Gabriele Salvatores, Toni Servillo and the maramao’s life in cinema

Gabriel Salvatores He has the great advantage of being a director who never repeats himself: he never tells the same story, he knows how to pass from one genre to another easily and he can make a well-known actor or a newcomer the hero of the film. Plus, whenever it’s measured against a novel, which happens a lot, salvatores He always managed to tame her to his vision while respecting her essence. In his latest film, presented at the world premiere at the Bari International Film and Television Festival 2023, the director went on to upset the Austrian writer Arthur Schnitzler To address the subject of aging, which does not coincide with the absence of desires and drives but with the decay of the body. in the long storyCasanova’s returnwhich was published in 1918, there are many other ideas, but while taking them and concentrating on some of them, Gabriel Salvatores He chose the film-within-a-film formula, inventing the persona of the selfish eponymous director Leo Bernardi which is working on an adaptation of the novel by Schnitzler. Fantasy and reality are constantly intertwined in the film, sliding seamlessly into one another, the former in color and the latter in black and white. If impersonation James Casanova And Fabrizio Bentivogliowho was more often than not some kind of alter-ego, if not his own Antoine Doinell salvatoresAnd Leo Bernardi has a face Tony Cerveloin his first collaboration with Gabriel Likewise, a director (albeit in the theater).

Casanova’s return Opened on Saturday March 25th International previews affiliate Biff and St. The movie was presented at Petrozzi Theatre At the end of the day that started with a key episode of Gabriel Salvatoreswhich from the festival then received Fellini Platinum Award for Cinematic Excellence. This morning, however, in Margaret TheatreThe director presented the film not only to the press but to a large audience of non-experts who applauded for a long time salvatores And her cast, among the paparazzi almost lying on the floor, two babies sleeping peacefully in their strollers and even a cute little dog on a leash. salvatores The dance was opened by the invitation of the moderator Henry MagrelliWe talk about an idea Casanova’s return:”Casanova’s return to Arthur Schnitzler It was something that’s been in my heart and in my head for a long time, even since I’ve been doing theatre. At that time I had read the novel with great interest because it dealt with a variety of topics. I was particularly interested in the topic of doubling. The author develops it in several works, for example in “The Double Dream”. In the following years I discovered many things in the story, for example the theme of the passage of time. As he rightly says Tony, “Casanova’s return‘is one of the most cruel acts about the passage of time. Schnitzler He even invents a duel scene between Ben Cazanova and a young lieutenant who fights completely naked, and Cazanova He realizes that he is old only when he sees himself in the opponent lying lifeless on the ground. This item made me think a lot, and I thought I could revive the concept of doubling up by inventing another seducer, which is not Cazanova But the manager I entrusted then CerveloBecause the director is in some way a seducer, he must be, and so my story became the story of a director who is not going through a creative crisis, but rather a dilemma on a human level.

also Tony Cervelo He has something to say about Leo BernardiThe man who laughed a lot with Gabriel SalvatoresSomeone said that life is what happens while we are busy with other things. Leo Bernardi He deals obsessively with his film, with his ego, with his career, and while he’s doing it, and always has, life takes up his space, steers toward him, and so on. Leo He awkwardly tries to reconcile what he considers his whole life, which is his profession, with real life, which is a love encounter with a girl younger than him who has nothing to do with the world of cinema. In this regard, I may add that, in my opinion, the film makes an excellent proposal. I see with concern that 7 out of 10 young people want to be either directors or actors, and God knows, however, how much competence we need in many other professions, and the film suggests that life may go faster than cinema at certain moments, and then turns to look at it And he says, “Maramao,” and that’s exactly what happens to him Leo BernardiIs that Gabriel Say tactfully.

Tony Cervelo He knows the story well schnitzler, And he even considers it almost ferocious in describing the metamorphoses of the body: “Casanova’s return It is not a movie about lost youth. Both the novel and the movie insist on the physical degeneration caused by aging, and embarrassingly so Fabrizio He tells it very well in a scene in the mirror and even more grotesquely and generously in the duel sequence, in which two characters, or rather two adversaries in love, no longer face each other, but rather face each other, but face each other, but face each other. . film Gabriel He has the edge of putting on, while talking about a romantic subject, and plenty of irony and self-irony. We had fun teasing each other a bit, which made my character a little fun. It belongs in a world we know so well, which leads me to say that when you have the opportunity to give something of yourself or people you know well to a character, it’s beautiful. But sometimes it happens just the opposite: the personality is so extraordinary that it is he who lends you something and enriches you. And so I think that in this transfer of energy from the actor to the character and from the character to the actor a third thing can be born, which is on the stage or stands out on the movie screen.

to Fabrizio Bentivoglio Instead, it is a task to talk about it James CasanovaHis character, who approached her with affection: “What turned me on James Casanova It’s that he’s completely unprepared for old age. I have not seen my parents grow old, personally I am amazed, really amazed, to see them grow old. Casanova can’t get over it and I think that’s the element that makes him human.”

Pass the ball back to salvatoreswho still has something to say about him James Casanova: “One of the things that impressed me the most about it CazanovaAs I was writing the script, it was actually the character being doomed trying to repeat the same scenario over and over. a personality tonesOn the other hand, he enjoys a certain kind of social and artistic prestige, but in the end he opens a small door to the future thanks to the encounter with a woman.

Leo Bernardiwhich contains in the name a salutation BertolucciLives in a domestic or smart home. At a certain point something starts to go wrong and the rooms in which a human being lives and works seem to have a life of their own. Gabriel Salvatores He explains the reason for this choice: “This is the first film in which I talk a little bit about myself. It is not an autobiographical film but it is the first film in which I lay down some of my fears, fears, doubts and questions that I have made myself in recent years. One of these concerns the house I bought three years ago The truth is, I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of ​​technology taking over power, but basically every 70 American science fiction indie has talked about this, starting with Philip K. Dick. So I ask myself: Does reality exist or does imagination exist? Is life a dream or what? He said: We are made of the same things that dreams are made of ShakespearePerhaps he is right. I say that if we give too much space to technology, sooner or later it will replace us. It horrifies me, just as it terrifies me when I think of a house capable of feeling the gloom of its owner. It might even exist, who knows? I take comfort in the fact that one thing will never happen. They tried to exploit artificial intelligence in works of art, but they foolishly got away with it. Fortunately, the soul and emotions are a uniquely human privilege, so they will never belong to technology.”