“Something Between a Witch and an Empress”
I was living on the beach in a little shack in Malibu in the early seventies with my young son. Storms would arrive with wild power on the Pacific — nothing pacific about this ocean. The whales would migrate north ten feet from my house, like wonderful hulls covered in barnacles, “a whale swam by my house today, nine hours pregnant…” (Pablo Neruda)
The Santa Ana winds blew at over 100 miles per hour, with the ferocity of hell. We always waited for the Fires, the endless fires, Los Angeles weather is the weather of catastrophe, of apocalypse, the intensity off the Santa Ana winds affects the entire quality of life in LA, it shows us how close to the edge we are... The fires arrive like Dante's Inferno…
All the animals started to come down from the mountains and cross the pacific coast highway to get to the beach. Wolves, hedge-hogs, coyotes, deer, rabbits horses, donkeys, foxes, wild dogs, pigs, a sky-full of parrots.
… Three years later, one beautiful Spring morning, I decided to take a walk in the Serra retreat, with Jonathan. All of the buildings were burnt rubble, except for the occasional fireplace. Everything was covered in blazing bougainvillea. This was a Carlos Castaneda landscape. I sat on a rock while Jonathan explored the rubble of a burnt-out house. Suddenly, he comes running towards me with a book in his open hands. “Mommy, mommy, look at this,” he says. The book is as frail as moth-wings, having been out in the elements for several years. I opened the book –— it is in Italian. I start to read the book and I see it is a transcribed conversation between Fellini and me.
This book is about 8 ½. I take it home. And the next morning, my old friend Gore Vidal calls me from Rome. “Hello, Barbara”, I have a surprise for you”… Here is Federico," and he passes him the phone.
Fellini — “Barberini” (his name for me), he says, “When are you coming to Rome? I want to see you.” Well this is amazing, I reply, because I’m leaving for France tomorrow.” “Well, please”, he says, “come on to Rome and we’ll have lunch at Cinecitta when you get here.”
I arrive at Cinecitta — a time capsule — he is preparing to make Casanova. “Barberini, I have this wonderful role for you, of a Venetian alchemist who cures men of their impotency with bells, potions and songs.” Then he says… “something between a witch and an empress” — I was enthralled. They sent me straight to costumes, and designed these fabulous outfits with enormous headdresses. We were due to start shooting in 3 months. At lunch, he suddenly says to me — "What do you think of Donald Sutherland’s wrists?” — Donald Sutherland was cast as Casanova.
I replied, “I don’t know… I’ve never considered his wrists!” And then I say... “Why are you making this film on Casanova anyway? He is so wounded and empty, and so unlike your fierce life-force.”
Three months into the shoot, a whole chunk of the footage of the movie was stolen from the vault at Cinecitta, along with some footage of Pasolini’s. This caused an uproar. The production immediately stopped for the next three months and they eliminated the entire Venetian sequence that I was in.
by Barbara Steele