Leoni al sole

During summer, on the beaches of Positano, together with the tourists there come the “lions”, those Neapolitan loafers, not so young anymore, searching for a sentimental adventure to show off to everyone during winter. They are Scisciò, Giugiù, Mimì, Cocò. Mimì manages to get an invitation for a short cruise on a yacht from an older billionaire. But Giulia, a woman from the North of Italy who is there on holiday to write her food and wine guide, ends up falling in love with him. Mimì, however, decides to marry a Swiss girl for money, with the idea of divorcing right after the wedding. Giugiù tries to make love to Serena, who is irritated by her married lover, and when he finally has the chance, he simply fails. Cocò is more and more embittered at the idea of moving abroad in order to find a job, while Scisciò, wrongly accused of stealing, decides to leave the group to go to Milan and start working.
Traduzione in inglese Francesca Sala – English translation Francesca Sala

Back to Rome from Paris, where Cervi and Jacovoni told they could produce a film on the golden youth of Positano, I called Pelos La Capria to have more details on the environment and Pelos suggested getting in touch with Dudù, his writer brother, who knew more than him about it. So I got in touch with Dudù, Raffaele, who said: “What a coincidence! I wanted to write a book on these facts!”. That same night I told him: “Dudù, if we make book and film together, the film will be a success and the book will win the Strega Award!”. And Dudù replied, a little propitiatory: “Ah, yes, I believe in these things, so I’ll make the film because I want to win!”. Anyway, the book Ferito a morte and the film Leoni al sole were born together, but the film was released first and it was a success. And the book really won the Strega Award.
Many gags of Leoni al sole came spontaneously, while we were shooting. For example, the philosophical speech that Scisciò-Morante made. Now Scisciò is dead, he is dead of nothing, just like he used to live of nothing, that kind of people of Positano that used to live out of summer, of sea, of sun...
Sabatucci, who was the young and fat boy in the film, died as well, and he was a lawyer.
The film had a final structure only with the editing, because, for example, we didn’t plan to divide it between summer and autumn, but in the middle of the working process there was a sudden cloudburst, a very powerful one, one of those that sometimes happen in Positano, so I said to Carlo Di Palma, who was the operator, to shoot it. When I saw it on a screen, it was so amazing that I wanted to put it in the middle of the film. So I also used some footage with shadows, as if it was autumn. During the editing I turned the film upside down and at that point I realised that I shot in a very free way, which gave me the chance to try different types of editing, and I was surprised myself. Using a camera was something instinctive for me, because I didn’t know anything about lenses, I jumped into work without any sort of preparation, all of my footage was instinctive, shooting every time in a different way, with particular cuts that came to my mind. Every day I used to shoot at list one hour of sudden ideas, which I thought could be useful. And they actually were. But it was during the editing, with an extraordinary editor, Baragli, that the film with his defining cut saw the light.

Traduzione in inglese Francesca Sala – English translation Francesca Sala

Director: Vittorio Caprioli.
Aiuto regia: Rinaldo Ricci.
Soggetto e sceneggiatura: Raffaele La Capria, Vittorio Caprioli.
Fotografia (technicolor): Carlo Di Palma.
Scenografia e costumi: Aurelio Crugnola.
Editor: Nino Baragli.
Music: Fiorenzo Carpi.
Fonico: Pietro Seriffo.
Cast and characters: Franca Valeri (Giulia), Vittorio Caprioli (Giugiù), Serena Vergano (Serena), Francesco Morante (Scisciò), Philippe Leroy (Mimì), Alina Zalewska, Carlo Giuffrè, Luciana Gilli, Giorgio Sabatucci, Riccardo Parisio Perotti, Vittorio Pugliese, Evy Marandi, Christine Martell, Vito Amendola, Irina Wassilikoff, le gemelle Gemberg, Anna Campori, Arturo Lonardi, Ester Carloni, Aldo Sersale, Roberto Hruska, Jerry Mace, Enzo Cannavale.
Production company: Alessandro Jacovoni per la Ajace-Euro International Film.
Italian distribution: Euro International Film.