Sunday, December 10th, 2006

Day Dreams of Valentino

When I stepped into the lobby of the hotel bar, I spotted him immediately.  The man’s name as it turns out is Vlad Kozolv.  He is part Russian and part Italian.  I was stunned by how much he physically resembled Valentino, particularly when he would tilt his head at a certain angle.  I could tell Vlad was very passionate and sincere.  He seemed to have so much knowledge and understanding of Valentino, and I was struck by how much it seemed to mean to him.  On August 23rd (which is the day of the big annual Valentino memorial) his film “Day Dreams of Valentino” was screened in the cemetery.  I was very impressed by it.  The film was not a straightforward narrative, but rather a series of flashbacks that Valentino had while he was dying.  The film shows depicts Valentino as a gentle, sensitive, lonely, spiritual and complicated man.  The astonding feat is that this is almost all accomplished with images and very few words.  The film is in black and white and relies on visuals over dialogue, which is a perfect choice given the time in which it is set.  I was really touched by the film and by how intimately Vlad seems to understand Valentino.  His performance in this film is pitch perfect.  On the day of the memorial service, he even arranged to have a plane fly over the cemetery and drop rosepetals, which is what happened the day Valentino was laid to rest there in 1926.  He even got the original Shiek costume from 1921 and had it on display.  A month or so later, he asked me to speak at the Italian Cultural Institute for a Valentino event he was planning.  He had the plane, the roses and everything beautifully coordinated once again.  He is working very hard to get it made as a feature film and given his passion and determination, I have no doubt he will succeed.  Stay tuned and hopefully we’ll be hearing much more about this project in the future.

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