Appunti per un film sul jazz is marked by enormous stylistic freedom and led Amico to reinforcing the idea of a live ambient landscape, increasing the need for recording with lightweight equipment and dedicating more effort to a ‘live’ sound. A sound capable of giving free rein to more creative instincts that cannot be reduced to the pseudo-objective prosopopoeia of a voiceover. “I shot Appunti per un film sul jazz in 1965, and it was the first ever cinéma direct film to be made in Italy. I shot it with a crew including a sound director and cinematographer who had gone to Canada for training and had come back with the first directional microphones”. These were not mere technical or production issues. Using lightweight technology gave Amico a freedom of expression foreign to the film industry: “At the time, talking of direct sound with an Italian producer meant hearing that you wanted something that was absolutely impossible”.
Appunti was shot in Bologna during the 7th International Jazz Festival. Gato Barbieri, Don Cherry and Jenny Clark were there, and Amico greets them fully aware of the potential offered by direct cinema: without voiceover, using a handheld Éclair Coutand camera with sound recorded live with a Nagra, the musicians’ rehearsals are alternated with interviews or other moments of their stay in Bologna. The pace of the frames bring rhythm to life: “the real feeling of friendship and collaboration that can be found in ‘jazz-philie’ just as in ‘cinéphilie’” (Adriano Aprà). It feels like New American Cinema, and stagnant Italy with its government awards to prefab documentaries seems light years away.

Marco Bertozzi