Enrico Zanetti has passed away. He was an outstanding assistant camera operator with whom I worked on several demanding film sets.
I remember him with great fondness on Nostalgia by Mario Martone, a film in constant motion through the vibrant and warm, yet chaotic, Sanità district of Naples. Enrico had organised two Piaggio Porter vans loaded with every piece of equipment that might be needed in any situation, one for each camera. They were like a small camera department, moving swiftly through the neighbourhood, navigating narrow alleyways, getting around traffic jams and, of course, paying no heed to one-way streets.
his system — and above all the mental agility of the person who had devised and organised it, together with his human openness and ability to understand the constantly changing needs of both direction and cinematography — was one of the reasons why it was possible to shoot Nostalgia by gliding through the alleyways, becoming part of the Sanità’s organised chaos: almost invisible, part of the neighbourhood’s landscape, a moving stall of curious tools, cases, stands and monitors in constant motion.
They were a wonderful sight — Enrico, Cinzia, Rosario, Imma — that small, extreme unit which, standing on the back of the little van, moved with ease, by then completely at home, immersed in the chaos of the Sanità.
Those were the years of Covid, the time of face masks. And yet we were happy to be making a difficult film, under far from easy conditions.
Enrico helped us enormously on that film, and he will remain with me in my memory, and with all of us who made that beautiful film together.
The Chiaroscuro Collective joins in the family’s grief.
