There is a Romanian expression that translates something like “the films in your head”, meaning the way you perceive something happened, or the way you want/ fear it will happen. I have a more literal approach to this (as most people who spend a lot of their time watching films do): I look at people on the street and I see characters, I look at objects and I imagine their history or arrange them into a composition that for some reason I find beautiful or funny, or revealing. In Split I became quite obsessed with a couple of things: clothes left out to dry, garbage bins, cats and air conditioners. So here it is, my film(s) in Split.
These two photos were taken for different reasons but I see now that they are very complementary and they tell a lot about the character of this city: white stone everywhere and a city that has grown organically over the centuries. The first one is a testimony of old age, layers upon layers of brick and stone and mortar, pipes coming out of the building, the car tires recycled with new purpose and the wheelbarrow that seems to be resting until someone starts building again. The other, is almost the antonym of the first, order and symmetry versus chaos; a moment frozen in time (the tower of the Cathedral of Saint Domnius) versus a palimpsest of architectural styles.
A cameo by my favorite actress, Isabelle Huppert.
A tribute to Van Gogh.
Imagine James Bond in hot pursuit on the narrow streets of the Diocletian Palace.
Looking straight at the camera, such an amateur… I had to fire him.
The statue of Gandalf attracts large crowds of foot fetishists.
Have you ever wanted to by a shirt drying lazily in the sun?
Some fancy night club.
One of the most beautiful open air cinemas I’ve seen.
I have a feeling that there is at least on barbershop/ hairdresser named Iris in every town in the world.
Part of the 5C gang, with our guide for the day, cinematographer Boris Poljak… directing our attention to the suicide jumper in the window.
Find Waldo.
Failed selfie with an elusive cat.
Little black dress, somebody’s going on a date tonight.
Garden of Eden… or maybe CGI for an urban development plan.
It will forever remain a mystery what Nicole was doing between two of my favorite directors.
Somebody’s home.
The film within the film: A visit to the Kino Klub Split under the watchful eye of comrade Lenin. Though it is an American production, I’m sure he would have appreciated a good martial arts film like any other man. As we leave I spot R2D2 hiding behind the door.
There is a very strange harmony going on in this city: the air conditioners blend in the surrounding white stone, looking like some sort of modern gargoyles.
There is no glitch in the Matrix.
This small airport scene, with its palm trees and heavy clouds, makes me feel like a Latin American dictator escaping the country after a military coup.
