Ron Howard on Pavarotti and why documentaries scratch a different itch

Ron Howard has worked with the biggest names in Hollywood but even he was incredibly impressed meeting this global megastar.

Ron Howard met the subject of his new film, opera maestro and superstar Luciano Pavarotti, only once.

The director of Apollo 13 and Frost/Nixon was at a “large, large Hollywood gathering” in the late eighties or early nineties, and even in that small moment, he was awestruck.

“It was a Golden Globes event or something like that and it was full of stars, and I remember Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman were there. And when Pavarotti arrived, he was the star,” Howard told news.com.au down the phone line from Italy where he was promoting Pavarotti at the Rome Film Festival.

“He wasn’t doing anything, he just showed up. He had on his fedora, scarf and charisma. That’s when he was really climbing to the top of the world entertainment stage. I met him very fleetingly that night.

“But just in that moment, in that handshake, his energy positivity and spirit was very present and palpable.”

Pavarotti in concert in 1999. Picture: Angelo Soulas

After the success of his Beatles documentary, Eight Days a Week, he and his creative partners on that, producer Nigel Sinclair and editor Paul Crowder, were searching for their next subject when Pavarotti’s old record label Decca got in touch.

The Modena-born world famous tenor had died in 2007 but left behind an impressive legacy as a man who popularised the high art of opera to a mass audience who was taken in by his powerful voice.

“I didn’t know much about opera but I was fascinated by Pavarotti as I began to read about him, and understand his life was a kind of opera. I began to believe that we could maybe use the arias to create an opera about Pavarotti, and that he could perform in a way for us and tell his own story.”

The son of a baker and factory worker, Pavarotti scaled the heights of global superstardom, packing out concert halls and stadiums the world over and singing in front of the likes of Princess Diana, either by himself or as part of the Three Tenors alongside Jose Carrera and Placido Domingo.

Pavarotti meeting Diana and Charles at his 1991 Hyde Park concert

Howard’s documentary is packed with these triumphant moments of fan fervour and recognition, but it’s in the intimate moments where you get a better glimpse of the man behind those high C notes.

Securing the co-operation of Pavarotti’s family was crucial, and there had been some tension in the aftermath of his death with a bitter, public battle over his estate between his daughters and his second wife Nicoletta Mantovani.

“The family was willing (to be involved) and that was vitally important to me because otherwise it would be entirely an archival film, collecting his great performances and repurposing them,” Howard said. “That wasn’t of interest to me because I wanted to deepen the story and make it a family story.

“I know at the last moment there was a real anxiety and hesitation from them and that’s understandable. I think their interviews are courageous, informative and kind of instructive in a way.

“There’s an element of forgiveness but it’s not blind forgiveness. It’s forgiveness without forgetting, but it’s putting the disappointments in perspective with the joys and love.”

The family provided Howard and his team with home videos and photographs that had never been seen in public.

Crucial among them is a video from Mantovani in which she “probed” him and he goes onto reveal what he thought of Pavarotti the man and not just Pavarotti the performer.

Howard with Pavarotti’s second wife Nicoletta Mantovani, producer Nigel Sinclair, Pavarotti’s daughter Giuliana Pavarotti and Pavarotti’s granddaughter Caterina Lo Sasso at the Rome Film Festival Picture: Tiziana Fabi/AFP

But it wasn’t until about a month from the end of production that Howard discovered a piece of footage that really cemented Pavarotti for him.

“We suddenly found this footage of Pavarotti going down the Amazon, this pilgrimage he made deep in the jungle to sing on the same stage as (his idol Enrico) Caruso had sang 100 years before,” Howard said. “It was the perfect opening because to me it embodied one of the things I most admired about Pavarotti.

“He made his life a kind of journey, he made it an exploration that stimulated him and educated him but also honoured opera.

“That footage really shifted our film, we threw out our previous opening entirely and went with this. It was much more cinematic and relevant in an interesting way to the spirit of Pavarotti, this restless man on a life’s journey.”

For Howard, documentary filmmaking is a highwire act all the way to the end, “unlike a scripted project where you more or less know what you’re doing and you get the story you expected”.

Pavarotti’s level of global fame was usually reserved for rock stars

But even with its unpredictability, documentaries scratch a different itch for Howard.

“I’ve really enjoyed over the years doing scripted projects based on real events, whether it’s A Beautiful Mind or Rush or Apollo 13. I like fantasy and comedy and thrillers, all kinds of movies, but I continue to go back to movies based on real events and the research is something I really enjoy.

“Documentaries are so much about research and the people you collaborate with they’re dedicated to these explorations, these deep dives. I find it fascinating, a little more journalistic.

“The other thing is the rhythm and the pace of making a documentary is so different. You have time to think and screen and you edit and so I’m really using a lot of the muscles I’ve developed from my experience in post-production on movies, but this is a little more contemplative and the deadline pressure isn’t as intense.

Ron Howard says documentary filmmaking scratches a different itch for him Picture: Tiziana Fabi/AFP

“They take a couple of years to unfold, to be made. It’s something I can do while I’m still going to a set, working with world-class actors, scripted material and going on location.

“And it’s a great thing to have this sort of constant other subject I’m interested in always stimulating me, provoking really interesting conversations, working on it here and there, while I’m under the gun and doing scripted work, which is so much about logistics and those budget challenges and things like that.

“I’m also seeing the documentaries are influencing on my sensibilities a little bit on the scripted side in ways that I think are progressive, creative and interesting as well.”

Pavarotti is in cinemas from Thursday, October 24

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