COMPLIMENTI CHE CARATTERE!

This documentary on character actors and actresses in Italian cinema gives us portraits of them on both the human and professional levels. It follows them from their debuts to their most successful films. It sketches their relationships with their directors and fellow actors, their passions, and their memories of all kinds. All of this gives us human and professional profiles that combine with those of the great protagonists and masters of cinema, each of them a link in the story of our cinema. So far, the actors that have been interviewed include: Tiberio Murgia, Gigi Reder, Riccardo Garrone, Marisa Merlini, Gianni Musy, Francesco Gabriele, Toni Ucci, Enzo Garinei, Gisella Sofio, Enzo Cannavale, Carlo Croccolo, Monica Scattini, Enrico Luzzi, and Isa Gallinelli. The documentary is made up of three 45minute sections. What is being screened at present is the first part, which includes five interviews with Marisa Merlini, Gianni Musy, Gigi Reder, Francesco Gabriele, and Monica Scattini. It is subdivided into five individual chapters, each of which presents one artist. Every chapter is introduced by a poster where the title of a film that has become part of film history is written in small letters. This film "tells the story" of the character and also is meant to pay homage to cinema. The sixth chapter is titled "one or two things." In it, the five actors' and actresses' statements are brought together in a way that we can image the five of them sitting around a table and talking, supporting or contradicting the others' opinions as each issue if taken up. The discussion takes off from the issue of what a "character actor" is and broadens to include the problems that are involved with being an actor and with relating to directors. All this invites us to employ more creativity in relation to the cinema.

"This film brings forth a unified historical memory and a lesson about competence and humility that reminds us if we needed reminding at all that talents and good films are made by the work of 'good craftspeople' and not by actors who are swept up in their illusions of grandeur that have little lo do with true artistic creation. In the centennial year of the cinema, we have felt the need to tell the story of its magic and its dreams through these actors and actresses, the extraordinary interpreters of hundreds of films." (Francesco Barnabei)

Regia, soggetto e sceneggiatura: Francesco Barnabei.
Director of photography: Federico Greco.
Editor: Roberta Canepa.
Music: Walter Ambrosecchio.
Sound: Cesare Ferzi, Gianluca Costamagna.
Cast: Marisa Merlini, Gianni Musy, Gigi Reder, Francesco Gabriele, Monica Scattini, Bruno Di Marino.
Production company: Francesco Barnabei, via Paolo Bentivoglio 30, 00165 Roma, tel. +39066385714.