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April 10, 2001

After photos and tons of forms, I was "in"!

Part 2 - The costume test - Thanks Pax

After a few days went by, I was recalled for the costume test. I don't want this to be a controversial document, but I won't stop myself in saying that the job of that day could have been hurried in a couple of hours. I remained at Cinecittà at least eight hours! The wait was rewarded toward six in the afternoon when all the extras were dressed, made up, and groups in uniforms were viewed by the head costume designer, the Oscar-winner for the costumes of Shakespeare in Love. And so we were divided into more groups according to the physical characteristics. The boys with the long hair were "Swamp Angels", others were the "Frogs", others with particular morphological characteristics were called "Satan's Circus." The more likeable tall ones were the "Brewery Boys" (I wonder if he really means "Bowery Boys") with checkered dungarees, light jackets and tall hats. Among the "Dead Rabbits" was me, and I don't know according to what rule I was chosen. I know only that I was very fortunate. My costume consisted of a long grey shirt down to the knees, beige suspenders, gilet (?) bordeaux, a splendid black jacket in frayed denim and very wide pants that reached almost to under the armpits. If it had not been for the size of the pants that gave me the silhouette of an Easter egg, I would be defined as a scheming hooligan but for the rest I could not complain.

The makeup for all the gangs was instead similar: greasy hair, black fingernails and hands, dirty face all the way up to inside the ears. That was the first serious contact with the world of the "characters" and the sweaty hands of all gave the confirmation of it. The costume designer wore not with a lot of simplicity jeans too tightly fitted, boots pitonati(?) and a very adherent black mogliettina(?) on which long red hair was supported. Therefore we were equipped with identity but the American names that distinguished us didn't really say anything. Who were the "Bourgeois?" Who were the "Dead Rabbits?" And above all what role did we have? The questions were the only motive for distraction of that long and tiresome costume test.

Part 3 - A City in CINECITTÀ!

The filming began around September 20, but I was called on October 4 and I had opportunity to visit the set and the varied theaters for the inside filming. The area in which I wandered as Alice in Wonderland covered at least four square kilometers and was therefore easy to feel like I was in the mid-1800's if it had not been for some technicians working or for the tall towers from which they hung the white curtains used for regulating the blinding lights of the reflectors. Everything was very accurate, the roads, the central plaza, the walls dirty from smoke and traces of the first forms of advertising, the wagons. Every detail was worthy of attention, from the windows of the houses to the staircases of the church, not to speak of how every part in wood appeared to really have resulted from bad weather giving a real sense to the whole environment of ancient, of lived, the color typical of the New York settlers in the full of the industrial revolution. You imagine therefore to really be in New York, one hundred and fifty years ago, among flea-bitten emporiums, salespeople of oysters, funeral agencies and crowded beer houses, everything overhung by a providential leaden sky offered from Rome. For how much the city was perfect, what took my breath away was the port. Large as a soccer field and more, the port was like true, a square kilometer of sea with algae, small boats and barges and wonder, the perfect reconstruction of two dream ships with the bows turned towards the dry land, the tavern and the replacements. On the background, an enormous wall embanked the sea giving the strong and suggestive feeling of the horizon, but seeing the perimeter I had the impression of being inside the Truman Show of Jim Carrey.

I was then to peer in at the Theater 5, stage of the scene in which the classic meets the classic, but I will speak later of that. The theater welcomed the inside of the "Old Brewery", the old beer house whose façade is found instead near the central plaza of the city reconstructed on the set. The brewery was a great place of rectangular form with a downstairs which was entered through different staircases, and it was also possible to reach two higher floors along the walls. From the same premises it was possible to enter the "Satan's Circus", a real saloon, a masterpiece of the Italian scenography company as is the whole rest of the set. The particularity of the Satan's Circus was determined by the counter of the cafe, on which they left to fall from the ceiling the big roots of a tree, marvelous, you were sure that climbing upstairs you would have found a tree, but there was only a series of unmentionable machinery.

Part 4 - WHO? DICAPRIO? THAT THERE?

The first scene that we filmed, or more accurately, that they filmed took place in the beer house mentioned before. Situation: the missionaries of the city organize a party in the beer house, in which participates in mass the inhabitants of New York. The apex of the evening is reached in the moment in which the queen (Cameron Diaz) of the festivity chooses the knight that will dance with her the whole evening. I learned in that occasion the meaning of "stand-in." The stand-in is an extra that, having the physical characteristics very similar to those of the principal actors, is used for trying the lights and the positions of the scene to film, so the stars avoid a long job. The job of the stand-ins ended, the superstars made their entrance.

I barely recognized Leonardo DiCaprio. When The Beach went out to the cinemas in Italy, I was abroad and I had not had the opportunity to observe the obvious transformation of the Romeo of the future. My image of DiCaprio was therefore still tied up to films as Marvin's Room or Man in the Iron Mask or still to Titanic. He appeared without warning, tall at least a meter and 80, very wide shoulders, with a solemn gait and amused. What struck me a lot was the head, indeed very large. He had long hair, some locks were picked up in a beautiful hairslide of leather, the very pronounced arched eyebrows framing together with the cheekbones two celestial eyes that justified the usual sighs of all the girls on the set. A beautiful boy there is no denying it, very grown, this is perhaps the first film in which we will see him relatively bearded, but with the ability to also appear twenty years old, having twenty-seven of them.(He has Leo's age wrong) His costume in the scene was very similar to mine, certainly he was the head of the Dead Rabbits, I was a Dead Rabbit and this meant two things and two good things: more possibilities to appear in the film, and more days of work!

That scene was repeated forty times the first day and at least thirty the following day, this is understood because we also worked 16 hours in a row. The queen Diaz's choice happened so: she is seated holding a mirror in her hand to see over her shoulders, while behind of her a long line of aspiring knights stand all along the whole place. When Diaz chose DiCaprio the missionary in the film pronounced the sentence "The queen has chosen" determining to begin dancing! In the ended film the scene will perhaps last one minute but for us the queen chose at least seventy times! A little returning back would be necessary to say that among the pretenders to the queen discarded before Leonardo DiCaprio, was Mr. Henry Thomas, really him, the small Elliot of E. T. which while being presented to the queen brought tightly to his breast a wooden box and yielded his place to the next one(?). We immediately were struck by the ease of the actors while almost regardless of the hundred extras present, they spoke to each other, playing and not hiding a strong American slang. We will never forget the fights of karate between DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz between one take and the other. Other days we were employed for the dance, a disaster at the beginning! Imagine the choreographers trying to teach the waltz to all of us, falling to pieces, but very comic, also because DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz had to dance between us and while he had to recite the part of an embarrassed one simulating heavily stepping on her feet, between us the denied there were indeed, but the everything favored the truthfulness of the scene(?). We immediately learned that the set is not a game, many were expelled for understandable but not justifiable negligence.

to be continued.....

Part 15: Mata Hari's Diary

Neeson / Day Lewis, insults among star
The scene of the battle sees the death of Priest Vallon for hand of The Butcher. The two actors have perfectly entered the part. Also too much...
by Mata Hari

The first fifteen minutes of Gangs of New York propongoo to the spectators the battle among the two rival gangs, Dead Rabbits and Natives. The matter will be concluded with the death of Liam Neeson / Priest Vallon, father, in the film, of Leo Of Caprio / Amsterdam Vallon, for hand of the Butcher / Daniel Day Lewis. The hate among the characters now interpreted by the two protagonists of this first quarter of, dev'essere made to the best. The two actors, have decided then,-when total identification is said! - not to speak to him seriously. Never. To see to move them on the set, also when you/he/she is not being turned some scene, Neeson and Day Lewis it seems that in reality is still reciting, and the thing makes impression: they are not looked, they are avoided, they are ignored. More: the two is daily sent e-mail to the vetriolo, dripping insults and threats type: "ugly bastard, does asunder you!" or "So much you die!" and other robetta of the kind. This also explains the position sensitive person that is breathed on the set during the resumptions of I meet him/it. The beginning of the battle is preceded by two brief exchanges of accusations and threats among the two respective heads. In the silence of the resumption the hoarse voice of Daniel Day Lewis/The butcher echoes, dark, incattivito, folded up in such way that seems to have even a hump as a cat before the assault. Liam Neeson/Priest Vallon, on the opposite front, you/he/she has answered to the adversary in more peaceful way. In hand it has a long baton that culminates with a cross. It seems a messia. The order so expected vine finally given. "You depart!." Now it is the time to give her for him of holy reason. The Nativeses cast for air the cylinder that you/they have in head, then, street!, they are launched of run as bulls become furious against the adversaries. What to them it turns they depart to the attack. The hot heads that compose these two gangs seem some real malavitosis: with suits of all the colors and all the possible manners, armed with batons, lances and knives, and they howl as beasts. The impact is hard and the ciaks are repeated; sometimes it is difficult to disentangle the skein of people that is formed to the center of Paradise Square, whose terrestrial a kind of enormous blackish puddle immediately becomes, half mud, half false snow. Someone is bruised seriously, someone, at the end of the resumptions, it has out the fiatone and the language some mouth. Among a shot and the other, actors, stunt and appearances that compose the gangs they get further; then they come into play, rapid, the propmen reenter for renewing the pretense snow. It is gone before so up to the end. The battle, as it is known, it is concluded with the death of Priest Vallon father of Amsterdam. This last, child, has seen all from the tall one. The hate in its mind is so instilled. To regulate the accounts with the assassin of his/her father will owe to attend fifteen years and the entrance in scene-in the true sense of the word-of Leo Of Caprio.

(Tuesday January 23rd 2001)

Part 14:

preparations for the battle
The appearances and the stunts receive the last orders to turn the scene of I meet him/it among the two gangs. The two protagonists, Liam Neeson and Daniel Day Lewis, are assembled - to them way - waiting for the ciak by Mata Hari

It is been about to turn the scene of battle among gang. It is almost all hello. Martin and his train of collaborators it places in the building of the Funeral Parlour, that is leaned out on the Paradise Square. The Teacher will howl through his orders a megaphone. For the cast it strolls about on the set a wheelbarrow with heaps of fruit shoal, biscuits to the chocolate, to the coconut, tozzetti, fresh fruit, all stuff to which however the appearances cannot draw near. Piled up and hidden behind the scenographies there are the sacks of chemical salt that the propmen, to every stop, they will have to be quick in the rispargere anywhere to recreate the effect snow of which we have already spoken. The scene will be filmed by three different points of view: a first car will be placed in front of the Funeral Parlour-the "field base" of Scorsese - and it will probably serve to follow some low details of the battle (the car on the easel is systematized in fact to few earth centimeters); a second car is instead on a long joined dolly, always in front of the Funeral Parlour and it will follow battle from the tall one and in the details; the third car will recover attack from the part of the gang headed by Liam Neeson the Dead Rabbits. It will be treated, in this case, of a subjective: the spectator, to understand us, will be seen to come against on I screen him/it the furious Nativeses of Day Lewis / Big Butcher. Before starting, the organizer of the appearances tells his boys: "before they are there obviously the generic stunt...Vois behind, you serve as dish of peas." It intends: you will make mass, and enough. Further notice - all anything else other than superfluous: "I recommend to me, you change the true weapons with the pretenses, you don't confuse." Then, after having clarified in the least details to everybody whether to move, to the Nativeses whether to toss the hats up in the air-gesture that will start the real position - the last invitation arrives: "burdened!." Here then that all the bedlam is instigated together: it howls wild, cries of battle, insults, "Strength Rome!", "Lazio merda!" and other carineries that is not the case to repeat, produce in few instants a climate of sovreccitazione and collective hilarity difficult to manage. The actors are been by their song invited to focus: Liam Neeson, however, is well soon taken by the general climate that is breathed and he also bursts to laugh as a crazy person. Daniel Day Lewis, stays instead impassive: the dark face, standing, serious and in a position that does him/it also seem a hunchbacked po, it is there and it seems to not to acknowledge what happens around him. Behind the gang of the Dead Rabbits, already lined up, behind the reconstruction of the houses, there is a high ground with other cottages, always part of the scenography, with so many small children that will look at the battle. Among these there is also the piccoletto that interprets the role of Amsterdam/bambino, what will be, from adult, Leo Of Caprio. This child is perhaps ten years old, you/he/she is almost entirely trimmed, white, with slow to contact blue, that make his look as that of a cat or of a Martian. But here, the voice of Scorsese suddenly gives the announcement. It is turned: the battle has beginning...

(Tuesday January 23rd 2001)

Part 13

Liam Neeson, the corpse what it smokes
Scorsese is prepared to turn a scene clou of the film, the funeral of the dad of Amsterdam - Of Caprio, but first it is necessary to end the sequence of the fierce battle among the rival gangs
by Mata Hari The workmanship of a film often lives apparent temporal paradoxes that the spectators in the cinema don't suspect and of which, not even they know often,: it is turned that is according to the demands of the script and the set, it is gone before and back in the time resuscitando characters that only the week before you/they had died or, contrarily they are made to die later characters that a few days all lively ones, they are found again in front of the taking car. All of this is occurred, and you/he/she could not be otherwise, also in the set of Gangs of New York. Cinecittà, first afternoon. From the compact and grey sky a light rain and a po it goes down annoying. Every thing, of the scenographies, is bleached: balusters, roofs, staircases, windowsills, everything. Water makes even more rapid the breakup of the chemical salt scattered by the propmen to create the effect "snow." We find to us in Paradise Square. On the opposite side to the factory of beer (that that, in the chronology of the film, in fifteen years it will be the Five Point Mission and where the Satan Circus is also, the place of Natives), before the next ciak-I don't know how much thin of it has been beaten to now -, Daniel Day Lewis, with in the hand the usual blue cup of tea, chatter and it receives the last directives from Martin, that is taking in turn to bites a beautiful stick of chocolate: the Teacher is moved among the chairs near a television camera in front of the Funeral Parlour (more or less, the morgue) and he doesn't mind, while he is talking to Daniel, to Liam Neeson that, him of it to the appearance of everything and all, you/he/she blissfully smokes behind of them a cigarette, stretched out mean on bench a po lopsided. Small anticipation: the Funeral Parlour is the place where a crucial scene will be turned in a short while: the ostentation, in showcase, of the dead body of Liam Neeson, dad, in the film, of Amsterdam - Of Caprio. The baby will see the body without life of the poor dad shown as in a shop there, image that will upset him/it and you/he/she will make him meditate, from that moment, revenge, awful revenge... Today The scene in program is in fact ambientata proper to the epoch in which it is a child Amsterdam-of Caprio (Leo to the moment should be home in the States). The matter is preannounced enough savory, treating himself/herself/itself of a beautiful battle among rival gang. An armed with appearances and stunt has already been being assembled for the morning. Here and there leaned to an angle, piled up on a box or for earth, here are batons, strong clubs, axes, knives, spites, harpoons: both true weapons-in metal and wood, strong and lefts-that pretenses, those of rubber and plastics that actors, stunt and appearances will have to use for the crucial and bloody moments of the resumptions. In front of the entrance of the browery, the factory of beer there is the women of the Nativeses-stunt also they, dress up with pelliccioni and suits from the garish colors. To their sides, opposed the one to the others on the plaza, the opposite line up they are prepared: the Dead Rabbits, that will be headed by Liam Neeson-in the film it is the father of Leo / Amsterdam-and that they are to them it turns an admixture of different gang, distinguishable, the one from the other, from the mud on the face and on the trimmed head that you/they have some, from the red beret of others, green of other anchor and so street; on the other side there is the gang to the orders of Daniel Day Lewis / Big Butcher, the Nativeses: these seem more fichettis and orderly, all with a recognizable cylinder in head, less the adversaries' dirts, but not for this their aspect is more reassuring...

(Friday January 19 th 2001)