cafe Pellicola - window to fine italian cinema

Franco Elica, a famous movie director, accidentally in Sicily, has been given the job by the Prince of Gravina, to shoot the movie of his daughter’s wedding.

The film opens with the scene of the wedding of his daughter (the director’s), that he initially let others film it, but then he jumps into the crowd together with the other operators, among anxious video cameras and obsessive flashes.
It’s the first scene that introduces a sort of dreamlike vision of the reality. A bit in slow motion, a bit filtered. It is a scene that recalls the dream. While we are watching in fact, we are not sure this is reality. Maybe is Franco dreaming, I think. I get curious. It’s a Bellochio that I don’t know. While I am already visualizing Ettore Picciafuoco, from My mother’s smile, sitting on the red couch abandoned to the sleep, or at the computer ravished by shifty images. In fact, the majority of the staff belongs to the beautiful precedent movie.

Franco Elica is looking for an actress for his new movie based on the novel I promessi sposi (The Betrothed) by Alessandro Manzoni, 1840. He is looking for a Lucia Mondella, the main character, the pure, the honest and the wise young girl.

The whole story is quite surreal, typical from Marco Bellocchio. It’s the exasperation of the hope and of the tragedy of human nature, continuously conflicting with conventions. There is a Prince rich in intellectuality but poor in patrimony, obliged to give his daughter Bona as wife of a wealthy still idiot guy, victim of his family with no hope.
There is little princess Bona, the beauty hidden in a convent by her father, to prevent the beast, Franco Elica from kidnapping her before the salvation wedding. It is in fact a kind of transposition of I Promessi Sposi into a new era, or just into a new interpretation.

I don’t like to say it, but maybe there is also a Fellinian touch. The music, the processions, the bands, the street artists, the ingenuousness, the ridiculous simplicity of modern man.

Meanwhile we hear one of those distinctive phrases that get stuck into your head and will never leave “in Italia sono I morti che comandano – in Italy dead people rule the country”. He’s referring to artists, meaning that, only after you die you are recognized by the art authorities, otherwise is only a matter of convenient political choices. Even if, also respecting the deads is a conventional choice. So basically an artist in the need for recognition has short life…

Typical subtle subversive attitude from Bellocchio. I love his style, elegantly insolent like his Prince of Gravina, the charming Semy Frey.

Franco Elica, a never boring, even if repetitive, Sergio Castellitto. A movie director (in the movie) who can go beyond any rules. He can dare, because is an artist. Because an artist, recognized as an artist (popular, and apparently talented) can more or less do anything he wants. He can even transform a wedding movie into a sexy movie, nobody would criticize his job.

It’s the game of real us or conventional us. The perception of life through conventional filters, the acceptance of rules without reactions, the intoxication of feelings tied by our social needs.
However, Bellocchio gives us a chance, that small recommendation… dare to dream and you’ll be safe. Or just change perspective. Invert perspective. Subvert perspective. It’s not a luxury for artists only.

Marco Bellocchio can offer surreal situations but every single scene is dramatically real, or is the opposite. I don’t know. But the truth doesn’t change. Beautiful, elegant, sagacious, his movies are just delicious.

And… the symbols… the evocative names… the irony. And the setting… the details…

Mi piace.

The key ingredients of this film include: Academy award winner director Giuseppe Tornatore; international debut of bombshell Monica Belluci; coming of age story of a young boy in a small Sicilian village during World War II; and the timeless music of Maestro Ennio Morricone.

Yes, the film may look like an attempt to repurpose Tornatore’s success of 1989 Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, some may even say forgetaboutit it’s all about MONICA! But I think the movie is simply about two opposite perceptions about the different. In this case, the differentiating element is beauty. These positive or negative perceptions are usually shaped by the beholder’s potential of winning versus the fear of losing.

I’ll explain. Here the positive perception is dressed up as a sweet fantasy. Throughout the film young Renato sexually fantasizes about Malèna, but never gets to exchange even a minimal dialog with her. Yes, the possibility of a 13 years old boy still wearing his short pants (childhood label) having an affair with a woman in her 30’s in this context - is literally nonexistent.

Put simply, the potential of winning is meager, but in Renato’s mind it could easily happen. So he’s left conjuring up more elaborate fantasies about making it happen with Malèna from afar.

The negative perception is held by the women of the small village who are threatened by Malèna’s beauty. They’re obviously driven by the fear of losing their husbands to Malèna’s enchanting spell. Only after Malèna’s husband brings her back home – minimizing the threat – Malèna gains back her respect as old order is fully reinstated.

This interplay between opposite perceptions got me thinking. We’re pretty much all experiencing this in our everyday lives. Our reward system is programmed to see good opportunities as potential wins and unpleasant ones – as potential loses.

You have an upcoming hot date, interview for a dream job, meeting with a potential big client, even buying a lotto ticket. The days before the actual event, are what I call the sweet pre-feeling time where you’re pretty much walking on air. Sometimes that big event gets delayed a bit – so you even get an extra dose of pre-feeling bliss. Hey I might get that cushy job, Hey You Never Know the lotto slogan intoxicates us. The opportunity is yours if you play it right. In short, it’s fantasy time before the opportunity is gnawed by reality fangs.

Now compare that with your feelings about your dentist appointment next Tuesday…

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Ricky Tognazzi’s classic anti-mafia thriller is deeply grounded in reality. The film was made a year after judge Giovanni Falcone was murdered as he was on his way to Palermo airport. The judge, his wife, and three police bodyguards were killed. Interestingly the film is not about the judge or the case, but focuses on the four bodyguards and the close bonding they develop with his replacement prosecutor, an outsider sent from Rome strange to the Sicilian ways.

You might expect a fast-paced movie with lots of action, but then again you’re in for another surprise. The film manages a restrained undercurrent tension that causes you to believe that any second something radical is about to happen as the bodyguards face threats on the road shuttling the investigator back and forth in his quest to seek justice. However, for the most part nothing major happens as the plot zigzaging leaves you with a constant “that was close” sensation. I would say it’s probably a much accurate capture of bodyguard reality than the typical 90-minutes of endless pyrotechnics.

If you are also a fan of Ennio Morricone, you’re in for a treat. Not yet? Well, you definitely should be. Morricone, this year’s winner of the Honorary Oscar award for lifetime achievement, provides a pounding score. The music perfectly supports this mounting tension that hits the bodyguards externally as they dodge various dangers on the job, and internally with the strain it brings on their families.

The message is simple. If you look around you, you too can see that often the real heroes are not necessarily those prime time figures busy rescuing the world. It’s in fact their support teams those faceless helpers behind the scenes that carry the heavy load. And as we know these so-called margins are far more interesting than the center as the neorelaist film movement has proven time and again. Real stories of real people that with recent waves of reality TV shows and YouTube’s user generated media - are now back in vogue.

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We enter the VIP lounge and start a fight for the food. The buffet is overcrowded, as it’s already 10pm. Hands grabbing us from every side like uncontrollable tentacles, hard to keep away, so I decide to hit the bar and get some wine, leaving Shlomi and Odelia to the food mission.

After drinking some wine and getting some food, we start looking around. Small groups of Italians spread here and there, with their unmistakable natural pop-star attitude, which make them, by definition, charming. A little loud, happy and totally unaware of American customs, they smoke more or less everywhere. Spontaneously charming I would say.

Our goal is to interview Mario Monicelli, that would be Shlomi’s dream-come true, one of the classic masters of Italian cinema. Unfortunately he’s secluded on a corner, between a protective assistant and a giant bodyguard. Although the informal environment would allow us to approach him pretty easily, after looking his sweet old look, I don’t feel like disturbing him, clearly immersed in a contemplative personal silence, out of the crowd.

We look around. Tony Renis, no. He really is not part of our plans. Franco Nero, famous Italian actor, well-known for his spaghetti western movies. Father of Carlo Gabriel Nero, the director of the last movie of tonight with Vanessa Redgrave (his mother), The Fever.
No, even him, with all our respect, does not meet our target.

Suddenly I find myself next to Mimmo Calopresti, and this is almost like a coincidence. Why we didn’t think of him before? His early screening tonight – Volevo Solo Vivere (I Only Wanted to Live) is a documentary showcasing interviews with Italian holocaust survivors that were deported to Auschwitz.

Mimmo has an open smile, on a very Italian good-looking face. Italiano del sud, which makes him even more distinctive, more Mediterranean. He doesn’t speak English, or he doesn’t want to. So we decide to talk only in Italian, easier for me, more challenging for Shlomi.

He is an open person, towards the people. Respectful. His eyes move around quickly, however there is something that makes me notice his deep attention to everything, to any ordinary thing. Maybe it’s his bloodhound nose. It’s fun and interesting having Mimmo’s attention and kindness, in a quieter corner.

We ask Mimmo some questions about the movie we just saw. The following details what we got from Mimmo’s interview at the the bar and from a short Q&A on stage after the screening.

Q – It’s a strong theme, why did you choose it?
A – Because since I studied this at school, I have been always interested in understanding what happened. However, the question that never left me was WHY this happened. I have tried to find an answer, even through this work, but I didn’t. I didn’t find any answer to this question. The only thing, important thing, is that from all of this we have to learn to prevent anything like this, from happening again. We must not forget.

Q – How did you choose the interviews, based on what?
A – I chose those that I felt to be the most emotional to me. Those that touched me the most.

Q – Have you ever been to Israel?
A– Yes I did. I have also been to Auschwitz. I went with Walter Veltroni (the mayor of Rome), who every year takes students there from different schools. Once I went with them, it was a very strong experience.

Q – Why a documentary?
A – To be precise, I actually started my career as a documentary director. I have done other documentaries in fact. I have always been interested in social topics.

Q – And what about your next work?
A– My next work is a fiction; we have just finished shooting it. It’s called L’Abbuffata – The Pigout.

Not knowing his previous works, our questions must end. We thank Mimmo and let him go to his friends. While we promise ourselves to watch his movies. And of course, review them!

More information about the work of Mimmo Calopresti from Repubblica
Mimmo Calopresti was born in Calabria, the region on the point of the boot. He lived in Torino for many years and here is where he started his job. He makes his first documentary A proposito di sbavature in 1985, followed by Alla Fiat era cosi’ (1990), a series of interviews to some ex blue-collar working in Fiat during 1969 when the social and political revolutionary movement wrapped Italy. Then, his first fiction interpreted by Nanni Moretti, La Seconda Volta– The Second Time in 1995. Set up in the tidy Torino, Mimmo Calopresti tells us with a great courage of words the terrorism of those times. It is a success recognized inside and outside the country. With La Parola Amore Esiste– The Word Love Exists (1998) he goes to Rome to set up the story of a cello teacher (Fabrizio Bentivoglio) and a weird beautiful girl (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi). The confirmation of his original style makes this work remarkable in several international festivals. In Preferisco il rumore del mare – I prefer the noise of the sea (2000) he is also actor, next to main character interpreted by Silvio Orlando. La felicita’ non costa niente- Happyness doesn’t cost anything, is from 2002. Mimmo Calopresti, tells about people who attempt to live with their personal contradictions, conscious of the urgency of making a choice and of its probable consequent mistakes.