ELIO LOMBARDI is well-known for his many productions and, at 88 years of age, is currently working on his 112th film. He talks to Joseph Agius about his career, his numerous artistic passions, as well as about author Mary Attard’s new book about him entitled Elio Lombardi – Il-Ħajja Kreattiva Tiegħu.

JA: Elio Lombardi is a name synonymous with TV productions and local film direction. However, it seems that you were interested in other media, such as painting, sculpture, literature, besides having had experiences as an actor, a singer, a make-up artist, a printer (you owned a printing press for a while) and a set designer. You also worked at the Times of Malta for a while. How did you find time to balance everything, besides being a family man and a father of four children?

EL: From when I was still young, I always loved acting and I used to participate in a company known as ‘Assisi’, which was in my village in Sliema. I was also inclined towards painting, and my mother contacted a certain Mary Vella, who was an artist, and I started to take lessons with her.

Elio Lombardi on his typewriter. Photo: Mary Attard

Meanwhile, I had also started to take art lessons at the School of Arts in Valletta. My tutors at the time were Emvin Cremona and Vincent Apap. I can say that I had inherited my writing talent from my grandfather Emilio who had written 110 novels in his lifetime. In spite of having a family with four children, God willing, I somehow made time for my creative pursuits.

JA: Is there a salient episode that somehow influenced your preference for the moving image as artistic expression?

EL: When I was around 50 years old, I was tempted to try my hand at filming to be a member of MACC (Malta Amateur Cine Circle) which organised the Golden Knight awards. The main actor in my first film, A Friend in Need, was Emmanuel Magri who won best actor, and the film itself won first prize. This encouraged me to keep going till to this day and am currently working on the 112th film.

Elio Lombardi together with one of his actors, the late Leslie Gladwish (right), and film director Michael Klinger (centre).

JA: Your meeting with international film producer Michael Klinger can be considered as one of the high points of your career. Klinger produced films by Roman Polanski, among which masterpieces of world cinema like Repulsion, and Mike Hodges’s rather violent famous crime drama Get Carter, starring Michael Caine. What do you think enticed the famous producer to organise a meeting with you? What ingredients did your film Pepita Gomez possess that intrigued Klinger so much?

EL: For me, it was an honour to have the opportunity to meet Klinger who got to know about me through Paul Avellino of the Malta Film Facilities in Kalkara, and who spoke to him about me. He had seen my film Pepita Gomez and showed it to Klinger who was greatly impressed by one of the scenes in the film of a murder taking place during a live band march of a village festa in Siġġiewi. He was surprised how I managed to do it all alone with little experience and resources.

Group photo of Lombardi's family of actors at one of his birthday celebrations.

JA: It’s such a pity that Klinger died before the whole project took off cohesively. Do you rue this missed opportunity? Or did your repertoire of eventual productions make up for this disappointment?

EL: Klinger’s sudden death was indeed a shock. However, I always believe that what is meant to be will happen. On consideration, if Klinger took me on to introduce me internationally as he had intended to do, I would not have had the chance to do over a hundred films.

JA: For a period of time, you attended the Malta School of Art, under the tutorship of artists Vincent Apap and Emvin Cremona. Can you narrate some anecdotes regarding these giants of Maltese 20th century art and your days as a student there? Did the moving image intrigue you more than the painting genre’s stationary documentation?

Lombardi with Josephine Mallia from the film 'L-Itwal Lejl'.

EL: What I can say is that art is strange. The fact that you are inclined to write or paint does not mean that you can just write or paint whenever you like. I believe that the muse has to be present. I can just say that with Emvin Cremona, I learnt how to use and mix the right colours in my paintings.

When I was around 50 years old, I was tempted to try my hand at filming to be a member of MACC (Malta Amateur Cine Circle) who organised the Golden Knight awards- Elio Lombardi

Later on, I had copied the painting of St Jerome that is in the church of the Sacro Cuor in Sliema and when I showed it to my tutor, he thought that I had obtained the draft painting from the original artist. He did not realise that it was actually my painting. Along the years, I got mainly hooked to the filming medium and the writing of novels, eight of which are published, and others are in the process of being published.

(From left) Josephine Mallia, Joe Bartolo, Elio Lombardi and Inez Farrugia. Photo: Mary Attard

JA: Who are the film directors that you look up to as role models? What films by international auteurs were especially inspiring for you? I believe you favour a realist style of documentation in your filming. Are you inspired by crude reality? Is your preference sometimes for ‘non-professional’ actors a way to achieve this?

EL: I was particularly impressed by Ben Hur and its director, William Wyler. I tend to prefer to work on Maltese culture and am not influenced by other directors. One needs to note that I don’t have any financial backing for my films. It is all a one-man effort in doing a film, whether it is the writing of the story, finding the right spots for the shooting, creating any props necessary myself and finding the right people as appropriate characters ‒ and all with very limited resources.

Lombardi proudly holding Mary Attard’s Elio Lombardi – Il-Ħajja Kreattiva Tiegħu. Photo: Mary Attard

One has to note also the era of the story, and therefore creating the right costume and customs. The actors are mostly unprofessional ones and act on a voluntary basis. All look forward to my next films to be featured in them. Many had moved on to professional acting and are now in TV dramas. I never studied the medium myself and all is a matter of trial and error over the years. I do all my script- and novel-writing on an old typewriter as I am not familiar with computers.

JA: You have met Italian singers such as the late Claudio Villa and Luciano Tajoli, both of whom had a particular and rather dramatic and ‘operatic’ mode of singing that brought out the vocal range of the artist. Does your voice have this timbre? Any anecdotes you care to mention about the time you met them here in Malta?

EL: It is true that I met every Italian singer who had visited Malta to perform here. I am not satisfied to just meet the singer concerned but I also want to talk to him and get his autograph. Once I was with singer Albano at the Plaza in Sliema. Before going on stage to sing, Albano drank a small bottle of whisky and threw it away. I just grabbed it and asked for his autograph on the bottle, which I still have.

Lombardi directing Mary Attard, the author of the book, in one of his films. Photo: Mary Attard

JA: At the venerable age of 88, you still have the stamina to pursue projects. What drives you on and what is the latest project that you have embarked upon?

EL: I am a person who is on the go all the time and won’t stay still. Besides, my family of actors and actresses press me to involve them in new films which keep me motivated to keep going. I build a story as I go along, and it is not the first time that I found myself stuck on how to unfold the next move to the story. There is a timing to everything.

Lombardi’s painting of Manoel Island with his proposed statue of St Paul.

I was pleased that lately one of my actors, Mary Attard, offered to compile my creative work in a book, so now I have something in my name for posterity and for future reference of my works. Yet I do have another dream to see a large statue of St Paul, who is greatly significant to us Maltese, as a symbol of Malta and placed in the middle of Manoel Island. It would be a particular Maltese icon that would also generate income from tourists for the local economy through buying of souvenirs of it. I have even depicted it in one of my paintings, as it has been a dream that I have dwelled upon for a very long time.

The limited-edition copies of Elio Lombardi – Il-Ħajja Kreattiva Tiegħu have sold out. Please contact Gino Lombardi on 99833436 to reserve a copy when reprinted.