The Oscars 2013 - Part 5: Vanity Fair Party

If I didn’t know about the Governors Ball, I was totally aware of the Vanity Fair Party. 
And I was really looking forward to going there. 
The problem was, half of Hollywood was going there at the same time, and reaching the Sunset Tower Hotel, where the party is held every year, was more difficult (and longer) than we expected. The jet lag hit us in the Limousine and we had to keep talking to each other to arrive at destination still awake.
But then, there we were, at the most fabulous party of the year in LA!
As usual, we immediately understood there were two different kinds of entrance: one for the common people like us and the other one for the stars. The wall of TV journalists was particularly astonishing here: photographers were piling up one above the other and the flashes of their cameras were incessant as well as their requests to the stars passing by. We arrived at the same time of Jennifer Lawrence (who changed her dress, in the meantime) and the moment was absolutely frantic. Everybody was screaming, taking pictures and going crazy:

Once inside, I had troubles recognising the place. I have been at the restaurant of the Sunset Tower Hotel few years before, but now it looked like a completely different location. Maybe it was the number of stars per meter that made the difference.
At this party, the sensation I felt at the Oscars was even more intense: it looked like one of those dreams where you could see people but people can’t see you. Do you know what I mean? I walked around bumping into any possible star I used to see on a silver screen, feeling invisible. Casey Affleck was talking to somebody in a corner, Jennifer Aniston was walking in front of me and I had to be careful not to step on her red long dress, Robert De Niro was just arrived with his young son, Jason Gordon Levitt (by far one of the nicest people I saw that night) was smiling and having fun, in another room, absolutely packed, the slim and tall figure of Adrien Brody was mesmerising the crowd around him.
It was probably a bit too much. 

After a glass of wine, we decided the overdose of stars had to stop.

The funniest part, though, was just about to start. 
We called our driver, saying that he could pick us up, but we didn’t realize it was rush hour on Sunset Boulevard… hundreds of stars were waiting for their cars as well, and so I enjoyed looking at them in a “normal” situation.

Zooey Deschanel (with a lovely vintage dress!) had both her arms around her boyfriend, and was pretending to be already asleep, Octavia Spencer, her high heels shoes in her hands, was making a TV interview barefoot, Jason Clarke (again!) was looking around hoping to find a lift, Vin Diesel couldn’t count on any super-power to find his limousine, and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, in an ethereal pink dress, was standing there, pretending to be admired for her stunning beauty while waiting for someone to fly her elsewhere. But the funniest scene was seeing Jane Fonda, in an improbable leopard dress, grabbing a couple of hamburgers from the little van at the roadside that was trying to feed all the stars (knowing that, as a matter of fact, they don’t really eat at parties and so, in the end, they’re starving).

The night was really over, I felt a bit of sadness at the idea that the most magical night of the year was gone, but immediately afterwards I felt happy and lucky, because I knew I could write about it in my blog…

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I really need to thank many people who made my dream come true.
First of all, the Academy people: my eternal gratitude goes to Dawn Hudson, for inviting me, to Heather Cochran for introducing me to Daniel Day Lewis (and much more!) and to Debbie Peters for her precious help.
A big GRAZIE! to my colleague Susanna who offered me to share the hotel room as well as the entire experience with her, and to the Dream Team (Emanuele, Gigi & Jonathan) who drove me anywhere in Los Angeles and supported me every day.
And to my boss, who’s been putting up with my cinema passion for almost 13 years, not only the usual Grazie, Capo! but the reassurance that the procedure for his canonization already started!
Now, guys, the only problem is that it won’t be easy to convince me to let the OSCAR go...

Second Life

A while ago, I have seen the American romantic comedy (500) Days of Summer by Marc Webb, that in fact isn't a romantic comedy at all.

It is the story of a guy who falls in love with a girl who doesn't give a damn about him.

Well, maybe just a little bit. The two are having "something", actually, a kind of a love affair, quite typical of our days (of winter, not of summer): they have sex, they hang out together, but the way he and she are living all this is completely different. He is looking for more, she is looking for less. For nothing at all, as a matter of fact.

As it is often the case in my existence, cinema enlighted me about life and the world around me through a very simple mechanism.

At a certain point of the story, she invites him to her birthday party (at her place). He goes there and, since the moment he rings the doorbell of the apartment, the screen is divided in two: one side is for Reality, the other one for Expectations.

Useless to say, what it is shown in the two screens is very different: the guy is longing for a super romantic night, while the girl is showing to all her friends an engagement ring. The only small problem is that, well, the guy she is engaged to, is not our hero.

Looking at that split screen I had a great satori: BAAANG!!!

Voilà, cinema in just few seconds showed me the way to give a frame to all those moments (oh, so many) where reality and expectations are not exactly the same.

It helps, I tell you. It even works, sometimes.

It is like seeing your life from a distance, it is like not being you, but some pathetic guy on a screen.

It is you, of course, you who just said the word not to say, did the thing not to do, dreamt the dream not to have.

But you can always pretend.

This is why cinema is (oh!) so much better than life.

Zazie

ps I wasn't able to find a decent clip from the movie showing the split-screen scene I talk about in this post. BUT. Looking for that scene, I bumped into a very lovely video made by the film-maker together with the two main actors. One of those rare cases where reality wins over expectations.

You see, cinema never lets me down... (and hey, I can KILL for her dress!)