Once upon a time in Rhodes

Sergio Leone, Il colosso di Rodi, 1961

 

For Michael Cimino by Raymond Carver

 The Juggler at “Heaven's Gate

by Raymond Carver, 1985
                                                                
                                                                 for Michael Cimino


Behind the dirty table where Kristofferson is having
breakfast, there's a window that looks onto a nineteenth-
century street in Sweetwater, Wyoming. A juggler
is at work out there, wearing a top hat and a frock coat,
a little reed of a fellow keeping three sticks
in the air. Think about this for a minute.
This juggler. This amazing act of the mind and hands.
A man who juggles for a living.
Everyone in his time has known a star,
or a gunfighter. Somebody, anyway, who pushes somebody
around. But a juggler! Blue smoke hangs inside
this awful café, and over that dirty table where two
grownup men talk about a woman's future. And something,
something about the Cattlemen's Association.
But the eye keeps going back to that juggler.
That tiny spectacle. At this minute, Ella's plight
or the fate of the emigrants
is not nearly so important as this juggler's exploits.
How'd he get into the act, anyway? What's his story?
That's the story I want to know. Anybody
can wear a gun and swagger around. Or fall in love
with somebody who loves somebody else. But to juggle
for God's sake! To give your life to that.
To go with that. Juggling.

That spider, it might be Lon Chaney

Say, pop! There's a great new joke going around school.
"Don't step on that spider, it might be Lon Chaney."
 
Di papà! C’è un nuovo grande scherzo in giro per la scuola
“Non calpestare quel ragno, potrebbe essere Lon Chaney”
Joseph Pevney, Man of a Thousand Faces, 1957

The offender Charles Chaplin

Ladies and gentlemen, this is Charlie Chaplin talking.
This is Hollywood, California in 1915 with its sun-kissed oranges and lemon groves, before it was visited by the 3 horsemen of the apocalypse: Oil, movies and aeronautics, who strolled the earth uprooting the orange and lemon trees, and in their stead built factories and motion picture studios.
I was one of the offenders. I wanted a studio in a hurry.
In the States, they do things in a hurry.
And, as if by magic, I got it.
 
Signore e signori, parla Charlie Chaplin.
Questa è Hollywood, in California, nel 1915 con i suoi aranceti e limoneti baciati dal sole, prima che fosse visitato dai 3 cavalieri dell'apocalisse: Petrolio, cinema e aeronautica, che vagavano per la terra sradicando gli aranci e i limoni, e al loro posto costruirono fabbriche e studi cinematografici.
Sono stato uno dei trasgressori. Volevo uno studio in fretta.
Negli Stati Uniti, fanno le cose di fretta.
E, come per magia, ce l'ho fatta.
The Chaplin Revue, 1959

 

Guys with camera

Look, Ellen, I've known a lotta guys that talk about decency and integrity.
I knew a guy once, a wonderful old man, a genius with a camera.
He used to take pictures of trees and clouds and children playing in the sands at ocean beach.
He tried to show me the beauty he saw in people in the world.
He was a great man, Ellen, and there were others.
Guys with paint brushes, guys with typewriters.
I even knew one who had a butcher shop, and you know what?
They all starved to death.
Decency and integrity are fancy words, Ellen, but they never kept anybody well fed.
And I've got quite an appetite.
 
Ascolta, Ellen, ho conosciuto un sacco di ragazzi che parlano di decenza e integrità.
Ho conosciuto un ragazzo una volta, un meraviglioso vecchio, un genio con una macchina fotografica.
Era solito fotografare alberi e nuvole e bambini che giocano nella sabbia della spiaggia dell'oceano.
Ha cercato di mostrarmi la bellezza che ha visto nelle persone nel mondo.
Era un grande uomo, Ellen, e ce n'erano altri.
Ragazzi con i pennelli, ragazzi con le macchine da scrivere.
Ne conoscevo anche uno che aveva una macelleria, e tu sai cosa?
Morirono tutti di fame.
Decenza e integrità sono parole di fantasia, Ellen, ma non hanno mai tenuto ben nutrito nessuno.
E ho un bel po' di appetito.
Joseph Pevney, Shakedown, 1950

 

Perfido inganno

I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets.
And he who falls beneath her spell has need of God's mercy.

Trovo più amara della morte la donna il cui cuore è fatto di trappole e inganni.
E chi cade sotto il suo incantesimo ha bisogno della misericordia di Dio
 
Robert Wise,Walter Slezak, Born to Kill (Perfido inganno),1947
 

 

Tribes, Natalie & John Ford

 Natalie Kalmus Technicolor Color Director in John Ford's, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, 1949