His lens has captured the raw emotions and untold stories that lurked in the shadows of the Golden Era. From the Beetles to the Popes, Rino Barillari's camera acts as a silent observer of a changing Italy. In this exclusive interview, the photographer Fellini called “The King of Paparazzi” shares memories of Fellini, La Dolce Vita, and the genesis of Paparazzo.
BY GIOVANNA G. BONOMO
Photography RINO BARILLARI
June, 2024
We are at the iconic Harry’s Bar on Via Veneto, steeped in the echoes of the Dolce Vita era’s scandalous tales and meteoric rise of unknowns to silver screen stardom. A symbol of the glamorous 1960s, where Frank Sinatra’s melodies filled the air and renowned actresses graced its premises.
It was an era when the stunning Anita Ekberg would leisurely enjoy an aperitif with friends following a spree on Via Frattina. Rino Barillari “The King of Paparazzi,” greets us alongside Piero Lepore, the visionary owner of this historic establishment who is responsible for safeguarding the timeless allure of this iconic thoroughfare.
Barillari’s phone buzzes incessantly, within minutes he has already run out to capture not one, but three celebrities, a reminder of his enduring connection to the world he once illuminated with his lens still today.
To avoid further interruption Piero suggests we take the interview inside. Inside these walls, passionate romances blossomed, and clandestine agreements were forged, immortalizing an atmosphere of unparalleled allure and beauty.
The photographic masterpieces of Barillari, are on display: A selection of Barillari's cameras, trophies, and dolce vita memorabilia. Now, amidst the ambiance of vintage glamour, microphones hooked - up, phones silenced and espresso in hand, the stage is set for this Italian Excellence to tell the untold chapters of a bygone era, through a lens that continues to intrigue audiences worldwide.
Rino (Saverio) Barillari, is a living chronicle of tales, a vessel overflowing with Italian history that traces back to his roots in Limbadi, in the province of Vibo Valentia. His formative years were steeped in the enchanting ambiance of his uncle's movie theatre, where he first glimpsed the magic of cinema that would shape his destiny. At only 14 years old, he embarks on a new life to the bustling streets of Rome in pursuit of sustenance and opportunity.
Driven not by mere passion but by an unyielding need for survival, Rino recounts, "I didn’t have my own bed, I didn’t have coffee made for me. I didn’t have food. I was hungry in every way and needed to find a way to survive." Thus began his foray into the realm of photography, starting from humble beginnings as an assistant to the "scattini" capturing moments at the iconic Trevi Fountain.
Equipped with a Comet Bencini bought with his hard-earned coins in an era where owning a camera was a luxury, Rino swiftly became a pivotal link between tourists and their cherished memories. Reflecting on those times, he recalls, "At the time, hardly anyone had a camera; so, if tourists wanted a souvenir in front of a monument, they had to turn to those who were there specifically to take 'souvenir photos.' But to capture those moments, one had to clear the area of other people (or else, what kind of photo would it be, surrounded by strangers?) and then, after development, the photos had to be 'put in an envelope' and delivered to the hotel where the tourists were staying."
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Despite his yearning to photograph the illustrious figures that graced the streets of Rome, Rino found himself entwined in the fabric of capturing tourists' memories. His hunger for more propelled him to iconic locales like Via Veneto, Piazza del Popolo, and Piazza di Spagna, where he revelled at the stars. "On the warm nights of Rome, they were there, in the flesh, the ones who made you dream on the big screen, all you had to do was shoot to bring them to print," he reminisces fondly. " There are no more beautiful stories. There are no miracles." When asked what a miracle meant for him, Barillari replied: "To have something no one else has. To do something in a way no one else does."
When luminaries and notable personalities beckoned the lens of seasoned photographers or the gaze of the public eye, Barillari emerged as a maestro of his craft. With a keen eye and unwavering determination, he swiftly captured the essence of the era, honing in on the most captivating and talked-about couples of the time.
Through his lens, he etched a visual narrative that resonated with the pulse of an era defined by elegance, scandal, and unbridled charisma.
” If you take a tranquil photo of John Wayne here, at Harry’s Bar, who’s going to buy it? But if John Wayne was with a girl and he got up, took a glass, and threw it at you, that photo goes around the world ”
I learned from great photographers like Giacomo Alexis, the great Marcello Geppetti (the father of all photographers) and Tazio Secchiaroli, all maestros. "Tazio was the photographer who inspired the character of Paparazzo in Fellini's "La Dolce Vita." I wouldn't have become a photographer if I hadn't met him: someone who taught me what there was to learn, the tricks of the trade and the passion for photography. From him I learned how to "steal" the right shot from the most suspicious VIPs, how to take photos without being noticed...not without consequences, of course." Then, Alexis, snapped the scoop to the face which would become a symbol of the Dolce Vita: “I caught the English actress Sonia Romanoff, with another man.
The problem is that she had married an old man to stay in Italy. Less than thrilled by my presence, she smashed an ice cream in my face. I was angry but my career took off. The secret was in the art of provocation, seeking to catch stars off guard in intimate situations with unexpected companions." This approach catapulted Barillari to paparazzi fame. His subjects’ raw reactions became headlines that could be read around the world. "The curious thing is that with shots of famous people, at a certain point you become a little famous too." What put Barillari on the international map was the fight in Via Veneto with Peter O'Toole.
He was in Rome filming the movie "The Bible: In the Beginning," produced by Dino de Laurentiis. One night, a friend tells me that Peter is drunk and with Barbra Steel. So I grab my camera, hide, take the photo, and he smashes my ear. He takes me to the hospital. I was a minor. They call my father. My father gets angry with me, saying, "Every night, you cause trouble. You need to change your profession. You should work in a bank, etc." After two months, my father was compensated with 1 million lire. Then my father says, "No, no, you can continue this job. Years later, O'Toole returned to Rome.We made peace and embraced."
The saga continued with other high-profile incidents involving celebrities like Frank Sinatra, Mickey Hargitay, Vatussa Vitta, Sonia Romanoff, Frank Sinatra, and Brigitte Bardot, and just days after our interview, with the French actor Gerard Depardieu at Harry's Bar. "When I got the tip that Depardieu was there," he told me on the phone, "I got in a cab and rushed over to Harry's. Not just because of the photo, but because he was always a hero for me. This changed after he punched me in the face three times. It's one thing to take the punch at 15, quite another at 79.
” Reality.
You may be criticized. But this was my job. This was truth. And no one could deny it. PRIVACY IS FALLIMENT. Where There is no truth there is no story. What's dangerous today, becomes history
in ten years.”
To the famous photojournalist, we owe symbolic images of Italian history, not only of Liz Taylor and Frank Sinatra, Princess Beatrice of Savoy and Peter O'Toole around Via Veneto at the center of the jet set, but also subsequent historic shots of 1968, the Pasolini murder, the Getty kidnapping, the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II, the arrest of Enzo Tortora, the long season of the Red Brigades, and the mafia massacres. During his 60- year career as a paparazzo, Rino Barillari has clocked up 163 visits to the Emergency Department, 11 broken ribs, 1 stab wound, and 76 smashed cameras.
He has been awarded an honorary professorship in photography at Xi’an International University. Rino Barillari is a commander of the Order of the Italian Republic.
Rino, what is La Dolce Vita?
RINO BARILLARI: You have to understand that La Dolce Vita is an emotion and also a very beautiful word, and also a beautiful phrase at a particular moment in Italy. Here we are in 1958 and 1959, the end of the war. Unfortunately, people were still crying, waiting for their children, cousins from the war who were not arriving, and the country was trying to forget, to do things, to work. They invented new professions, and so many magical things were happening in the city and in Italy.
When you went into a shop, you found four people shining your shoes beautifully, but underneath, they were holey, holey because they were worn out.
To have shoes, you also needed some new money. New shops, traffic, a bit of tourism. The city was starting to get lively. Not all the bars were Italian; they were all foreign. People at the bar were consuming and everyone was there watching because you didn't have the chance to sit down. Via Veneto was where the film "La Dolce Vita" was being shot.
There were four places with four different mentalities. In one bar there were poets, writers and journalists. In another policemen, ambassadors, in another stars and actresses who weren’t anything but who later exploded.
Every place had its public and the people walked by and went crazy to see a country that grew but that you didn’t know. You understood the country by looking at the films.
We talk about the Dolce Vita thanks to American actors and investments in film post-war. Via Veneto came alive with stars like Audrey Hepburn, Kirk Douglas, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Junior, Jerry Louis. The Americans helped us to rebuild this country after the war. They succeeded.
The term "paparazzo", the third most popular Italian word in the world after pizza and Ferrari explains Barillari, owes its origin and introduction to the world to Romagnolo cinema genius Federico Fellini, (also the inventor of other fantastic words like "Vitelloni" and "Amarcord," titles of his films that have become part of our vocabulary).
The origin is well known: the high society gossip of the Dolce Vita years in Rome, between the 1950s and 1960s, was a sort of guerrilla warfare between photographers and famous personalities. Imagined by the stories of maestro of photography Tazio Secchiaroli, Fellini decided to name the character of the photographer in Dolce Vita "Paparazzo." From that film, the name became a photographic genre, a profession, a category, and ultimately an international word without the need for translation. If Secchiaroli is the master, Rino Barillari is the pupil, a that Fellini would graduate to "the King of Paparazzi," and the name will always remain on his business card, even today.
Recalling his encounters with the legendary filmmaker Federico Fellini, Barillari paints a portrait of a man whose curious genius knew no bounds. "I capture details. For instance, I didn't stop at the shiny shoe, I looked for the hole underneath it. I wasn't just photographing the stars either. I was also working as a crime news photographer.
Fellini would ask me, Rino do they cry when one dies in an accident? Do they lose their shoes? Do they say something? He asked me because I was always the first to arrive to shoot the crime." Fellini's probing questions about human nature and Barillari's attention to detail is the focal point where their worlds intersected, and where their friendship bloomed. "Photos like film, are made with the head, you have to understand the character, capture an expression, notice a detail like the holey shoes."
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