04.10.10
Profile: Rino Barillari, the Paparazzi don
“It’s impossible to be like you. You are worse than hyenas. You don’t respect anyone or anything.” With these words a sobbing woman addresses paparazzi photographers in Federico Fellini’s iconic film, La Dolce Vita, released in 1960.When the film had its world premiere in Rome, it received a 20-minute standingovation.
However, in Milan, a couple of days later, the audience startedto leave the cinema shouting “shame”, “coward” and “communist” at Fellini.Rumours about the film spread quickly and over the following days in Rome, Naples andMilan the cinemas were stormed by crowds of intrigued spectators. The ‘paparazzi’ (named after Paparazzo, the main photographer depicted in the film) had been born and everyone now knew about them. In the sixties the king of the real-life Italian paparazzi was, as now, Rino Barillari.
Today Barillari is 65 years old and based in the Piazza Navona in the tourist heart of Rome. His studio is at the top of a steep staircase, its walls plastered with images of his nocturnaladventures. There’s a poster of Swedish actress Anita Ekberg in the Trevi Fountain (the most famous scene in La Dolce Vita), and photos of Barillari with Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis and other Hollywood stars. Neckties are thrown over the back of a chair and cameras of every make andvintage are spread around the studio. It could be a scene from the original film, it is so authentic.
Barillari is a shrewd and blunt southerner whose Italian is frequently mixed with English terms. “I came to Rome from Calabria in 1959.I was only 14 years old and alone in the big city,it was a difficult situation. In the beginningI was an errand boy for the photographers who worked at the big hotels. But I soon began totake photos myself. It was in that period, that Rome’s ‘la dolce vita’ really took shape,” he explains. “There was incredible repression from the Church towards everything to do withamusement. For example, if magazines published certain ‘daring photos’, they were immediately seized. By the late fifties, changes were in the air and with the Pope’s death [Pius XII in 1958] everything exploded. It was a fantastic period.“
A group of 10-15 photographers were always together and we were ready when somethinghappened. The Via Veneto was divided intosectors. At the Café de Paris it was packed with people from the film industry and beautifulgirls from all over Europe. On the other side of the Via Veneto was the Gran Caffè Doney, where you would find politicians, and in another place were all of the intellectuals, writers and people from television.
At that time Rome and the Cinecittà (Italy’s equivalent to Hollywood) werea big attraction for a lot of the Hollywood stars, such as Liz Taylor, Ava Gardner, James Stewart, John Wayne, Alfred Hitchcock and many others. The whole world came to Rome. After dinner each evening everyone went to night clubs, and all of us photographers were tipped off bywaiters, bouncers and even the police on where and with who the various celebritieswere staying. And then the hunt started.
“If anyone called the photographers paparazzi at the time, they would be pissed off. They wanted to be called photo reporters. I never really cared... paparazzo, journalist or photo reporter. To me it’s all the same. In Rome they call me the King of the Paparazzi, mostly for fun; that’s okay with me.
“In my career I’ve been to hospital 174 times. I’ve had 11 broken ribs. I’ve been stabbed once and four times I found myself in the middle ofsituations with firearms. That was during the years of terrorism in Italy. When I first got hurt,I was still a minor. I had discovered the actor Peter O’Toole at a bar. He was drunk and flirting with a girl. So when he saw me taking photos,he got furious. I had to go to hospital to have stitches in my ear. Later on my father collected compensation from an insurance claim. Since then I’ve been in scuffles with many others, such as Marlon Brando, Charles Aznavour and with Bruce Willis’s bodyguards. But the mostimportant thing is that I got the right shot in the end. Although that has cost me 78 smashedcameras during the 50 years of my career!
“The golden years were 1966-67, then the first signs of the youth rebellion started. All thesocial unrest and all the fuss, and then the period of terrorism when political life changed, andHollywood’s stars no longer came to Rome. But it was a fantastic period. We were poor but happy.I lived like a millionaire without a lira in my pocket because I was always invited by someone, or someone was always willing to treat me.”
Barillari believes that people’s view of thepaparazzi changed most dramatically after the death of Princess Diana in 1997. “Mamma mia,a catastrophic situation! Everything changed. On the street people shouted ‘murderer’ at me, and someone even wrote the same word onthe street in front of my studio. In the aftermath of Princess Diana’s death I put a black bow onmy Leica as a sign of mourning. Because Diana was the photographers’ friend. She was incredibly friendly and welcoming. If only everyone waslike her. Then, here in Italy, the law on privacy was tightened. Everything changed. Such aserious episode made me reflect on my life. But all that stuff with car chases and photographing people in their own homes with telephoto lenses, it’s not my style. You have to respect certain rules, otherwise you are finished. Basta! If you don’t do that, you’ll only find one scoop, and then you’re out of the game. People must be able to trust you. Today the competition is completely insane. I see many people pretending to be paparazzi withdigital cameras and mobile phones. But the vast majority of them have no press cards... it isa catastrophic situation! The problem is that this business is open to everyone.
“You must be serious about the business.And you should avoid becoming friends withcelebrities. If you do that it’s over. Finished!I often saw Fellini in the street. He lived inVia Margutta with his wife. I sometimes waitedfor him there to take a couple of photos.We knew each other, but I only said ‘goodmorning’ and ‘good evening’. Nothing more. “My favourite pictures I have taken? The Pope playing bocce [a form of bowls], Frank Sinatra giving in to a group of paparazzi and a mother embracing her son who had died of an overdose. It’s a tough photo, but it’s important. There are many other pictures, of course. But they might not ‘last’ as long, maybe a couple of weeks, then the fascination is over. Basta. Finished.”
www.rinobarillari.com
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