Transcript:
Justin Joseph Hall:
Hi, welcome to Feature & a short, a monthly screening hosted by Fourwind Films, where an appointed contributor presents a feature motion picture and a short movie. There's only one condition for screening a selection. The presenter must have been directly involved with one picture, but not the other. My name is Justin Joseph Hall, director and editor and owner at Fourwind Films.
00;00;23;22 - 00;00;37;03
And this week we have Claudia de Candia, an actress who lives here in New York City who has worked with us on the upcoming movie, Prologue, and she has decided to present The Smell of New York.
00;00;37;05 - 00;00;44;08
Claudia de Candia:
So um, myself, I'm Claudia. I am Italian, as you probably can hear (laughs). From, from Greenpoint, but Italian (laughs).
Audience:
(laughter)
00;00;47;01 - 00;01;09;23
Claudia de Candia:
And uh, I didn't speak a word of English two years ago and I did this short movie. After five months, I was here. It's just the first movie, short movie I did here in New York. Actually, the reason of speaking is just a, a, a voiceover in the whole movie or in the beginning. And it’s about New York. It's about a, a love story. Two girls, love story. The, the, the name of the movie, the title is New York Smells and it's like three different stories about New York City.
Audience:
Oh, cool!
1:23 - 1:33
Claudia de Candia:
And, and just in one story of the three stories. I just saw it complete. It was in a festival in this village, it was, ah, in a movie theater there.
Audience:
Nice.
Claudia de Candia:
For a festival and I, I saw the first time there. And actually, it was the only time that I saw it (laughs).
Audience:
Oh really?
Clauda de Candia:
Yes.
Audience:
When did you shoot it?
Clauda de Candia:
November… 2016.
1:46 - 1:47
Audience:
Was that in one day shoot?
Claudia de Candia:
Yeah, one day from the morning to the, to the night. Yeah.
Justin Joseph Hall:
Any places in New York where you shot where you hadn't been before you?
Claudia de Candia:
Yeah, like in Dumbo. I haven't, I mean at that time it was the first time I was in that area. And actually, there are some spots that I don't even know where was it. Because you know (laughs),
Audience:
(laughter)
Claudia de Candia:
when I, when I was shooting it was the first time for me going there and now I don't even realize. But yes, because we took a lot of Uber going around…
2:17 - 2:41
Justin Joseph Hall (as narrator):
Uh, in one of the first scenes, she eats some green apples. So we went and bought some, cut them up for everybody to enjoy during the film. This movie is available on Vimeo for free or you can buy it for, like, $99. Some unusual price. But anyway, after the screening of the film, we talked about Claudia's unique experience putting this film together, her preparation, and the people she shot the film with.
2:41 - 2:42
Justin Joseph Hall:
Yeah, do you just want to go through the story?
2:42 - 4:09
Claudia de Candia:
Yeah, okay (laughs). So uh, I was thinking for doing the, this short film on a backstage. You know, the website of casting. And so I didn't do a real audition for it. I, I knew a little bit about the plot but I didn't have any script. Nothing. So when I went there that morning, it was kind of weird because we met in front of a McDonald's.
We enter in the McDonald's and I met the other actresses for the first time. So we enter together in this McDonald's and we were supposed to change ourselves there and everything. So the director didn't speak a word of English because she's from China, I think. And she started to tell me that I wasn't supposed to do that part but the other one. So I was kind of confused because, of course, even if I didn't have a script, I was trying to imagine myself in a part. That morning she said, no, you're going to do the other one. I say, but you told me. Say, no, no, you’re going to… okay.
So we went to the bathroom, we change, I, I don't even know who was the person who was helping us to change. And uh, so we say, okay, we started from the last scene. And I was like, uh okay, what's going on in the script though? Because I don't even know what, what's the story about, you know. They kind of explain it but it wasn't quite clear to me actually. So we started with this scene while I'm eating this apple and-
Daria Huxley:
(laughter)
Claudia de Candia:
I’m supposed to be (laughs)-
Daria Huxley:
(laughter)
4:13 - 4:22
Claudia de Candia:
after the whole love story. And I was there, like, okay, just think something, you know? (laughs). Just (laughs)…
4:22
Audience:
Eat the apple.
4:22 - 4:28
Claudia de Candia:
(laughs) Just eating the apple and uh, think something, Claudia, think something doing it… (laughs).
Audience:
(laughter)
4:31 - 4:50
Claudia de Candia:
(laughs) So this is how it started. So it was pretty confusing. Like, I don't know if I was in Italy, probably I was getting mad for uh, this kind of, but then I have to say that I actually loved them. They were incredible. They have a beautiful energy. They were totally crazy (laughs).
Audience:
(laughter)
4:51 - 5:05
Claudia de Candia:
But I really enjoyed the time. And I say, okay, whatever, whatever is going to happen, I'm just going to have fun. And the best part was the voiceover which I actually didn’t understand what I’m saying so uh-
Audience:
(laughter)
5:05 - 5:15
Claudia de Candia:
(laughs) I’m sure that you didn’t as well (laughs). That’s, there is a reason why. At the end of the, we star… we finished uh shooting like at 8 p.m.
Audience:
Yeah.
Claudia de Candia:
And they ask me, and I didn't know before, they ask me, oh okay, everyone goes home but you’re going to have a voiceover to record. But they didn't have a place to record it. So we tried to go in a bank. And it was, of course, not the right place to do it (laughs). So then in the street they found like a truck and they ask him if we could go into the truck to record.
Audience:
(laughter)
Claudia de Candia:
So this guy went out of the truck, we enter in the truck and I was just with another girl. And they send me the, the thing that I was supposed to say by text message. So I was reading that for the first time and even if I didn't speak English very well, I understood there were some grammar mistakes. So I was trying to, to (laughs)- Yes, to correct them (laughs). And I was speaking even worse than now so you can imagine (laughs). So that was crazy. And finally we, we, yeah it was kind of fine even though I’m telling again I don’t understand myself-
Audience:
(laughter)
Claudia de Candia:
like in a couple of words. To be honest, I thought it, it would be worse than this (laughs). So when I got like the email, they were doing it in the, in this film festival. I went to watch it and I, and I thought actually, the photography and it wasn't bad at all. I mean, it was just about try to find an intimacy with this girl. Um, as you can see at the beginning, I'm kind of the good girl, I would say, of someone that is very shy-
Audience:
Right.
Claudia de Candia:
She never experienced, like, going with another girl.
Audience:
Yeah.
Claudia de Candia:
And it's like there is this kind of transformation in the meeting. So the way I'm dressed, it’s a little bit different from the beginning. The end, uh, which is actually the first scene though.
Claudia de Candia:
Um, yeah.
7:21 - 7:24
Thomas Kelsey:
Yeah, it was just like watching for this, The Warmest Color, but it saved me three hours.
Audience:
(laughter)
Justin Joseph Hall (as narrator):
For her feature film, Claudia brought Le notti di Cabiria or The Nights of Cabiria, a Fellini film. Fellini is one of the directors that most inspires Claudia. During the film, we had some rum and Coke, some champagne. But she doesn’t have a lot of money in the film, Cabiria, the main character. So we had some pasta and some homemade red sauce and some leftover stale bread that was fried and used for dipping. Afterwards, we had a discussion on Fellini, what he meant, and the relationship between storytelling in other countries and storytelling in the U.S.
8:04 - 8:06
Justin Joseph Hall:
Who’s all seen this film here?
Audience:
What’s it called?
Justin Joseph Hall:
Uh, Nights of Cabiria.
Audience:
That sounds-
Justin Joseph Hall:
Le notti di Cabiria-
Audience:
familiar.
Audience:
Oh.
Justin Joseph Hall:
Yeah, yeah. It’s a Fellini film.
Audience:
What's-
Justin Joseph Hall:
So-
8:14 - 8:15
Audience:
What's the other one you did with that actress?
Audience:
Uh…
Claudia de Candia:
Oh, many. Um, but the other one is ah…
8:20 - 8:21
Audience:
Juliet of the Spirits.
Claudia de Candia:
That one but another one where she’s like, working the circus, right?
Justin Joseph Hall:
Yeah, that’s-
Claudia de Candia:
That’s the one that you-
Justin Joseph Hall:
…La Strada.
Audience:
Las what?
Claudia de Candia:
La Strada.
Audience:
I, I think I saw Nights of Cabiria-
Audience:
La Strada.
Audience:
I don’t even…
Audience:
(chatter)
Audience:
Giulietta Masina was his wife.
Claudia de Candia:
Yeah.
Audience:
She was in a lot of his movies.
Audience:
Yeah.
Audience:
Oh.
Audience:
That’s…
Audience:
I think that's…
8:37 - 8:40
Audience:
That’s when you did 8 and a half spot, right? I mean…
Audience:
Yeah. I don’t, that’s one of the few she’s not in, I think.
Audience:
Yeah, she’s not in it-
Audience:
Yeah.
Audience:
but I think it’s about her.
Audience:
Yeah, oh yeah.
Claudia de Candia:
Which one?
8:47 - 8:48
Justin Joseph Hall:
8 ½.
Claudia de Candia:
The little blonde.
Audience:
So-
Claudia de Candia:
His wife, Giulietta Masina.
Audience:
Oh, okay. Got it.
Audience:
So why did you pick that movie?
Claudia de Candia:
When I was in high school, I had this, this friend and he was dreaming about being a director and I was dreaming about being an actress. And we were watching all Fellini's movies together. We were spending, like, nights talking about them and imagine, yeah, we were, we loved Roma, and, we wanted really to live in Rome, which I don't anymore but at that time (laughs), I really wanted to.
9:25
Audience:
Have you been you there yet?
Claudia:
Yes. My father is from Rome, so (laughs). Um, and so it really brings me one of my favorite movies of Fellini’s, the Interview, which almost nobody knows.
9:38
Justin Joseph Hall:
I don’t really know.
Claudia de Candia:
Yeah, because it's the last one. And, it's kind of weird but there is this scene between Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg. Like, they're old and they're watching the, La Dolce Vita that they-
9:53 - 9:54
Audience:
Oh really?
Claudia de Candia:
that they made years later.
Audience:
Yeah.
Claudia de Candia:
earlier. And for me, it’s one of the more touching scene ever in, in the movies. So I was listening all, all the time the, the song of it and also the little scene between the two of them, the little dialogue. And so for me, Fellini, it’s really something. I don't know. It's really, when I, I was dreaming to be in a movie. Yeah.
10:20 - 10:33
??? is also one of my favorite, but actually, I also love Giulietta Masina and, uh, and she's pretty funny. And I love also, the fact that she’s touching and funny at the same time. Yeah.
10:33 - 10:34
Audience:
… watch?
10:35 - 10:42
Justin Joseph Hall:
I was like, with Fellini she said that movies; the movie’s done when the money runs out.
Audience:
(laughter)
10:48 - 10:50
Justin Joseph Hall:
I feel like all his movies feel like that (laughs) sometimes.
10:51 - 10:57
Justin Joseph Hall:
Especially that…, that one that, like, it just like goes, it goes, it goes, it goes. And then you’re in, yeah.
Audience:
(laughter)
10:57 - 10:59
Justin Joseph Hall:
It’s just like… randomly.
Claudia de Candia:
Yeah, but I think-
Audience:
I enjoyed…
11:01 - 11:21
Inga Moren:
There is an element of magic realism. I think, like, the way that you tell stories here in the United States is very different how we, we tell stories anywhere else. Like I think here at least in the, like the American system, there's a very, you know, it's like a, a three-act structure and everybody kind of follows that. Like, if they divert, they don’t divert much.
11:22 - 11:46
European movies at least. You know in Italy, there is a lot or in other places it’s more, it's a very different way of telling a story. I can, like, see from a lot of these other movies like, there's like the magic realism happening and I'm kind of just following these characters, like, through their everyday, like, life without thinking too much why but it's more like an emotional journey for the audience, I think…
Justin Joseph Hall:
Well, thank you very much for listening to Feature & a short. This is the last of the season. We want to say thank you to everyone who helped out with the podcast this year. Brian Trahan, who makes the majority of the podcast. Daria Huxley, our photographer. And special thanks to our host, Thomas Kelsey. Next year, we'll do ten more episodes and choose a new theme song. In the meantime, please write us on social media @fourwindfilms, that’s f-o-u-r-w-i-n-d-f-i-l-m-s. Talk to you next year.
