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ABOUT THE CAST: TONI SERVILLO - Titta:
Actor and director Toni Servillo was born in Afragola in 1959. In 1977 Servillo founded the Teatro Studio in Caserta for whom he directed 'Propaganda' (1979), 'Norma' (1982), 'Billy il bugiardo' (1983) and 'Guernica' (1985), amongst others. In 1986 he collaborated with the Falso Movimento group, interpreting 'Ritorno ad Alphaville' by Mario Martone and staging 'E...' on the texts of Eduardo De Filippo. Servillo became one of the founders of Teatri Uniti in 1987, continuing work as actor and director in the poetic and dramatic Neapolitan theatrical language. Such plays included: 'Partitura' (1988) and 'Rasoi' (1991) by Enzo Moscato; 'Ha da passà a nuttata' (1989) by Eduardo De Filippo; 'Zingari' (1993) by Raffaele Viviani; and 'Sabato, domenica e lunedì' (2002), an award-winning re-working of De Filippo’s masterpiece. With Il Misantropo (1995) and 'Tartufo' (2000) by Molière, and 'Le false confidenze' (1998) by Marivaux, all translated by Cesare Garboli, he staged a triptych on 17-18th century French theatre.
Toni Servillo also presented 'L'uomo dal fiore in bocca' (1990/96) by Luigi Pirandello; 'Naturamorta' (1990) about the 23rd Congress of the Soviet Union Communist Party; 'De Pirandello a Eduardo' (1997); and 'L'uomo dal fiore in bocca' coupled with 'Sik Sik, l'artefice magico' by Eduardo De Filippo at the Teatro San Joao in Oporto. With Mimmo Paladino he realised 'Iliade/ Odissea' (2001) as an installation reading from Homer’s masterpieces. He also appeared in 'Eliogabalo' (1981) directed by Memè Perlini; 'I Persiani' (1990) and 'Edipo Re' (2000) directed by Mario Martone; 'Il cavaliere dell'intelletto' (1994) by Franco Battiato; with Mariangela Melato in 'Tango barbaro' (1995) directed by Elio De Capitani; and in the roles of Geppetto and Fire-Eater in Andrea Renzi’s transposition of 'The Adventures of Pinocchio' (2001).
In 1999 Servillo made his directorial debut in musical theatre with the first staging in modern times of 'La cosa rara' by Martin y Soler. This was followed by Lorenzo Da Ponte’s libretto for the Venice Opera House, where in 2000 he staged 'Le nozze di Figaro' by Mozart. In 2001 he realised 'Il marito disperato' by Cimarosa for the San Carlo Opera House in Naples and 'Boris Godunov' by Mussorgskij at the Teatro Sao Carlos in Lisbon, where in 2003 he also staged 'Ariadne auf Naxos' by Richard Strauss.
In feature films, Servillo was directed by Mario Martone in MORTE DI UN MATEMATICO NAPOLETANO (1992), RASOI (1993), LA SALITA, (1997), REHEARSALS FOR WAR (1998); by Antonio Capuano in LUNA ROSSA (2001); and by Paolo Sorrentino in ONE MAN UP (2001), receiving recognition in Italy and abroad, including the 'Grolla d’oro' and nominations for the 'David diDonatello' and the 'Nastro d’argento'.
For Radiotre Rai, Servillo directed 'Don Giovanni Involontario' (1998) by Vitaliano Brancati, 'Bordello di Mare Con Città' by Enzo Moscato (2000) and 'Per Sempre Giovani' (2001) by Giuseppe Montesano. |
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DIRECTOR'S NOTES:
I was in Sao Paolo, Brazil; In a five-star hotel. In a bar drowned in wood panelling that would have looked nice in Tyrol, but we were in Brazil; Outside, 40°C. I often went to the bar and, like clockwork, always encountered a man about fifty, all beard and beer belly. Elegant and European, a businessman. Brazil was outside the bar, but he hadn't noticed. He gazed dully at the beer and the television, waiting for who knows what business meeting. This is what I saw.
The idea for this work came about just like that, from this observation. From a curiosity that became obsessive: what are all these businessmen doing in hotels around the world? What do they think about in that infinite silence lost in definitely hot, hostile bars? I gave my answers to these questions, and to others too. I imagined a character with a life stolen from someone else, literally a stolen life. Thus incarnating a suspicion that at times hovers in all of us: our life was stolen by someone or something. We aren't too sure which. Yet our life at times seems different to the one we thought we were living.
In the meantime I devoured essays on the Cosa Nostra [Mafia]. My companion, from time to time, scolded me jokingly, saying that it was about time that I started reading novels again. But I couldn't stop. While I read these essays, I discovered that the American Mafia was just peanuts, amateur stuff, compared to the Sicilian Mafia. Crime in Sicily actually dominated the world. Yet American art exploited to the guts the whole of the American Mafia imagination, giving rise to masterpieces. More often we stood there with our finger raised, reminding them who were the good guys and who were the bad guys. But they already knew that. And all too often we refused taking the only point of view that was worthwhile: the Mafia's.
So, I kept on telling myself, why not change this point of view? It won't be easy, but I'll give it a try. I sneaked up on it slowly, cautiously. Right then my businessman buried in a hotel wasn't really a businessman anymore. He became someone who worked for the Mafia. Not a Mafia guy; but a supporter. With one foot in and one foot out. And this let me have him live on a double track. On one side, since culturally extraneous, he was terrified by the ferociousness of the strongest, well-organised association of the world, on the other side he understood the rules and mechanisms. There are so many of them, complex and structured. Worse than animals! Worse than wild beasts! The Mafia works too well and for all too long to brush it off as something that arose from primordial instincts.
The Mafia is orderly. Switzerland is orderly. A hotel is orderly. Titta Di Girolamo lives inside the cage of these three coordinates. He can be nothing but an orderly man. In situations like these the king of disorder turns up: love. But for someone crushed by order, even less would be enough. Even just the "possibility" of love could completely explode the cage. And here is this young girl; ordinary and average, just enough to burst the dams.
Yet loves are lived and overcome with painful transition, while the chance of an impossible love has other consequences. Melancholy consequences, as long as one has a vivid imagination. Our Titta Di Girolamo says so right away: he has no imagination. In such cases there is no room for melancholy and the return to the orderliness of before is no longer possible. And in the absence of melancholy, which is a way out, things become tragic. And final. And Titta Di Girolamo's end had to be tragic and final.
These are the consequences of love when nothing else is available. |
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ABOUT THE DIRECTOR:
Paolo Sorrentino was born in Naples on May 31st, 1970.
2004 Wrote and directed the feature film LE CONSEGUENZE DELL’AMORE
2001 Wrote and directed the short film ‘La Notte Lunga‘, presented at the Turin Festival. - Sorrentino’s first feature-length film, ‘L‘Uomo in Più‘, (‘One Man Up‘) awarded with the 'Made in Italy - Rai International' prize from the Solinas awards (1999), was presented in official competition at the Venice Film Festival 2001 and received much recognition in Italy and abroad, including: the 'Grolla d’oro' for best screenplay and best male actor for Toni Servillo, awarded also at the festivals of Annecy, Angers and Seville; the 'Nastro d’Argento' for best first work; the 'Ciak d’oro' for best screenplay; the 'Amidei prize' for the screenplay; the 'Casa Rossa prize' at the Festival of Bellaria; the 'Dolly d’Oro Giuseppe de Santis' at the Turin Festival; the 'Linea d’Ombra' prize at the Salerno Festival; the 'Jury Award' at the Buenos Aires Festival.
1998 Wrote, with Umberto Contarello, a film titled ‘La Vocce dell‘Amore‘, a Rodeo Drive production. - Wrote and directed a short film titled ‘L‘Amore Non Ha Confini‘ produced by Indigo Film. This short film was presented in competition at the Turin Festival Cinema Giovani and at the N.I.C.E. festival, held in New York and San Francisco. The film won the prize for best short film at the fifth Corto Circuito festival. - Wrote several episodes of the ‘La Squadra‘ series for RAI-Pearson Television.
1997 Won the Solinas award equal first place with a screenplay titled ‘Napoletani‘.
1996 Wrote, with Antonio Capuano, the film ‘Polvere di Napoli‘, directed by Capuano, with Silvio Orlando.
1994 Wrote and directed a short film titled ‘Un Paradiso', finalist at the Palermo Cinema 1995 festival. |
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