“In the 50’s, here you could run into Pier Paolo Pasolini and Elsa Morante, but also lots of young painters and moviemakers. We all shared a very heady cultural experience which I can only fully appreciate as time goes by.” Pirro, Italian scriptwriter who has twice been awarded the Oscar for Best Script, for Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto) and The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (Il giardino dei Finzi Contini), compares the golden years of the 50’s with the present times, and the launching of new projects related to cinema on the occasion of the RomeFilmFest.

 

“I’ve lived in the city center for a long time, not far from the Piazza del Popolo. Before that, I lived in Vigna Clara and, even though it was much farther out, I used to go to Piazza del Popolo every evening. We always met at the Caffè Rosati. No need to make any appointment, certainly not by phone. We used to meet there and then decide what to do. At the beginning, in the aftermath of the Second World War, I was kind of broke and sometimes I couldn’t even order a glass of water at Rosati’s. Then I just sat there and talked with my friends, who were basically filmmakers, scriptwriters, artists or producers. The waiters allowed me to do so because they knew me. There was a friendly feeling floating all over the place. We used to talk a lot about cinema, of course, but also about art, since lots of our friends were painters.
 
“The cinema community also gathered  just behind Via dell’Oca, in the ANAC main offices, the association of film writers, quite respected back then. There were often clashes between the two big groups of directors and scriptwriters: the comedians and those who looked for a more dramatic approach. I was for the second group. We felt different. There was a kind of rivalry in artistic terms between us and them. We didn’t really like them, with only one exception: Totò, the prince. An outstanding actor and a fabulous mime, even though he often lacked an equally good script. He never hung out at Piazza del Popolo; he was usually too busy and a bit reserved, I think. We were young and carefree, we used to hold amazing parties. I remember one we had in Via Margutta, where the sculptor Consagra met his future wife, an American tourist who just couldn’t believe our enthusiasm. Later on, our financial situation improved and we started to eat out at least once every day: at Otello, at Re degli amici, at Cesaretto but mostly at Menghi, who let us pay on credit, thus feeding a lot of penniless artists.”

 

“Anyway, the starting point was always Rosati. There we had long discussions and wrote scripts and developed characters. And there we stayed until we were forced to leave, right after the tragic events that took place at Circeo. The right-wing boys who killed Rosaria Lopez and raped Donatella Colasanti came from the group of kids who used to gather at Piazza Euclide. After that happened, the police began to harrass the bunch of spoiled brats, who then fled towards Piazza del Popolo trying to avoid run-ins with the police. We the artists were basically regarded as enemies since we were politically oriented to the left, so we chose to meet instead at the Baretto at Via dell’Oca. Those were intense years, made up of unique people and places. Since then, demonstrations, political gatherings and music events have all taken place at Piazza del Popolo. But it was never again what it used to be back in the days. At least not until now, with Veltroni bringing the RomeFilmFest right here.

 

An anecdote? In 1954, I bought my first car. It was a small station wagon. First thing I did was go to Piazza del Popolo, and I parked it just under the obelisk. It was the only car parked in the whole square. 50 years have gone by now and, after all this time and all the traffic woes, you can’t even park a tiny station wagon.”