Taormina is a spectacular venue for a film festival; a butterscotch town nestled into a vertigo-inducing Sicilian hilltop with the sparkling strait of Messina below it. Mega-yachts bob in the harbour, the weather is perfect, and the food is great.
That kind of beauty has pull. And film stars have flocked here over its 71 years (It’s Italy’s oldest film festival). From Audrey Hepburn to Tom Cruise, for a small festival it tends to punch above its weight when it comes to star power.
But Taormina has also had its problems. It has struggled with alternating management, ownership and even locations, switching to the unspectacular port town of Messina some years. James Gandolfini tragically died just hours before he was due to take the stage in 2013, and last year Nicolas Cage had to drop out of the gala presentation of The Surfer.
Until this festival’s recent announcement on the closing day of Cannes, it was not even clear it would go ahead. Then a succession of press releases confirmed it was shaping up to be a banner year, with perhaps Sicily’s favorite grandson, Martin Scorsese (both his parents were Sicilian) set to appear to accept the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Other distinguished guests were announced in quick succession; Michael Douglas, Catherine Deneuve, Monica Bellucci, Helen Hunt, Henry Cavill, Dennis Quaid, and Da ‘Vine Joy Randolph, appointed as head of the judging panel. Best of all, the first screening announced was of Taxi Driver in an ancient Greek amphitheater (the ‘Teatro Antico’), with the possibility of Scorsese in attendance. Sold.
“…film stars have flocked here over its 71 years…”
Prior issues with management and money also looked to be settled, with PR guru Tiziana Rocca returning after a hiatus, private sector funding in hand, thus bypassing the festival’s frequent battles with the impecuniosity of its prior organizers, the Sicilian government among them.
So, with things auguring so well, I booked my trip, looking forward to five days of sun and movies. Of course, seconds after I did so, Mount Etna – the forge of Vulcan, erupted, collapsing on one side in a scary echo of Mount St Helens. That’s not very reassuring behaviour from a colossus that looms above you in the Taormina sky like one of the UFOs in Independence Day.
Thankfully, the Fates and prevailing winds smiled, and the airport in Catania remained open. As my flight landed, Etna was still billowing smoke, but it no longer resembled a lava-streaked matte painting from a dinosaur movie.
Taormina is a small town, but when the festival arrives, it still manages to be rather discreet and tasteful about it. Some of the boutiques and shops jazz up their windows with decorations that look like they have been dumped there out of attics for decades (sun-bleached DVD of Staying Alive, anyone?) but other than that you’d barely know its here. The city hall (Palazzo Dei Congresso) transforms its insides into a nicely air-conditioned two-screen cinema for a few days, and the ten thousand-seat Teatro Antico does duty as a venue for movies, music, and awards ceremonies each evening.
“the boutiques and shops jazz up their windows with decorations that look like they have been dumped there out of attics for decades”
The festival runs for five days and consists of three sections: the international feature film competition, out of competition films, and special events at the Teatro Antico. The focus seems to be on snaring stars to promote features while letting the public at large just enjoy films. It didn’t seem like a place for hard sales or much of a target for awards glory. Little stock seemed to be placed on the competition itself; according to the regulations for a film to be eligible for the competition, it must be ‘premiering in Italy.’ But Together and Warfare, for example, have already been screened elsewhere? So when they say Premiere in Italy, I guess they mean Italian Premiere? I think. Is there a difference?
The opening day’s press briefing by the judging panel established a nice diversity of views on what cinema meant to them, from the possibility of social change to enabling dreams, and ‘making people better.’ I counted four Oscars in the panel, though three of them belonged to wardrobe guru Sandy Powell, channelling Ziggy Stardust with an uber cool bright crimson crop.
Next, I attended a press screening of the horror film Together. Once the film began, the ushers pestered each attendee with torches, checking their credentials. That was seriously disruptive and annoying, and it spoke of paranoia somewhere down the line or of struggles with the festival’s organization.
Which was a bellwether. I counted seven heads in that press screening, but I counted hundreds for the conversation with “Steven Gaydos, Charles Roven and Henry Cavill” which I attended afterwards. Sadly, Cavill was missing from these hundreds. And while Steven Gaydos and Chuck Roven are wonderful raconteurs, it was clear that the people dressed in Justice League T-shirts might wonder why Cavill wasn’t there as advertised.
But his absence wasn’t mentioned, let alone explained. Also, the event started an hour late. So, in actuality, that talk wasn’t strictly the next thing I went to; that was the meeting with the cast and director of Together, which had started ten minutes after the Cavill thing was advertised, but which then ran short. Got it? Good.
“…the people dressed in Justice League T-shirts might wonder why Cavill wasn’t there as advertised”
I had hoped to ask Cavill when we’ll get a sequel to his PC building video, or about his real-time strategy preferences when it comes to Warhammer 40K, but my ambitions were thwarted.
Instead, I was more than content to ask Charles Roven (producer of Oppenheimer and The Dark Knight!) how indie film makers might obtain boiler plate contracts to attract investment; a question I stumbled over so badly Roven thought I was asking what he pays his lawyers. Something he graciously disclosed to a hall full of film students.
So. ‘Marty’.
Martin Scorsese day, if you will, was the 12th June. He was scheduled to do an interview in the afternoon (conducted by Tiziana Rocca and Gaydos), then pick up an award in the Teatro Antico that evening. By now, I was hip. I went to the Scorsese interview an hour late and got there a half hour early.
“By now I was hip. I went to the Scorsese interview an hour late and got there a half hour early”
It was everything you could hope for. Scorsese is as good as an artist gets while remaining loquacious. My favorite gem from his long and thoughtful discussion: the scene in Goodfellas featuring his mother, when the guys are off to bury Billy Batts was all improvised around her performance, “she took control.” (Also – not that this came up – Goodfellas‘s title in Italian is “What a nice bunch of guys.” The more you know.
When Scorsese accepted his lifetime achievement award later that evening, the reverence from the crowd was palpable. He made some well-judged remarks about Frank Capra’s Sicilian roots, then grabbed his statue and left. Given that it was now 11 pm and Taxi Driver was still a half hour from showing, I just took my old bones off and watched it on Netflix in the comfort of my hotel.
And that is probably the most helpful advice I can give to anyone considering attending the festival (besides urging them to go) – don’t get hung up on paying for the premium tickets at the Teatro Antico – For 60 euro you sit in a plastic chair for about five hours while the schedule seems to run backwards. Sure, you’ll be able to touch the back of Dennis Quaid’s head or something, but it won’t be very comfortable for either of you.
Instead, get yourself into the cheap seats; a steal at only five euros a pop, the ‘bleachers’ in the Teatro Antico were built three thousand years ago and are infinitely more comfortable and spacious. The higher elevation also means you get to watch ‘Mama Etna’ perform over the top of the screen if she’s feeling entertaining (She famously erupted during the Ride of Valkyries in Apocalypse Now a few years ago.)
“…you take the rough with the smooth in Sicily, and you still tend to win…”
Sicily is a mixed bag as a tourist destination. Given sufficient time, you start to suspect every cheery waiter would happily kill you if it secured their escape. Also, Taormina is one of the few places there that is not plagued with trash, which seems to get everywhere (think of a beach holiday, but the foam you wade through is full of cigarette butts and chupa-chup wrappers.) You get used to it surprisingly quickly, though.
Anyway, the point is you take the rough with the smooth in Sicily, and you still tend to win; it’s a great place to visit. And, if you like movies, then I can’t imagine a better holiday than the Taormina Film Festival. It’s epic. Just don’t bother to bring a watch.
