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| Ferzan Ozpetek |
I’d love to meet the Italian actors and actresses that I write about – let’s hope their English is better than my Italian if I ever do. I did meet actor Silvio Orlando at the Eden Film Center in Rome a few years back, and I use the word “meet” loosely because it was more like me seeing him in the lobby and then going all “starstruck fan” on him and him nodding politely.
You do realize that I could have embellished this story? – We talked, hit it off, had dinner, we’re now planning a vacation together… (is it too late to go back and erase the part about me awkwardly accosting him? )
I play that game all the time, the “What 3 famous people living or dead would you invite to dinner” game, and they are always Italian actors, actresses, and directors that I’d invite but the names vary. Today I’ll say that I’d invite Luigi Lo Cascio (I always invite him), Margherita Buy, and Ferzan Ozpetek. I’ve been wanting to talk to Ferzan.
Two problems with this: 1) I’ll probably never get to meet him and thus probably never get to have dinner with him and 2 ) what I’d like to talk to him about might be a little impertinent. Actually, super impertinent. But if he’s the open minded guy that I’m sure he is he might consider what I have to say.
Ferzan, your movies are too gay. How’s that for a conversation starter?
I’m joking, a little. I don’t mean for a minute that you should not make movies about homosexuals and I want you to know that I think that you have done a great service by making Italian movies about people who are gay. I’m sure that there are people all over Italy (and the world) that are encouraged and validated by your movies and…BRAVO! Good job!
But I read an interview with you and you were quoted as saying, “My dream is one day not to have a ‘gay section’ (of a DVD department). In that interview you talked about how you hate it when people focus too much on the gay stuff in your movies, but I think that’s because you do it first.
Your movies are smart, funny, and thought provoking, but sometimes you make the homosexuals into cliches, and the parts of your movie that focus on gay relationships are a little contrived. You are such a good filmmaker and I think that if you just made your gay characters as natural as your straight ones, you’d be considered a genius. If you could just tell a story with gay people in it ( like “La Bestia Nel Cuore) instead of making it all about homosexuality, I’d like it better.
I realize that this might seem like disrespectful and unmerited criticism, coming from an idiot American blogger who knows nothing about making movies, but hear me out.
My husband watched Mine Vaganti with me and while we both enjoyed it very much my husband felt that it was dated – and I think that’s fair to say. It reminded me of the way we used to portray homosexuals in the US when people were first starting to feel comfortable with homosexuals in stories. In your movies,do your gay characters have to be so eccentric? I know that some of them are a little normal, but those are the ones that are having some trouble with their sexual identities. And do all of their friends have to be so eccentric? Couldn’t they have a normal accountant guy friend or how about a middle age idiot American blogger lady friend? I get the feeling that they’d never like me because I’m not funky enough.
And you know, people don’t really talk that way, the way you have them all talking at dinner parties. Sometimes they do, but you’d be lucky with 10 minutes of the witty banter that you’ve got going in your movies at a real dinner party.
I know. I know. This is not fair, someone like me making these stupid comments. But they are my impressions, take them for what they are worth (not much, maybe). And if you and I were at real dinner party right now having this conversation, I’d love to hear you tear my arguments to shreds because – I love to argue.
So Ferzan, if you read this, come to dinner and we’ll talk.
Ferzan Ozpetek films (director)
2010 Loose Cannons
2009 L’Aquila 2009 – Cinque registi tra le macerie (video documentary short) (segment “Nonostante tutto è Pasqua”)
2008 A Perfect Day
2007 Saturn in Opposition
2005 Cuore sacro
2003 Facing Windows
2001 The Ignorant Fairies
1999 Harem suaré
I Love Italian Everything 