An Interview with Bruno Bozzetto!

 

Welcome to Animateducated, (pronouced animated educated), here's a recent interview with the Italian Walt Disney of Animation, Bruno Bozzetto.

Now I don’t speak Italian and Bruno finds English difficult as well, but we had an interview which you can watch below. Here is a transcript of the interview.

When was the first time you discovered animation?

Bruno: I discovered animation as a child in the cinema, in the 40s, watching Walt Disney films, the only ones in circulation in Italy were Snow White, Pinocchio and Bambi. In particular, I fell in  love with Bambi who also taught me the love for nature and ecology. 

You were an only child and you discovered animation. Did your father get you a movie camera? Did you draw flipbooks? What was your first steps in animation?

I was an only child and my father was for me a brother, a friend, a collaborator, a financier, and above all a great moral supporter. My father had bought an 8mm camera (but for himself and not for me). In fact, since he brought it home, I have seized it from him and only used it myself. 

Initially I was making small documentaries. Then, using notepads and starting to draw on the last page, then on the penultimate, etc. etc. I attempted my first animations which I photographed by snapping one with the 8mm camera. They were some kind of flip book.

Did you go to art school to learn animation?

I started animating by myself trying to understand how it worked by watching the film that I could have in 16mm in a small slow motion. Of course the Disney films and later those of Tom and Jerry and some of the National Film Board. 

But my style was a simple, functional animation, useful for explaining what was happening and that's it. Nothing fancy. If anything witty, but elementary. I animated my first films completely by myself, also doing the timing. 

Your first film was Tapum. How did you come up with the story or idea?

The idea of ​​my first Tapum film! The history of weapons came to me in high school (I attended the classical high school where they taught you Latin and Greek) when I was studying history. 

Discovering that man has spent practically all his life inventing and building weapons, gave me the desire to talk about this subject to demonstrate his stupidity, wickedness and aggression. Naturally told in an ironic and funny way.

The animation camera that we had was made especially for shooting animated drawings. In Italian its called "vertical". The model of our studio was designed by my father Umberto, an absolutely brilliant man, fundamental in my life, who helped me a lot at the beginning of my career, and had it built by a technician who worked in our studio.

Then I looked for collaborators (who did not exist because nobody knew animation) and I taught them what I had learned. But my passion for animation remained and I have continued to animate many short films by myself in the future. 

The arrival in Guido Manuli's studio helped me a lot because he was the best and he is the one who helped me the most in perfecting the characters and in the gags. But even he knew nothing about animation when he came to the studio.

You made short films to learn how to do animation. How did you come up with Allegro Non Troppo? Most of it was Live action, where did you find the actors? 

Before making Allegro Non Troppo, I had made two other feature films, West and Soda, a parody of western cinema, and VIP, my superman brother, a story based on two supermen, one of whom is strong and vulnerable while the other is small , frail and unable to do anything.

Allegro Non Troppo arrived after 10 years, and was born out of my passion for classical music and for having loved Walt Disney's fantasy. The first story that came to mind was Ravel's Bolero. Then, after the bolero I decided to make others and to make a feature film.

Allegro Non Troppo's assistant director was Maurizio Nichetti, a collaborator in my studio and with a priority as a theater actor. He already knew some people among the actors and so it made it easier for me to choose the characters we needed.

I have always thought of using animation to explain useful and interesting things. I like to talk about man, about society, about his problems. The choice of making popular films also stems from this interest of mine. In fact, I made almost 100 popular films together with the most famous Italian science writer: Piero Angela.

You are working on a comic series about a person and their dog on your FaceBook page. Can you tell me about this? How you came up with this?

Since COVID-19 began, I have decided to publish a cartoon on Facebook every day dedicated to the relationship between a man and his dog. The dog is called Doggy. I did it to ease the tension and sadness of those moments, especially in my city, and to give myself a daily commitment to fulfill. 

I had a lot of fun, I still have fun, and I've already done about 240. For Christmas a booklet dedicated to Doggy will be released with presentations written by famous people, and the proceeds from the sales will be used to buy food to give to the kennels. 

Is it true, you have a Sheep called Beeeelin that lives with you and your family?

In the garden, we keep a sheep that is now six years old and is called Beeelen. She is very nice, affectionate, and probably thinks she is a dog, because in the first months she grew up in the living room of the my son Andrea, who lives right next to me. 

Her wish is to come into the house as often as possible, but she weighs about 100 kg and it is not easy to get her to move in a living room. She usually lives in the garden in a house we built for her.

Are you still running an animation studio? What work do you do there? Does the studio do commercials?

The studio continues to produce films, mainly for Italian television and especially for an audience of children. Now I don't manage the studio anymore. I draw, I do cartoons, some illustrations, and above all I am busy doing interviews, video conferences meetings for projections, exhibitions, small projects in which I am often involved. 

I reply to many who write to me, send me books, subjects, drawings, offer me advice, juries, etc. etc. in animation however I'm not doing anything anymore. The studio also does advertising and informative work, but in recent years the demand for advertising work has decreased a lot. We hope it resumes.

What advice would you give to young people interested in learning animation or just good advice on learning or life in general?

For young people I would recommend that they read a lot, observe what happens and be attentive and critical of everything they see. Only in this way can they express their personal point of view which can then become a drawing or a film.

Any advice for the world or humanity?

The only thing I can say is that we have to stop growing. We are in too many in the world and when there are too many, the problems become more and more serious and complex. 

And the second thing I would say to humanity is that we must stop feeling superior to the rest of creation. We are part of nature and we are animals too. We must therefore begin to look at and treat animals with a totally different spirit, ceasing to consider them only objects or food, but realizing that they are exactly like us and ask to live, to play and to love. Not to be killed or exterminated.'

 I know it's just a dream but dreams are what help us live and try to improve the world. 

Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me today on Animated Educated!

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