THE COMFORT OF STRANGERS

Festival is one week old. Cast personnel is as tired than ever, however you can smell satisfaction is in the air. Press Office, Author Coordination, Interpreters and so forth never stop. A fast coffee at the table, two words to catch the right pronunciation of one or the other guest's name, drivers escort Monicelli here, Coppola there, a Festival rookie in that other hotel over there, Martone still forward then left.

We met Pietro Marcello, director of La bocca del lupo. Together with one of his producers, Dario Zonta, reviewer for Unità and Hollywood Party anchorman. Piero and Dario are in the bar having a coffee, eating toast.

Your film is a hybrid made of many different bits. "Intent was to gather up a small melodramatic true story. Moreover to tell the big story of the city using archive material gathered in Genova. Therefore the 'Genovese' way reveals through the repertoire of unpublished amateurs. Much of this work was handled by film editor Sara Fgaier".

Tell us how you found the two actors Mary and Vincenzo. "I found them on my doorstep since that was my search radius. San Marcellino Foundation Genova Jesuits were demanding this film be done. My apartment accommodation was in the angiport area, between via del Campo and Sottoripa: that’s where they operate therefore that's where I searched storyline. Explicitly a 'residual' story re-living a Genova that's not anymore". He stops, turns over and asks. "Are you sure you don't want a sandwich? Some fruit juice? Not even coffee?". He resumes. "I was looking for someone with a peculiar face, a face that could tell a story. Face was enough. Looks can mean much, an experienced expression... picture Hollywood plastic faces, those Schwarzenegger guys who show up for casting: no story. Face that tells, is a face that dwells".

The idea's simple, a tender intimate affair. "It's all part of a path, also preproduction planning: Enzo had never done anything like it. Step by step I taught him how to do film. It took time to manage the interview, time and hard work. The interview was last on film, shot only once they gained somewhat ease with this, to them, weird thing. There's an ethic issue as well, I'm not an interview lover, I find it static, however I considered it effective. It was their job to tell about themselves and they did it in the best of ways. No wonder there's no cut, the two are powerful".

Mary and Vincenzo were wandering about these days, two perfectly normal people having lived something absolutely unusual. "Now, they left. It's been a wonderful chapter of their life, from Genova's Croce Bianca to here. Nevertheless the Festival has been extremely attentive to their attendance. They left saying it was a beautiful experience, the had never received so much care".

Tell us about shooting. "Shooting overnight procured some problem... after all the documentary is about the unexpected. On the street with a camera, you can expect anything to happen. Producers have been extremely important, a Godsend sealed in trident Nicola Giuliano, Francesca Cima and Dario Zonta". Turning to Zonta: "Do you like trident as an expression? The movie combines San Marcellino ideas with the combination Avventurosa Film - Indigo Film, as well as my former producers from Il paesaggio della linea, I'm very fond of that movie. Big time team work, great group. We were so enthusiastic of coming here to present our movie, moreover we appreciate the welcoming received... come on, Zonta, say something". Zonta. "Not all film is good in all Festivals, this movie is good for Torino. Torino has attentive, selected audience, who can understand it, not a Festival screening movies indistinctly”. Pietro looks towards us and says: "See? Reviewer experience teaches. And it's very nice to have a producer, reviewer also, who knows the film". We say good bye while Zonta explains his production will go on not only with Pietro Marcello. Pietro. "They use other directors too. You know we burn out quickly... Write a nice one, then I'll call you!".

We also met Susan Ray, who's presenting, always with great passion, her husband Nicholas's film. Susan is a very pretty woman, film and Glenn Gould fan. She's also learning some Italian. She tells us her projects. "I created a Foundation, the Nicholas Ray Foundation, its goal is to preserve his work and respect his maverick spirit, his free spirit, nonconformist, experimental, outlaw, to honour his spirit by helping out other experimental movie directors. Our first achievement will be to restore and re-edit We Can't Go Home Again, last of Nicholas's films, unfinished, thirty-five-years later still remains experimental: never seen anything like that ever since. We want to disclose his archives. We want to make a museum installation too... I hope other Festivals will help film reconstruction".

NdC (Just for Fun) - Nice start of the week, funny repartee between Paolo d'Agostini, reviewer for La Repubblica, and Gianni Zanasi, director, presenting Truffaut's La Nuit Américaine. Questioned by d'Agostini upon creative difficulties in today's self-feeding filmmaking, and Tarantino's possible implication as disease carrier, Zanasi replies: "Are you asking me if Tarantino jerks off? Yeah, but he's awfully good at it!”.

Paola Fornara