Oct 4, 2026 · 29 min · 11 segments
Chiara Barzini has spent her life navigating the literal and cultural fault lines between Italy and California. Today we will discuss her book…
Chiara BarziniGuest
Mia FunkHost
Well, I think, first of all, that in order to have disillusion, you need to have illusion.
And I really want to sort of take a stand in the name of being a delusional person.
And we need to fall in love with extreme projects and we need to have ideas that are sometimes unsustainable.
Anytime the ego is involved and illusions I think do have to do with ego and with a sense of asserting yourself in the world.
I think that with the first book, with the novel, I wasn't so much dealing with my own illusions and delusions as much as the ones that belonged to my parents when they moved to Los Angeles.
And I had the advantage of being able to look at those from the point of view of someone who didn't really have anything at stake.
I was the daughter that was taken on to an absurd trip in the early 90s and sort of eradicated from Rome and thrown into the San Fernando Valley during earthquakes and riots and such a thriving and crazy time for the city.
The illusion that we can keep sustaining a city even though the water has run out.
And connecting those with larger illusions that have to do with film and creating projects that are my own, but are also intrinsically of the city itself.
Los Angeles is a dream city in many ways, and you kind of have to try and have your own dream without getting bruised too badly, which I think this is sort of the essence of this book, about illusions and delusions mainly.
When water arrived in LA after 1913, it allowed producers to expand and create personal aquatic empires, swimming pools, lakes, and tropical jungles that they used for film sets.
There was so much of it in those years that producers could afford to create artificial lakes on their properties to save on film budgets.
The fake waters looked bigger because of the blue painted backgrounds that they put behind them.
Well, I think, first of all, that in order to have disillusion, you need to have illusion.
And I really want to sort of take a stand in the name of being a delusional person.
And we need to fall in love with extreme projects and we need to have ideas that are sometimes unsustainable.
Anytime the ego is involved and illusions I think do have to do with ego and with a sense of asserting yourself in the world.
I think that with the first book, with the novel, I wasn't so much dealing with my own illusions and delusions as much as the ones that belonged to my parents when they moved to Los Angeles.
And I had the advantage of being able to look at those from the point of view of someone who didn't really have anything at stake.
I was the daughter that was taken on to an absurd trip in the early 90s and sort of eradicated from Rome and thrown into the San Fernando Valley during earthquakes and riots and such a thriving and crazy time for the city.
The illusion that we can keep sustaining a city even though the water has run out.
And connecting those with larger illusions that have to do with film and creating projects that are my own, but are also intrinsically of the city itself.
Los Angeles is a dream city in many ways, and you kind of have to try and have your own dream without getting bruised too badly, which I think this is sort of the essence of this book, about illusions and delusions mainly.
When water arrived in LA after 1913, it allowed producers to expand and create personal aquatic empires, swimming pools, lakes, and tropical jungles that they used for film sets.
There was so much of it in those years that producers could afford to create artificial lakes on their properties to save on film budgets.
The fake waters looked bigger because of the blue painted backgrounds that they put behind them.
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