Displaying items by tag: Pietro Castellitti

I PREDATORI/THE PREDATORS

Italy, 2020, 109 minutes, Colour.

Massimo Popolizio, Manuela Mandracchia, George Montanini, Pietro Castelitto, Dario Cassini, Anita  Caprioili.

Directed by Pietro Castelitti.

Principally a satiric comedy for fans of Italian cinema. The screenplay was written by Pietro Castellitti, son of prominent actor and director, Sergio Castellitti, and the film was directed by him. It received several nominations at the Venice film Festival, 2020, and the screenplay won best screenplay in the Horizon section.

A lot of the action is farcical. However, there are quite a number of serious threads woven throughout the screenplay, conmen and exploitation of the elderly, doctors and lawyers, talent but misbehaviour, unfaithful wives and affairs, and a young man, very interested in Frederick Nietzsche and the exhuming of his body, collaborating with a professor. And, the mother of the young man is a filmmaker.

The characters are basically serious but lend themselves to some satiric situations. Comedy, pathos, ideals, betrayals…

And, ironically, one of the characters at the end of the film beginning an affair with the conman watch seller whom audiences saw at the beginning of the film, selling a watch to an old lady, her son (bringing in political issues as well) setting in motion some kind of saving her and revenge.

1. A perspective on Italian life, creditors and victims, interconnections?
2. The Ostia locations, modest homes, affluent homes, film sets, gun shops, professorial offices…? Atmosphere? The musical score?
3. The initial episode with the watch, the seller, the predator, his spiel, Inez, Ege, baffled, buying the watch? Claudio, his fascist perspectives, upset about his mother? Then her being run over?
4. Inez, the accident, the hospital, doctor a public figure, his treatment, his family, wealthy, Ludovica, his wife, her work on the film, exacting, interactions people on set, ambitions, budgets, problems? Her husband, his role at the hospital, working with Bruno, Bruno and his jokes, his relationship with Bruno’s wife, the affair?
5. Federico, their son, academic, obsessed with the work of Frederik Nietschze? The discussions with his professor, the possibility of exhuming Nietschze’s body? The professor recognition his refusal?
6. Federico, his affluent background, philosophy and study, going to the shop, with Claudio, the buying of the bomb? The explosion and his injury?
7. Claudio, his fascist uncle, the shop, the victim and his background, the threats? Flavio and his influence on Claudio, targeting Federico?
8. Claudio realising that Federico was the son of the doctor who saved his mother’s life? The emotional tangles, pressures, and Claudio’s son, Cesare, Ege 12, the guns, shooting, Flavio’s death? The consequences for Claudio and responsible for his son’s behaviour?
9. Bruno, his death, his wife, beginning the relationship – and with the watch seller from the beginning of the film?
10. Back to the title, who were the predators, the way they were predators, their victims?

IL FALSARIO/ THE BIG FAKE

Italy, 2025, 116 minutes, Colour.

Pietro Castelletti, Giulia Michelini, Andrea Arcangeli, Pierluigi Gigantge, Eduardo Pesce, Claudio Santamaria, Fabrizio Ferracane.

Directed by Stefano Lodovichi.

The story of three friends is based on actual characters and events, Italy, Rome, politics, revolution in the 1970s.

The central friend is Tony, played by Pietro Castilletti, son of noted Italian actor-director, Sergio Castellitti (Conclave). He is talented as a painter, copying – hence the title, The Forger/The Big Fake. Ambitious, self-centred, he is easily drawn into the world of copying masterpieces for expensive sales, a relationship with his manager, but drawn into the world of international crime, more and more out of his league but trapped.

Another friend is Fabio whose life goes an entirely different direction, in league with the revolutionaries, the era of The Red Brigade, the abduction of Italian Prime Minister, Aldo Moro, the various intrigues, political, criminal.

A surprise is the third friend, Vincenzo, who has become a priest. On the one hand, he seems a fairly worldly cleric, comfortable in the upper echelons, tempted by the high life. On the other hand, he is shown in some kinds of ministries, eventually being caught up in the quite different directions of his two friends, a final challenge to his own integrity.

Interesting as a portrait of three different Italians but a film clearly directed towards an Italian audience and memories of Italian history 50 years earlier.

1. Based on actual characters and events? The title, the tone of the English title?
2. Rome, the 1970s, the various city locations, vistas, familiar areas? Homes, businesses, studios, the art world? The political atmosphere, neo-fascists, the Red Brigade? The musical score?
3. The story of three brothers, so different?
4. The focus on Toni and his story, in himself, his relationship with his brothers, sketch artist, sketching the tourists in Rome, the encounter with Donata, and noticing his skills, commissioning the forgery, the sales, the connection with the neo-fascists, Balbo and the introduction to the Mafia? Zu Pippo, his connections, deals? Wanting the painting of David’s Napoleon? Toni and his affair with the assistant, Virginia? The clashes with Donata, his infidelity to her, the issue other commissions? The introduction ofTthe Taylor, sinister, suave, fake documents, the issues of Aldo Moro, his documents?
5. The Taylor, his influence, political stances? But the only, the red brigade, the mooring documents?
6. Balbo, the clash with the Taylor, cutting the breaks, bumpers accident? As with Toni, the invasion of his studio, breaking his hands?
7. Fabione, relationship with his friends, moving to the left, the Red Brigade, the issues of Moro, his abduction death? What him passport? Toni and the Moro documents? The police attack and his death?
8. Toni, his relationship with Donata, ups and downs, revelation of her pregnancy
9. The role of Vittorio, his place with the brothers, separation, the training to be a priest, his life as a priest, Italy in the 1970s, religious events, the contrast with his lifestyle, the worldliness? Dealing with the authorities, with his brothers, the encounter with The Taylor, the threats, the Moro document, his giving him the information?
10. The final complexities, the deals, Toni and his escape with Donata, Vittorio left as victim? The future?