Hello blog followers.
Sorry for the long delay between posts. Making this movie in Serbia and managing affairs back home has been more than a full time gig this past month.
But idle hands are the devil's workshop, and I did have some late night time to finish drawing this comic book yarn of my adventures over here which I will be posting in installments for you to follow.
Enjoy!
william
My new neighborhood in Belgrade is called Dorćol.
It is not far from the Danube and it has a kind of "On The Waterfront" quality of old streets and industrial warehouses common to riverside living.
This is my street. What, can't read the cyrillic street sign?
Here's my apartment building. It has a wrought iron gated entrance and the stairway looks a bit industrial/spartan but the place is really nice and light and airy.
This is my corner store of the Mom and Pop variety featured worldwide. Nelson Algren could have written about Lefty Bicek going there to get a "Bottle Of Milk For Mother".
Some buildings remind me of Old Havana with their crumbling facades and interesting architectural details.
There is a green market a few blocks away. It must be radish season as the place was a riot of endless bunches of red radishes. I hear some people like radishes. I am not one of them. But I was glad to wander this farmer's market and find some fresh produce for healthy eating in the new pad.
More importantly, I was glad to discover that my new neighborhood also featured a bookie joint and a strip bar, just in case I was getting too Mr. Natural for what is, after all, Eastern Europe.
At first glance Striptis sounded like a throat lozenge brand, until I was able to translate its neon sign to "striptease".
Back in the '90's NATO bombs fell here, but now there is evidence everywhere of a different kind of "bomber" - the graffiti artists who are tagging the old city. I liked this woman's portrait and the urban landscape it graces.
Today was my first day to wander around after the 24/7 rigors of preparing the movie the last few weeks since I arrived. I feel like I have only barely scratched the surface of my new neighborhood, but so far it reminds me of certain parts of Chicago back in the old days, maybe in the back streets around Goose Island!
No coincidence that Chicago is said to have the second largest Serbian population outside of Belgrade!
Enjoy!
william
I have been to Rome many times.
At the turn of the last century, I was involved in making three movies there over the course of a few years - (now that was a fun sentence to write!) But this weekend, thanks to my old friend and co-worker on The Talented Mr. Ripley, Laura Luchetti, I got to visit another side of Rome that I had not seen before, the neighborhood of Pigneto, once made famous by Pier Paulo Pasolini in films like Accattone!, always literally and figuratively the other side of the tracks, and now a slowly emerging gentrifying area of artists and cafes and bohemian vibrations.
The long walk from Rome's Termini Station to Pigneto was hard on the old still-suffering foot, but it was a fascinating landscape unlike a typical touristic view of the city. I had not been back to Rome for a number of years, but this street felt more like the existential landscape that Antonioni favored back in the '60's.
The Piazza di Pigneto is across the train tracks that give the area a natural border or boundary, and it definitely felt like crossing over into another world, a neighborhood that has had a more violent recent past, like Venice Beach back in the '80's, or certain areas of the Chicago I grew up in.
Pasolini's Accattone!
Hidden away on the Via Fanfulla da Lodi, which was not on the map and quite hard to locate with my incredibly rusty and limited Italian, was this nice outdoor cafe from 1924, Trattoria Necci, which is a kind of nexus of the artistic life of the area, and a place that Pasolini himself used to frequent (before his own violent and untimely demise, murdered by being run over by his own car in Ostia in 1975, a case that is still unsolved as to the actual perpetrators and motive.)
It was such a pleasant afternoon that our conversation and thoughts strayed far away from any Pasolini-esque quality of our experience, but I left motivated to rewatch and rediscover this artist, poet, journalist and filmmaker and his own view of the other side of Rome.
Enjoy!
william
Lunch today in the wonderful Gerloczy cafe in Budapest.
Inspired by their collection of old local advertisements on the walls, and tried to grab a few snaps of same to share with you here, in between spoonfuls of the Goulash soup and bites of their streudel!
Enjoy!
william
City Hall, Subotica, Serbia
Dom Square, Szeged, Hungary
I'm back from my trip to snowy, icy Berlin.
If you think walking on crutches with one bum foot is hard, try doing it on an ice skating rink!
But despite the cold and the hazardous conditions, it was great to hit the road again and push myself to get out of my comfort zone a bit and introduce my foot back into some real world conditions. Life is not all flat floors and Southern California weather.
Berlin's Alexanderplatz, along with much of the city, has changed tremendously since Rainer Werner Fassbender made his 18 hour film of the same name here many years ago.
But the more things change, the more some things stay the same, like love and marriage and family. My good friend, the German filmmaker Tom Tykwer and his lovely bride Marie celebrated their wedding last weekend, and held a rocking all-night party in a beautiful old hall in the former East Berlin so friends and family could join in making whoopee to honor the occasion.
Tom and I met over ten years ago when Harvey Weinstein sent Anthony Minghella and I to Berlin to sit down with the young star director of "Run, Lola, Run" and talk about his new project, a film based on a screenplay by the late Polish director Krystof Kieslowski called "Heaven".
Tom's wedding was also a nice chance for me to reconnect with some of the talented German crew who worked with me on "Heaven" in Italy all those years ago.
As one might expect in a union of artists, the assembled guests put on a veritable variety show of talent in the cabaret-like setting.
One of Marie's childhood friends sang arias from Puccini a capella; one of the actors from Tom's new movie "3" or "Drei" in German, picked up an acoustic guitar and led the crowd of international baby boomers in a rousing version of "Hey Jude". One colorfully dressed actor led an interactive comedy routine which unfortunately was completely lost in translation to me, but had the crowd in stitches.
Crutches or not, when the spirit moves you, you have to Bust A Move, and even the camera couldn't capture my blazing moves on the dance floor!
:)
But while the party for the director of "3" was definitely a "10", by far the best part of the trip for me was meeting and hanging out with young Toto Tykwer for the first time.
The dude is a charmer, and seems to share Diego's preference for eating bread a whole loaf at a time!
None of that "half a loaf is better than none" philosophy for this new generation apparently!
Please join me in wishing Viel Glück! to the new Tykwer family.
Enjoy!
william
Before my accident I was planning a post about ancient monkeys and steep steps.
Funny how in this new context these images seem a bit prescient, and even more relevant to share here with you now.
This wise old dude is part of a tribe of macaque monkeys who have made a home at the Batu Caves on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur for untold generations. Nimble and sure-footed, he and his pals scamper up and down the hundreds of steep steps to the entrance, dodging and flirting with tourists, climbing the walls or just sitting on top of a light globe and gazing out with an expression of endless serenity.
I've promised myself I'm going to get back there someday and walk those steps again on my reconstructed foot. These images will serve as an inspiration, and a reminder of how to roll, by some guys that are really light on their feet!
Enjoy!
william
Alfred, Bruce Wayne and Commissioner Gordon have never been to this Bat Cave!
But I have!
Caves are curious places - openings to another world within ours, a nether world - that beckon exploration and excite our imagination, and are the natural stuff of myth and legend.
The Batu Caves are a half-hour drive out of Kuala Lumpur, and then about a half-hour walk up the seeming thousand stairs to the entrance, at least for us older, out-of-shape folks.
In the thick humidity of this temperate zone tourist destination, I was surprised to find this sign at the top of the steep climb - AS IF they had to tell us!
The geological formations in and around the caves are part of nature's process of carving these 400 million year old limestone hills into Gaudi-like shapes enshrouding the entrance.
The Hindu shrines outside and within dedicated to Lord Murugan make this a popular destination of worship as well. In February the anual Thaipusam festival finds tens of thousands of penitents and devotees marching from Kuala Lumpur to the caves and crowding the hollow caverns within.
The squeaking and chattering of the fruit bats on the ceiling provide the lively soundtrack that gives this cave its name, but there are other curious denizens lurking here that seem oblivious to the Hindu gods and teeming humanity and in word and deed declare: this place is ours!
Enjoy!
william
NEXT: More about the creatures of the Bat Cave
Despite the jet lag of our almost twenty-four hour journey, we arrived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia yesterday and took in the sights and sounds of the local market on our first afternoon here. It is Ramadan so may businesses have stalls out along the street with all of their colorful wares on display.
I particularly enjoyed the many mannequin heads with their hijabs or head scarves. One Malaysian dollar or ringgit is about .31 cents US so these seem quite reasonably priced.
I don't know if it was the language barrier or my utter lack of coherency after the long flight but I couldn't get any of these local gals to strike up a conversation with us.
While a predominantly Muslim country, there are many Chinese and Indian and other people also living here in this heterogenous place, so the head scarf is not entirely ubiquitous, as this fashionable duo can attest. I am here with a small group scouting locations for a new movie project I hope to be able to tell you about soon.
It looks like this one fashionista has already "gone Hollywood" with her sunglasses and shawl. She certainly knows the Hollywood rule to "follow the money" as she has set herself up in a propitious spot right next to the local currency exchange. Unfortunately, no screen test for her this time! :(
Our indefatigable young guide Tiak, pictured above, offered to take us clubbing after a tasty meal at a local restaurant, but it was still 4:30 a.m. as far as our body clocks were concerned, so we retired to the comfort of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in the shadows of the huge Petronas Towers right behind us.
Cool place so far!
Enjoy!
william
