["My Life in Focus"] IV. Shooting a Cult Classic with Ringo and Brando
The following is an excerpt from Gianni Bozzacchi's autobiography, "My Life in Focus: A Photographer's Journey with Elizabeth Taylor and the Hollywood Jet Set," which I co-wrote.
An Introduction to the Life and Work of Gianni Bozzachi
IV. Shooting a Cult Classic
Richard Burton came down to Rome with Elizabeth Taylor to fit in ten days’ shooting on “Candy,” an adaptation of a Terry Southern novel written by Buck Henry and, in part, by Anthony Burgess. Robert Haggiag was a very shrewd producer. To get the funding he needed, he put together an exceptional cast – Richard, Marlon Brando, Ringo Star (in his solo movie-acting debut), Walter Matthau, James Coburn, John Astin and Sugar Ray Robinson – and then shot everything in his own studios to cut costs.
(Ringo Starr ready for his cinema debut in the 1968 erotic comedy, “Candy.” Copyright Gianni Bozzacchi.)
As special photographer, my job was to take photos for advertising layouts, both on set as well as backstage – with actors getting ready, or fooling around, little episodes that happen on every set but which people rarely see. If a producer uses his special photographer well, he can save a lot on advertising, because the public will see his photos in advance and know all about the movie before it comes out. It’s a bit like doing a photojournalist report on a movie under production, without being chained to the director of photography and the cameraman, the way that an official photographer always is.
(Marlon Brando (with Ewa Aulin) was probably the hardest star I ever had to shoot. He could never stop thinking about himself -- and maybe how to shoot me. Copyright Gianni Bozzacchi.)
Brando was the hardest person to photograph on that set. He was always very aware of the camera’s presence. The young idol of “On The Waterfront” and “A Streetcar Named Desire” had already begun to show signs of considerable eccentricity. No one knew this better than Brando himself. He’d been such an Adonis in his youth that he now hated to see himself looking ugly in movies and photographs. He kept a close eye on me – controlling where I stood, what angle I was shooting him from – and that made it very difficult for me to get the natural photos I wanted. I never chatted with him, so I don’t know whether he remembered seeing me in those bushes in Africa, and whether that had anything to do with his awkwardness in front of my camera.
“Candy” was a disaster, although the movie is so weird and features so many random stars that it’s something of a cult classic now. No one understood the movie, not the director, the actors. Throughout the movie, the protagonist, played by Swedish actress Ewa Aulin (known principally for having won “Miss Teen Sweden”) basically goes to bed with every man she meets. Brando played a mystic. Richard was an eccentric poet called MacPhisto. Ringo was a gardener. The shooting was in such chaos that, when Richard completed his ten days, he arranged to to hire me for “Where Eagles Dare,” just so that I could get off the set.
(Ewa Aulin, the title character in “Candy,” clearly has no trouble keeping Richard’s eye on the prize. Copyright Gianni Bozzacchi.)
Come back on Monday for Part V, in which Gianni, Richard, and Clint Eastwood battle frigid weather and Nazis.
