Dodging the hectic pace at the Hollywood Roosevelt one afternoon, I slipped away for a quiet lunch at Miceli's on Las Palmas. It had a typically old-world feel deep in the heart of the Turner Classic Movie Festival environs.
I was seated on the first level at a table next to the corner booth, and I was so hungry that the smells of garlic bread and simmering sauces were assaulting my senses like mad. I had zoomed to the first screening and skipped breakfast.
Lunch prices for pasta, salad, and a beverage are unbelievably reasonable and the fare at these prices didn't have to be sooooo tasty. The four gentleman seated at the next table were just finishing their lunch, and I noticed that they were speaking Spanish.
The gentleman in the corner was definitely treated with reverence and also spoke Spanish with an accent not usually attributed to California or Texas. A young man, who introduced himself as Shannon Kelly, works with the UCLA Film and Television Archive, and he introduced Director Patricio Guzman to me.
And of course I gushed and oohed and aahed.
Evidently, Mr. Guzman was in LA for a retrospective of his films. The following excerpt is from the UCLA Film and Television Archives website concerning Patricio Guzman:
“The only eternal lesson to be had is to study the past, so that we won’t repeat it.”— Patricio Guzmán.
In a remarkable 40-year career, Chilean filmmaker Patricio Guzmán has crafted a unique legacy among documentarians: cataloguing the cataclysmic modern events of his country in a body of work not only timely, but timeless. Influenced early on by the non-fiction work of Chris Marker, Frédéric Rossif and Louis Malle, Guzmán began his career in 1971, documenting the sweeping social and economic reforms enacted by Chile’s then-president, Salvador Allende, Latin America’s first democratically elected socialist head of state. In 1973, Allende’s government was brought down in a bloody coup that brought General Augusto Pinochet to power and Guzmán was forced to leave Chile for Europe where he completed The Battle of Chile, Parts 1-3 (1975-1979), a searing account of the Allende government’s final year. Guzmán has returned to the events of 1973 and their aftermath several times throughout his career while also expanding his field of inquiry to explore the very natures of cinema, history and memory. In his latest film, Nostalgia for the Light (2010), Guzmán orchestrates a dazzling meditation on the insistent presence of the past in all our lives. UCLA Film & Television Archive is pleased to present Nostalgia for the Light in a special preview screening on Friday, April 15 and to welcome Mr. Guzmán in person to the Billy Wilder Theater on Friday, April 29.
Mr. Guzman is definitely one of those observant, quiet talents who seems to be continually scanning the environment and patiently sizing up those around him. Born in 1941 in Santiago, one of my favorite quotes from Guzman is that "we are not scientists, we are poets."
Guzman also appeared at the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar. To read more about him on Independent Lens, follow this link:
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/insi ... /flaherty/
He was very kind, and seemed genuinely pleased that I knew of his work. He gave me his autograph!