ALFONSO SANSONE
PRODUCER BY CHANCE
Subtitles provided with a contributionfrom the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
I went to Sicily to film two documentaries and I usually used Enrico Chroscicki who was a friend of mine at the experimental centre in 1947.
Giancarlo Santi
I do not know the origin of Chroscicki, I know he was a Polish stateless person.
Helen Pringle
He was born and raised in Warsaw, the family was Jewish, his father said "things are getting bad here" and he convinced half of the family to go to Australia.
LEVINE VLADY CHROSCICKI
Francesco Maselli
I did not know anyone in Sicily, I knew a poet, Ignazio Butitta, and he told me "in Palermo you have to go to a bookstore where there are two young guys, the Sansone brothers who are very interested in cinema..."
... I found this bookstore and I went in and said, "Are the Sansone brothers here?" they started laughing, "It’s me" Agostino said, "my brother is not here now but I am one of the two brothers"... and we immediately became friends.
Agostino Sansone
We had created a small nucleus of cinema equipment in Palermo and he took something to do some shootings...
Francesco Maselli
Then I met Alfonso ...
Alfonso Sansone
We created, with some other friends, a company to experiment with new methods and then, without too much imagination, we called it Sperimental Film
Agostino Sansone
We had a friend who we had convinced to enroll the "National Film School" he returned with another student director, Fernando Birri, and we made a documentary on Selinunte together.
Alfonso Sansone
In the meantime, a law came out in Sicily that subsidized film and documentary activities so we took advantage of it. I started coming to Rome and through friends like Citto Maselli, Mario Verdone who was Carlo's father, we entered the Roman cinema environment that was unknown to us.
MARIO VERDONE
Agostino Sansone
Meanwhile the circle of our acquaintances in Rome had expanded, we had made friends with this Chroscicki who had come to Sicily as well.
Francesco Maselli
They then made friends with this Chroscicki character who was a curious character, because he was unprejudiced, resourceful, serious
Agostino Sansone
I personally had some misunderstandings with him, because he was someone who wanted to do business the right away and it is not easy, then he showed that it was easy for him, and he did it
He always did his best, he had made a kind of contract with Schuller who was the German representative of Arriflex and was a very difficult character, but he established a good relationship with him and even bought a very good Arriflex from him, I don't know how he found the money.
Alfonso Sansone
These young directors like Rossellini and others used to meet up in piazza del Popolo in two cafes: Canova and Rosati.
Giancarlo Santi
The aperitif at Rosati and lunch at the Bolognese would definitely be a contract that was going well... there was this very precise superstition about the places to go to
Helen Pringle
The weather was always wonderful in Rome so we would walk up and down Via Veneto to meet friends because everyone used to be there, there were no mobile phones at the time, but if someone was looking for my husband according to what time it was I knew more or less where he would be.
Alfonso Sansone
Canova and Rosati were friends and rivals
Agostino Sansone
Flaiano used to go to Canova’s but did not go to Rosati’s
Alfonso Sansone
But everybody had a common intent, making movies and being able to do them, because there was no money.
Francesco Maselli
I remember that when Chroscicki was at the experimental centre he always accompanied us in his car because he had a Volkswagen, it was a German war remnant, it had no brakes, there really weren't any, they were mechanical brakes and they were broken and there wasn't even a pedal... yes, there was a pedal, but it was useless... and he was so good, he was such an expert driver that he braked with the gear, putting a lower gear, but in short it was something to think about later when I started to drive also I get the chills just thinking about it... then to brake he made a turn in a lower gear for which the car stopped.
Alfonso Sansone
This car carried almost all the directors around the city, a kind of Chroscicki's taxi.
Francesco Maselli
He was an assistant operator, he used to put up this tripod which back then, was used to make good panning shots, it was the Cartoni tripod, which is a Roman company, but which had a very heavy panning shots holder, so carrying this tripod on your back was a nightmare, it was a problem and Enrico did it very easily.
Helen Pringle
He always did everything alone he did not like to delegate anyone.
Alfonso Sansone
He went to war in the east
Helen Pringle
He was a volunteer but as he was not Australian and he was in Australia, they did not send him abroad for fear of espionage and he was kept in Australia where he did his military service
Alfonso Sansone
He had seriously injured his head
Helen Pringle
He was injured in a truck accident, he was a passenger and the truck went off-road, in fact, he had a cut on his head
Alfonso Sansone
It had been a year of convalescence and then they told him that they would give him a prize
Helen Pringle
My husband finally received a scholarship at the experimental centre where he learned to be a director, in fact he had a diploma as a director, he made a film as a director but he didn't like it, he liked the technical side better, cameras, etc.
Francesco Maselli
He immediately joined the Sansone brothers I believe that the idea of setting up a company that was not yet of production, it was a rental company of technical equipment, which was called ATC, I think the idea came to him perhaps, because he had such a spirit ... he was enterprising, he was a very interesting character
Giorgio Urbinelli
I was lucky, in the 1960s, to join a company called ATC which hired film equipment, it rented lights, lamps, dollies and cameras
Agostino Sansone
It wasn't just about renting, we built tripods... and it was a way to have relationships with a certain type of cinema.
Giorgio Urbinelli
The camera operators came because they felt safe and also because they had good resources and they were excellent technicians
Alfonso Sansone
Then we found this idea of the anamorphic lens
Helen Pringle
Which was called TOTALSCOPE, my husband went to France to look for the man who had built a cinema scope type of lens and he had him make him two or three lenses that he rented out or lent, it was not important for him to make money, the important thing was to make movies, capture those images ...
Helen Pringle
Alfonso would always go around with a bundle of newspapers under his arm, he was always reading something, and very often we got together in the evening, they were always together, those two, even on Christmas day at a certain point he would say I'm going to Alfonso's house ...
Alfonso Sansone
We became such good partners that the company is called SANCRO ...SANsone CROsciki ... I had put the initial economic part etc. and he had a series of contacts thanks also to the fact of speaking English perfectly.
Franco Avenia
Sansone was practically the cultural mind, Chroscicki was ... a cultural mind, but he was also a little more solid for which he went abroad he talked to the actors to see ... he had a bit of a fad, he would always put foreign actors in Italian films, especially Americans, because he was also very keen on the American market, which was the only one that could give some money.
Harald Buggenig
Alfonso was, let's say, a more thoughtful person, he was the one who thought about things, while the one who acted, who moved, who leaped forward, was Enrico, partly because he spoke several languages, Enrico spoke with ease the most diverse languages
Francesco Maselli
They also had some mishaps because the first important thing they made was a film with Orson Welles, who was filming in Rome and he filmed some things by renting from them and when he had to pay, Agostino went to the hotel where Welles was staying, which was the Excelsior in Rome in Via Veneto, he went there and Welles said, "How much is it? “Then he took out a picture he had of himself and wrote a dedication, "What’s your name? Agostino Sansone ... from Orson Welles ... here!" and Agostino "ah thank you and the money?" "This is enough!"
Agostino Sansone
The material we had was given and no one ever paid us of course they were all like Citto Maselli, so, for us it was also a way to show kindness and to be nice.
Francesco Maselli
Like all the directors I had ... I was at the beginning ... there was a period in which you work and you earn well then you have some gaps between one film and another and then every now and then I remember that I used to call Agostino or Alfonso saying "i think they are going to cut off my electricity I need help "and they rushed to me in their car to bring me a check the equivalent of the electricity bill.
Alfonso Sansone
The difference between filmmakers of today and those of that time is that the latter spoke very little about money because there was none
Francesco Maselli
All us directors, especially the directors, had these periods of emptiness between one film and another, and then we used to go to the loan sharks ... they knew everything related to the environment... "do you have the contract with Cristaldi to make the next film?” Then they would lend some money with 10% per month of interest, not a pittance.
Agostino Sansone
I know that Maselli was a victim of loan sharks
Francesco Maselli
It was a cinema parlour, we met, we talked, we talked about the actors ... "who did you get? Are you finishing the movie? "But it used to be the loan shark ... and it was a place, just like a cafe, a meeting place, and I remember that they were also a bit stunned because they were good family guys, who were not used to these things, but they had a sense of humour as all Sicilians have, so they were also able to have fun I remember that I introduced them to this, they didn't need the loan shark, they pretended to need him because it was an interesting environment, they chatted with everyone, they knew each other ... then they did some promotion, they had brochures on Totalscope lenses
Franco Avenia
Their accountant consultant was an old accounting professor, who called me through a friend telling me that there was a company that had made a film called "Gold of Rome" by Carlo Lizzani and that needed to check the accounts, I said I could do it also because it would be the first job for me, in conformity with the qualification I had, and there I met Sansone and Chrosciki.
LIZZANI AND SANSONE "THE GOLD OF ROME"
Alfonso Sansone
We filmed "the gold of Rome" in Jewish circles, I knew Toaf who was the chief rabbi who had let me into the synagogue, no non-Israelite had ever entered there, and this semi-documentary film was created, so much so that RAI uses parts of it for a reportage of the era of the Jews' raid ... and once at the RAI I said “you keep saying that they are vintage shots but they are my shots, invented, there was no one who filmed the Jews being captured by the Germans "... then I went to Paris and managed to find a co-producer, it was the first film I made as a co-production, a peculiarity of my company is that it made almost all the films in co-production with France.
Then they met Ferreri through me, with Ferreri they got on well, Ferreri was another sly one ... he was a good director but he was also a producer and he was capable of the most hellish tricks.
SANSONE DE NEGRI LIZZANI
Alfonso Sansone
I was introduced to Marco Ferreri, originally from Milan, who had studied to be a vet. Ferreri hadn’t thought about becoming a director but he thought about becoming a producer, he came to Rome he met us, he even made some production attempts but from an economic point of view disastrous ... then at a certain point he was in trouble and I suggested moving abroad to avoid legal consequences ... and we opened an office in Madrid
Agostino Sansone
We gave him the representation for Spain, which was of no use, he was very careful not to deal with it, he lived on deposits
Alfonso Sansone
Ferreri had met a Spanish producer but had made a film that never came out, then for the second movie he took over and he directed it, he nominated himself as director and he filmed “The little coach” which was the first movie by Ferreri taken from a story by Azcona ...
Raphael Azcona was an writer of a humorous newspaper called "le codornize", which means the duckling, where he published drawings and wrote short articles from there through his contact with us he became a scriptwriter and screenwriter and they understood each other very well with Ferreri and also with me.
The movie was surprising for its qualities and Ferreri, encouraged also by me, went to Venice with the film under his arm to propose it and was admitted to the Venice festival
Francesco Maselli
Ferreri was therefore a very ingenious character connected to Chrosciki more than with the Sansone brothers, they were a diabolical couple, because they both had very enterprising managerial skills, they were first-rate operational heads.
Giancarlo Santi
And then Marco Ferreri introduced me to Alfonso Sansone, having to make the film, based on an idea of Rafael Azcona, a Roman, Vatican edition, not really a pro-Vatican edition but a Vatican interpretation of Kafka castle if it wasn’t that Goffredo Parise arrived one day holding two notes, "The wife on top" and blocked everything.
Ferreri got excited, Azcona said "this is our film", because both Ferreri and Azcona were a bit misogynistic.
Franco Avenia
We made a first film called “the conjugal bed", it was a co-production made between AGER FILM and SANCRO FILM, Ager consisted of Giuliani de Negri Lizzani and other partners ...
Alfonso Sansone
Giuliani de Negri was a great friend of mine, he had participated in the resistance, Giuliani was his partisan nickname, then he helped some production make films and eventually became a producer.
for “the conjugal bed", Lizzani who had made the gold of Rome with them, recommended Tognazzi as he knew him ...
Alfonso Sansone
he was a very passionate guy, but very abrupt, his relationship with the directors was changeable, if the director was weak he would jump on his head, if the director was like Ferreri, who told him "to stay in his place as it was said, then he would not overstep the limit
Franco Avenia
There was Ugo Tognazzi who I remember at that time received the beauty of 35 million liras which was a lot of money, the equivalent of 4 apartments
in those days the cinema that was really cinema unlike nowadays, the producer used his own money, he didn't use the distribution company’s money, before he used his own money, that is, he talked to the director, he talked to the screenwriter, he talked to the scriptwriter and he paid, he used to make all the various routes between subject, dealings, screenplay, as he would pay them, he would also deal with the main actor, who he paid with a down payment and later he would look for a distribution company or he would find it during this phase ...
... if the distribution was interested in the story and the director was funding, they gave the famous "guaranteed minimum" which meant that whether the movie made money or not, the money was not supposed to be returned to them by the producer...
clearly if the film cost 300 million the distribution gave 100 or 120 the rest was all the producer's money or pre-sales or co-productions
so much so that "the conjugal bed" was a co-production between Sancro film and les films Marceau ...
Giancarlo Santi
the film had problems with censorship, Diego Fabbri, a Catholic intellectual, was called to rewrite a scene ... to write a scene which had not been planned
Alfonso Sansone
that was a drama because "The conjugal bed" was rejected in the first and second instance, according to the laws in force at that time had no chance except that of destruction, but Goffredo Lombardo who was part of the board of censorship being a distributor, he decided to resist and we had a big fight in the newspapers, until they changed the law saying that the film could also be resubmitted a third time but with another title
Franco Avenia
Thanks to the tenacity of Sansone but mainly to one of our administrators, whose name is Raniero di Giovanbattista, who was a former monk, said "but having studied as a monk I remember that it is not as you say!", and together we went to his friends and we got them to give us a book on theology where it advised couples not to get married if there was a great age difference because it might not go well, but it did not completely forbid them, as the censorship inherent to the film had suggested and presenting this book they changed their minds but the title of the movie was changed to "a modern story – the conjugal bed" and so the film was released and it went well ... in those days I remember that the first takings at the Fiamma cinema, we are talking about 1962/63 was one million and one thousand lire, which was an unusual thing for a film of the modern genre, in black and white, etc. etc.
in the meantime there was a break between the two companies, the Ager film and the Sancro for which they split up
together they had bought in the time between "Gold of Rome" and "The conjugal bed" they had bought a film that had been made by 4 partners, Orsini Taviani and Massobrio, titled "A man for burning", was taken over by Sansone and Chroscicki but was a "bloodbath", I’m saying this because ... I was there
it was supposed to cost a pittance; I think it should have cost 18 million to finish it but it cost more than 70 ...
Vittorio Taviani
Paolo, Valentino and I prepared this film, even using our relatives’ money, ruining them etc. and things like that,
but nothing, it was absolutely impossible, after a year of terrible efforts, of debts, we had such a debt with our factor that at one point we asked him to enter the production, because we were desperate, the only, the last chance was right in the office of Sansone and Giuliani ... then we went there saying it's our last hope, we were really desperate and we thought that if we couldn't make this last step, after a thousand steps, maybe for us ... we could only shoot ourselves, because, Paolo and I told each other, we came from Tuscany to Rome to make movies if after ten years we cannot make a film with our last money, we’ll buy a gun and kill ourselves ...
We were convinced of this, now who knows if we would have done it.
so it was our last hope we were in the waiting room of Sansone’s office, we mistakenly called ourselves the MOIRA FILM that gives a sense of destiny ... we were there waiting and we were told "Do not enter" ... inside there were Alfonso Giuliani and also Chrosciki I think, at a certain point we hear after an hour and a half of waiting " MOIRA please come in!"
and then Giuliani and Alfonso welcomed us ... a real Genoese Giuliani was a true Genoese to the bone and Alfonso on the other hand was this great Sicilian gentleman
They said "okay we are interested in this movie" Giuliani naturally immediately tells us "what you have spent so far" because we had spent a lot "it is clear that it is wiped out" so he was a pure Genoese
SANSONE E GIULIANI
Franco Avenia
In 1963 we made "The Magnificent Cuckold" which was a co-production between Italy and France, the director was Pietrangeli, on that occasion we managed to get the initial coverage for the whole film, thanks to the Italian distribution that was Rizzoli le film Copernic, which was the French co-producer, and from the presales abroad.
For "the conjugal bed" we made a fortune because it was sold, the whole film was pre-sold for $ 300,000 which in those days was a lot, to a company called Embassy owned by John Levine but we had to pay all the debts of "The Gold of Rome" that had not gone well and cover the film "A Man for Burning" and all the money went to cover the debts, so Sancro at that time was in the clear, relaxed, had no debts but did not have a penny, just to be precise
LEVINE AND CHROSCICKI
When the film was financed, we needed 500 million lira, the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro financed us but at that time promissory notes were needed and one million 750 thousand lire worth of stamp duty
because the stamps had to be classified etc but there wasn’t any money Sansone did not have any, Chrosciki didn’t either, we couldn't even ask the collateral company ATC led by Agostino but I don't remember the reason and then on that occasion Sansone took out 20 or 25 thousand liras we bought a promissory note worth two million liras and I personally went to redeem it at a financial company that I will not name, but many know that in Viale Mazzini 4 there was this finance company and I was given I remember one million eight hundred thousand liras with which the promissory notes were bought and we started The film cost 500 million made fabulous takingsand then Sansone continued...
Helen Pringle
Tognazzi is the one who worked on several of their films,
when they filmed “Run for your wife" in the United States
Tognazzi who didn't speak English was there but he managed to get away with it,
he was always telling jokes and cooking something Italian for all the crew.
Giancarlo Santi
With Ferreri we made a movie in episodes ... "The Wedding March"
we filmed an episode on the island of Giannutri,
we filmed two more episodes, one was made by the French and with the Sancro film that was the Sansone Chrosciki company,
I was always the co-production assistant director
Avenia
He made “The Harem”, he made Salce's films, he made "How I learned to love women".
Agostino Sansone
And from then on I lost my role as a supporter because I saw that my brother was going down a level and I gave up on him, I don't feel responsible for all the films he made after, except for a documentary made in the United States on which I worked, which was completed and it turned out to be a good documentary
through Citto Maselli I met Antonioni and I proposed a film by Antonioni that may not have made any money
but it was much better than making a film with ... Giulio Petroni
Alfonso Sansone
We had made documentaries with Giulo Petroni
who was an Italian documentary director who had worked so many years in India
and we managed to find a distributor that was Goffredo Lombardo
with whom I had a long friendship until his death.
Through Goffredo Lombardo we found an American co-producer United Artists and so we were able to tackle 4, 5 large films
because there was a French and American co-production
we entered another field no longer that of low budget westerns
and this took us to another level, other offices, other things...
Harald Buggenig
Driver on the doorstep, a villa as an office, you could hear the names of Marco Ferreri, Ugo Tognazzi, Gian Luigi Polidori...
I entered the world of cinema thanks to Alfonso who was my uncle,
I always had the opportunity to work through Alfonso or through Chrosciki
and there I did the most varied things,
every day I confronted myself with these problems, with these projects
you could hear that somebody was making a film in Bulgaria Michele Strogoff,
another one was being made with Bud Spencer, Lee van Cleef
Marco Ferreri used to come and go from home,
their phone calls could be heard, even promissory notes were coming in, in short, economic problems everywhere
and at the time I remember there were also boats one was called Totalscope,
then there was another which was called “the little coach” in honour of Ferreri.
Agostino Sansone
Marco Ferreri used to throw himself out of the boat with all his clothes on, which would swell up and he would say "I'm a whale"
Harald Buggenig
jokes were told on these boats especially Enrico,
who said that once they wanted to go to Cannes with the Totalscope
and when they approached La Spezia the diesel ran out
and they collected money among the sailors to get to Cannes in time,
but he never said if the diesel had really run out or not, he was amusing
Alfonso Sansone
When Lombardo helped us he no longer had the distribution
so he said I would introduce you to a distributor who was Angelo Rizzoli Senior,
who immediately set up a company with me despite being a difficult type
and there was a whole group of screenwriters who advised him
and once there was a film we didn't want him to make
thinking it was a mistake and we set up a conspiracy,
we invited him to lunch and one of us said "but that idea seems to me a bit stupid" etc. etc
he let him speak two, three times
then he took the felt hat he threw it on the ground and started pounding it
like a Lombard peasants would do saying "the money is mine I put it where ever I want!"
in other words, other times when the producers used the money from their own pockets there was not always this need for help from the state
Franco Avenia
while another movie followed that was "Days of Wrath" by Tonino Valerii
here we understand the mentality of Sansone, as this was the first film Tonino Valerii made as a director
because he was Sergio Leone's assistant and he had only done the closing of a small film as a director
he was brought by Titanus owned by Lombardo who said let’s make "Days of Wrath” and I will finance it
Tonino Valerii
First I met Sansone and then Chrosciki through a camera operator with whom I had worked Stelvio Massi, who told me that according to him they were two excellent producers especially for a young novice
Franco Avenia
I also said that, to be honest, because I was starting to have familiarity: "Alfonso but is it worth it?” Because he put two stars for the time, who were Lee van Cleef and Giuliano Gemma, into the hands of Tonino Valerii
I said "if he makes a mistake, it will be a never ending flop".
Tonino Valerii
I had worked with Sergio Leone when he made his famous Western with Lee van Cleef, then I called him back and he was happy to return to Italy to work with me.
Franco Avenia
the Titanus collapsed and closed down and we were left without money as usual, but then it was distributed by CIDIF and it went very well, then Sansone and Chrosciki made other films of this kind
Giancarlo Santi
Alfonso Sansone also helped me make the first film, with a producer with whom we had always done important things thanks to Marco Ferreri whom I had known, once again, thanks to Sansone ...
Ferreri calls me one day and introduces me to a strange, tall, curly haired very snobbish guy, very English, this is Ettore Rosboch ... I worked with Rosboch, Gianni Barcelloni and Ferreri in a production company that made cult films
They made a combination, we have a script, we have the actor Van Cleef we have world-wide sales, we don't have the money to make the film we need a producer, financing partner and Chrosciki and Rosboch came to an agreement, they gave me the script :"Go and make this film".
Harald Buggenig
One of the members of Alfonso's entourage was a journalist called Ettore Mattia
who wrote for "momento sera" and had special editions for the cinema
he was always at festivals and created events, that is, the movie as an event, even by telling tales and he was a master at this.
I remember a little guy, but very lively and at his home at the time
we met Martin Scorsese who still hadn't made his great exploit
and he was hoping to work in Italy this was the world at the time of the Sansone Bros, frequented by people who in order to take the cinema outside also needed ferrymen, who were these journalists, perhaps with real or semi-real news, or very true, I don't know, but they managed to create an event.
Vittorio Taviani
Because a film is an event, a film that you really made expressing something true something intimate, and he felt this, he believed in our cinema and followed it to festivals
And I remember that once after many years with Alfonso
we were in Cannes and at a certain point one of our films had a great success, applause and applause and at a certain point Alfonso gets up, with his impressive aspect that he always used to lean a little back and begins to set ... I do not know how to say ... the beat, the rhythm ... he starts and drags all of Cannes into this rhythmic applause and after: "Vittorio I started it" ... "and yes I saw you!"
So there he had this capacity for affection together with a modesty of feelings that make him even more dearer to me Without considering the good movies that Alfonso made, important movies, that want to break the academy's crust, the crust of the already seen, he wanted to do something new.
Alfonso Sansone
Then, for example, I made a film called "The Assassination" with a subject by Semprun,
the famous writer with whom I became friends
and there was this group of producers who made cult films
and I proposed to do the co-production with Volontè as the protagonist,
but warning the producers that he was a difficult person,
Volontè was a guy who had started a film and he had left it halfway through
because he no longer liked the director,
I told him he was expensive he is a pain in the neck, but we like him very much
Instead when he finished the film he worked some weeks for free
and these French producers told me
"but what are you saying, he is a wonderful actor"
And this was a big international event
because the French co-produced the movie,
but they never gave permission to project it because of censorship,
it was released in France after two or three years.
A reason to live and a reason to die" wasn't a western was a war movie;
it cost a lot of money because there was James Coburn Telly Savalas Bud Spencer
Tonino Valerii
"One reason to live and one to die" comes from the idea that one of the producers, Sansone himself, had
Alfonso Sansone
I was a strange guy because I didn't need to be a producer because in the meantime the company of rental equipment had taken off and we lived very well, like Harald's company now
Harald Buggenig
when I finished my studies I didn't know what to do ... Chrosciski's called me, listen, I would need someone here with the cameras
Franco Avenia
Then in 1968 I moved, I was always in contact with Sansone but I worked more with Chrosciki, who was in charge of cameras, of filming, etc.
Helen Pringle
He always worked with him until he created Technovision which was Cosmovision before with Claude Cheverau but they fell out and my husband said "okay I do it on my own" and he called it Technovision ... you couldn't register the brand because Technicolor had already registered "techni ... everything" but they never protested and they let him use this brand TECHNOVISION because it made them look good too
Harald Buggenig
I entered the office during the filming of "Apocalypse now" because the filming took place in 76, 77
helen
Yes that was the first big movie we made, in the Philippines and then a typhoon came ... and they filmed for 18 months ...
Harald Buggenig
I was there in Via Spinazzola, in the office, and I always heard people talking about "Apocalypse now" ... for me Vittorio Storaro was an illustrious stranger but I was always hearing the name Storaro...
Helen Pringle
At one point Vittorio Storaro and the crew wanted to eat Italian so we went to buy 18 kg of spaghetti tomatoes, oregano and olive oil and we sent it to the Philippines, at customs they said "you can find these things here" so they put in a customs tariff that was triple and no one wanted to pay, so Coppola paid and he ate it all
it started with another lens from my office
there were the famous anamorphic there were never enough of them, then you could hear tales about "Apocalypse now" ... it was a baptism of fire for me.
Alfonso Sansone
We saw each other until his death, his daughter is now an important hirer of technical means in Paris.
Anyhow, the westerns that we made, I think there were 5, had been very profitable from a commercial point of view, we lost our money with the other films
Franco Avenia
It wasn’t until 88, 89 that Sansone wanted to make a Chabrol film ... and that was another bloodbath
Ingrid Lill Høgtun
I was very young and I wanted to work in the film industry I had attended a film school and I had worked as an assistant to an assistant director who had to make the film "Quiet days in Clichy" by Alfonso Sansone directed by Claude Chabrol and I went with him as his assistant I was very happy because I met Alfonso Sansone who was a myth to me because the first Italian film I saw in my life when I was 8 was "the conjugal bed" I saw it on television and it seemed to me the most beautiful film I had ever seen in my life. Not only had he produced Marco Ferreri's films but also the movies by the Taviani Bros. and then he had imported Werner Herzog's films to Italy and the second film I loved most in my life after Ferreri's “the conjugal bed” was “The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser ”by Herzog, which I had seen on TV at the age of 12 and was fascinated and there I was with the man behind these two films.
Alfonso Sansone
I was talking to Chabrol who told me about this Miller novel and he said "we could make a movie".
Ingrid Lill Høgtun
Then I was lucky, because there were two American actors Andrew Mc Carty, who was the protagonist, and at a certain point Alfonso had to talk to the agents in America about this actor. Alfonso spoke French very well but did not speak English well and there was no one in the production who spoke English and therefore I was called into the office of the great Alfonso Sansone to help make phone calls to the agent in America and it did not seem real "Quiet Days in Clichy" was a very big film at the time such big films were not made.
SANSONE AND CHABROL
Alfonso Sansone
It was a disaster because it cost too much and a French and German co-production was made but the money was not enough it had been the tombstone of our company
Ingrid Lill Høgtun
Normally you have to go and ask for "the money, I want the money", I almost started as a volunteer and then a check arrived every week, so I was in heaven and I had, first of all, this great respect for Alfonso Sansone, who was a true producer of films of a certain type, films with political or social messages, films that remain in the history of cinema, and who also imported directors such as Jodorosky, Herzog, Fassbinder to Italy.
Alfonso Sansone
Then we did an activity of cult film distribution, I don't know exactly how many there are, but there will be about fifteen by Fassbinder, by Herzog...by great German authors of that era, who didn't have a real commercial market but well known, some have also had a good result, for example the "The Marquise of O" by Rohmer, remained in the history books, it cost little and made a lot, in short, our original things have been, to make quality westerns and commercialize auteur films, which until then were only shown in film clubs.
Vittorio Taviani
Alfonso had this kind of intelligence that really struck the core, he wanted to understand what he had before him, what to choose, what not to choose, but other than this a kindness of mind, but not timid, a kindness of someone who knows who can give something to someone else and then gives it without wanting to show it.
Giorgio Urbinelli
They were incredible people, especially Alfonso Sansone, a person who spoke little, he was always calm and tranquil and respected everyone, he smiled, he listened to you, he was the producer of the past, when cinema was done with passion and pleasure, where the technicians, the operator, the director and the producer were often together, they ate together, sometimes even drank a glass of wine together, this no longer happens today.
Guido Fiandra
I met Alfonso Sansone in 1995 - 96 and Mario Vulpiani introduced him to me seeing that I had many ideas on the cultural field he said "Alfonso is the right person for you" and I must say that it was like that, because beyond the fact that unfortunately we did not accomplish a couple of things, but Alfonso was a teacher for me, he was a person of the highest human quality and of the highest intellectual quality, even today he is 90 years old and one with whom you are talking for hours because he is a person who remembers everything and knows everything.
Harald Buggenig
He has an extraordinary memory even at this age, he remembers facts and since he is used to thinking he also forces you to follow things with a certain logic and I learned this from him and I am grateful.
Giancarlo Santi
He is an old man sitting in an armchair but he picks up the phone and after two phone calls he had a movie ... he enabled me to become known with "The Big Showdown" because "The Big Showdown" made a lot of money.
Guido Fiandra
We were at the Norwegian film festival in Rome and Alfonso had a student and friend there who has now become a very good producer then she was still a young woman, Ingrid Høgtun
Ingrid Lill Høgtun
I am a producer today and I must say that I learned everything from Alfonso Sansone
Guido Fiandra
And he said "Guido there's this young Norwegian producer who is looking for ideas to make an Italian-Norwegian project"
and Alfonso continued saying "there is a story by Pirandello called "far away"
it is the only novel where there is a non-Sicilian protagonist, a Norwegian sailor "coincidentally,
so I wrote a deal which was appreciated in Italy and in Norway we found finance but Alfonso didn't have his own company then,
so he got help for this project from Elephant film belonging to his friend Jose Sanchez
an important television and film director and introduced me to him
Sanchez was enthusiastic about the project and we started working together
unfortunately something Pirandello-like happened as we are talking about Pirandello
Sanchez suddenly fell ill and within a year he died
and I am telling this as one of cinema’s many stories
where we almost made it to the end and we were not able to leave until now I say,
because in the world of cinema one never knows.
Alfonso Sansone
Today's cinema has the advantage of receiving state funding, which makes life easy, there are producers who produce films and do not even see them, I have known producers who have made films and have not even seen them, few are those who have had passion for their films whereas before when there were even B movies producers they put their heart into it
Franco Avenia
Today the producers first find someone to finance the film then they ask how much will you give me?10 millionOk ... they call the organizer and they say two million is for me... the other 8 to make the movie ... more than producers they are employees, who say this is the story, this is the budget, this is the movie see what you can do…
But this is not a producer who takes risks and who really creates a film ... today they no longer exist
Francesco Maselli
There has always been a very beautiful, very special relationship
that began that morning when I went to the bookshop and said "are the Sansone brothers here?"
Agostino said "I am one of the, my brother is not here now but I am"
I remember he was very nice, one of life’s great encounter
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