4500.

Times have changed, that is for sure.

I surprised him in rehearsal, and his partner was very surprised. Ronn knows me well, so he enjoyed the moment.

I got to see the fun 70s blacksploitation tribute by Scott Sanders, “Black Dynamite” with a wonderful finale that let’s us see Richard Nixon get what is coming to him.

Federico Zampaglione directed a scary survivor film with a message, “Shadow”.

Manetti Bros at the Noir Fest

The Manetti Bros film le “Cavie” made one morning horrific.

After a bit of time in this environment I started to feel like the Continental Op on a ski weekend.

Ezio Greggio and Daniel McVicar

Right after our Thanksdinner, I jumped down to Montecarlo to present a Platinum award at Ezio Greggio’s Monte Carlo Film Festival for comedy.

It’s great to see Ezio, and sharpen my with in Italian on stage.  He was sharp in four languages, English, Italian, Spanish and French. Grande!