Valley Views

valley views The origins of paparazzi

Paparazzi - love them or hate them, they have become a fixture of our modern world. The word “Paparazzi” evokes images of pushy hordes of photographers crowding celebrities, all angling to get the best shot. While it might feel like this is a normal part of celebrity culture, it hasn’t always been this way. To understand the beginnings of the paparazzi, we’ll need to take a trip back in time to pre-WW2 Italy.

The dictator Benito Mussolini was an avid film enthusiast. Inspired by Hollywood, in the 1930s he constructed a grand studio complex on the outskirts of Rome called Cinecitta. While Italy remained under the fascist dictator, the studio was mostly relegated to making nationalist propaganda film, with, at best, mediocre results. The complex was closed in the final days of the war as the Allies bombed Rome. After the war came to an end and Mussolini was removed from power, a new wave of directors began to create movies about real life. A new style of film which dropped much of the propaganda polish for a grittier reality of life in post-war Italy became known as “Neorealism.” Unlike the propaganda that preceded them, such films became internationally successful and acclaimed. Rome subsequently claimed its place on the global cinema map. As time went on, the eternal city developed into a hot spot for filmmaking, resulting in the massive Cinecitta complex being reopened.

Soon, Hollywood productions started to move more and more large-scale productions to Rome. Ambitious and visionary directors fulfilled their dreams in lower costs and large-scale sets. Legendary movies like Ben-Hur, Fellini’s Casanova, and Cleopatra all came out of this era. This golden age of filmmaking ushered in an unprecedented number of famous movie stars to the eternal city. However, Rome’s new glittery glamour image displayed only one side of the story. Post-war Italy was extremely challenged economically. While movie stars painted the eternal city red, the day-to-day reality for the everyday Italian was far less optimistic. Work was scarce and times were tough. Unable to find work, an enterprising group of unemployed photographers discovered an innovative way to pay bills. They perceived that tourists and newspapers would pay very handsomely for candid photos of the rich and famous. After a photographer captured images of a particularly scandalous 1958 high-profile party, tabloids and newspapers went wild for the images. Thus, freelance photographers realized that scandal pays. Consequently, they began to search for the most outrageous photos possible, hoping to secure a big payout. If celebs weren’t acting badly, the freelancers would even personally provoke them to do so.

This more realistic look into the lives of celebrities stood in sharp contrast to the perfect, glamourous image these stars projected to the world. Prior to this, the stars had been able to portray this polished exterior with little to break the illusion. As a result, such photographers depicted these largerthan-life figures as not so different from you and me. Interesting enough, the shattering of this illusion didn’t quell the public’s interest in celebrities. In fact, the published photos fueled a heightened curiosity. Exposing the flaws and shortcomings of the famous allowed us to see ourselves in their stories, resulting in a one-way false sense of connection to them. This phenomenon has dramatically intensified in modern times as smartphones brought cameras into the hands of everyone, and social media has given us all a place to publish.

The 1950s culture of uninvited photographers hounding famous movie stars on the streets of Rome became so ubiquitous that Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini decided to make a movie about it. In 1960, he released the groundbreaking threehour film “La Dolce Vita,” or in English, “The Sweet Life.” The film was basically an autobiography of the eternal city’s golden age of film. The story also centered around the ravenous photographers who emerged from this era and, to a large degree, documented it. The main photographer of the story was named “Paparazzo.” Fellini once noted that the name was inspired by the sound of annoying insects like a fly or mosquito, reflecting the nuisance these photographers were to the stars. “Paparazzi” surfaced as the name for the profession, as we know it today, thanks to the international acclaim of the film.

ben there

DONE that Ben Stone Media Production, Valley Journal

Keep an eye on the bigger picture

Iwas flying home after facilitating my Difficult Conversations workshop at Idaho State University. It was the first leg of my return journey, a puddle-jump on a small turbo-prop from Pocatello to Seattle. It was a short flight, but long enough to teach me something.

During the boarding process, I had switched seats with a fellow traveler. I’d reserved an aisle seat, 14A, but the person who reserved 14B, the window seat, asked if we could switch places. I didn’t want to, but I could see she’d find the aisle more comfortable, so I agreed.

Twenty minutes into the flight, I started to regret my act of kindness. I was feeling cramped, and frustrated that I couldn’t stretch my legs. Regret soon morphed into resentment, and I began to stew. Why had she asked to switch? If I’d wanted the window seat, I’d have

Valley Views Kern Beare Peacevoice

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reserved the window seat! And she’s not even that much bigger than me, she would have been fine sitting in the window seat!

I let this fruitless internal dialogue rage on for a minute or two, and then finally interrupted myself long enough to point out that I was undoing any personal benefit I might have received from being a nice person. Rather than the positive vibes that come with being considerate of others, I was encasing myself in the emotional equivalent of barbed wire – every resentful thought a painful poke at my insides.

So, taking a lesson from my workshop, I decided to refocus my attention and looked out the window to the vista below. At that point we were flying over the snow-capped Sawtooth mountain range, and I impulsively tapped my seatmate on the shoulder and pointed to the beautiful view outside. She removed the earphones she’d been using and gazed out the window.

Looking out the window together gave us a chance to chat a bit, which opened another window, one that gave me a small glimpse into her life. She’d been in Pocatello over the Mother’s Day weekend to watch her grandchild so that her daughter, a single mother, could get some rest. Now she was headed back to Seattle where a full week of work awaited her. I could tell she was tired. A busy mother helping another busy mother over Mother’s Day. It was a little sad – where were the men who should be celebrating them? – but also moving. By the end of this short conversation my resentment was gone. I felt good about my decision to switch seats, glad that after a tiring few days she at least had a more comfortable ride home.

This little episode reaffirmed for me the value of two related principles I talk about in my workshop: the importance of prioritizing the relationship over being right, and being able to see beyond our own story. Focusing just on my grievances — my ‘story’ — only amplified my discomfort and resentment. Focusing on the relationship forced me to widen my lens, to see beyond my story to take in the humanity of the other person – and to let that have a bearing, an influence, not only on how I saw the situation, but also on how I felt about it, and on how I responded.

A Hindu parable, recently sent to me by a friend, makes a similar point in perhaps a more memorable way:

An aging master grew tired of his apprentice complaining, and so, one morning, sent him for some salt. When the apprentice returned, the master instructed the unhappy young man to put a handful of salt in a glass of water and drink it.

“How does it taste?” the master asked.

“Bitter” said the apprentice, spitting it out.

The master then asked the young man to take the same handful of salt and put it in the lake. After the apprentice swirled his handful of salt in the water, the old man told him to drink from the lake.

“How does it taste?” the master asked.

“Fresh” said the apprentice.

“Do you taste the salt?” asked the master.

“No,” said the young man.

At this, the master sat beside the young man, and said, “The pain of life is pure salt. But the amount of bitterness we taste depends on the container that holds it. So when you are in pain, the only thing you can do is to enlarge your sense of things. Stop being a glass. Become a lake.”

In a difficult conversation, seeing beyond our story and strengthening the relationship is how we turn a glass into a lake. It reduces our bitter (salty) feelings toward the ‘other’ by ‘enlarging our sense of things,’ making us more compassionate, more responsive and, yes, even more happy.

vj

Talk about gun laws

Editor,

I’m appalled by the fact that an 18-year-old can just walk into a gun shop and buy two A-15 assault rifles, then walk into a elementary school and barricades himself in a classroom of innocent children, and start shooting to kill 19 children and two adults - well three, if you count the gun man. I agree with what President Biden said, “When are we going to start standing up to the gun lobbyists in this country?” The only problem is that the Republican party is a bunch of cowards who are afraid to lose their biggest supporter, and that is the NRA. Well, it is time for the Republican party to grow a pair and start thinking of the children and not themselves. This country is getting tired of all these mass shootings that are taking innocent lives of people who are just going about their everyday lives. So, I think that this country’s government elected officials need to get the gun laws changed.

Lynn Delecaris St. Ignatius

Consider the consequences

Editor,

Make no mistake: opposition to legal abortion is about controlling women, taking women’s rights away, and imposing religious law. If we follow this anti-abortion movement to its logical conclusion, women will be compelled to have babies and will lose the autonomy and equality they have worked so hard to achieve.

Women have worked hard for equal rights in this country, but it’s become clear to me how precarious rights are. They can be taken away in a moment. Women only got the right to have their own credit card without their husband’s signature in 1974.

Many who oppose legal abortion cite their religion. One of the founding principles of this country is the separation of church

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and state. Those who wish to restrict the right to abortion are attempting to impose their religious law on other citizens. They may couch their opposition to legal abortion in terms of “pro-life,” but they are actually “pro-birth” and pro-suppression of women’s rights, and the movement has nothing pro-life about it. They would actually confer greater rights on a rapist or family member committing incest than on a woman who has been victimized.

If abortion becomes illegal, will those who oppose legal abortion step up to pay for the mother’s health care? For her food and housing? For her education so she can create a better life for her child and not be dependent on the government? Will they step up to pay for those children’s food and housing and education until they are age 18?

I don’t believe that anyone makes the decision to have an abortion easily. A woman makes that decision based on what she knows is best for her, her health, and her own family planning in consultation with her own doctor. It should not be made more difficult by politicians who would force a woman to have a baby but care nothing about her circumstances or the consequences.

Mary Hodges, T.P.S. Charlo

We can do something

Editor,

The killings in this country continue. And in this country, we pride ourselves in our freedoms. These freedoms can make it difficult for our nation’s control over malicious actions. Our freedoms do provide and avenue to those who have malicious tendencies to perpetrate horrible actions before they are stopped. Our ‘freedom factors’ of speaking and acting often prevents early and effective corrective and/or law enforcement actions with the perpetrators.

So, what’s the solution? What is called for? Is there a good answer to all this? I happen to think there definitely is. And it is not up to our government. It is up to each of us in our ways of thinking.

The mind is a powerful tool. How we think determines how we speak and act. As humans, we each have been endowed with the healing Power of Love. We need widespread discussions on how to change our minds from fear, anger, and harsh judgment to love, joy, and understanding.

Our powerful media needs to be writing and talking about this every day, encouraging us to use our minds for peace, harmony, and healing.

Bob McClellan Missoula

vj

COURTESY PHOTO Judge Manley was originally going to continue sentencing to June 8, but as it was Manley’s last day the attorneys asked him to continue to the afternoon instead. Manley obliged.

sentencing

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The charges stem from a traffic accident on Back Road south of Polson Jan. 23, 2021. Lake County emergency services were paged out to a report of a one vehicle rollover that day. At the scene, Montana Highway Patrol Trooper Aaron Day observed that a 2006 Ford Mustang, registered to Ardis, had left the roadway and rolled. Ardis was no longer at the scene, but his mother, Roberta Asencio, was. One passenger was being treated by an ambulance crew. Another passenger, Saul Blackweasel, died at the scene. Asencio allegedly claimed that she did not know where Ardis was. A wallet and identification card belonging to Ardis was found near the wrecked Mustang, along with one shoe. It turned out that another person had picked up Ardis at the crash site and transported him to a relative’s house, then later to St. Luke Hospital in Ronan. While being questioned by law enforcement at the hospital, Ardis admitted to consuming alcohol, but claimed to not know who was driving. He was also in possession of a shoe that matched the one left at the crash site. Phone records show that Ardis had called relatives right after the crash, but did not call 911 to report the crash or seek aid for Blackweasel. Forensic testing showed Ardis’s DNA on the deployed airbag of the Mustang’s steering wheel. It’s the belief of Lake County Attorney Steve Eschenbacher that Roberta Asencio arranged to have her son picked up at the crash site and taken away. Saul Blackweasel’s mother, Ashley Gervais, testified at the sentencing. She asked Ardis how he could have just left his best friend laying in a ditch. “He loved you!” she said repeatedly. She also spoke of how close the two friends were. She spoke about how they’ve been friends since the age of seven. Gervais held back tears as she spoke of the damage to her son’s body and how that

Rope Ardis impacted her ability to have an open casket at his funeral services. Other family members took the stand. One question they shared was what happened to Saul Blackweasel’s cell phone, as its whereabouts are unknown. It was learned through the required pre-sentence investigation that Ardis had multiple DUI convictions leading up to the night of Roberta Asencio Blackweasel’s death. In addition to the eight-year prison term, Judge Manley ordered Ardis pay restitution in the amount of $21,962.70.