18° TORINO FILM FESTIVAL
Italian Spotting 2000

RITRATTI - ANDREA ZANZOTTO

PORTRAITS - ANDREA ZANZOTTO

Country: Italy
Year: 2000
Duration: 50'


This film is based on three topics: nature, history, language. Nature, is interpreted by the poet as a thought to which one addresses oneself in a continuous motion of exchange and resonance, and later as a sudden mutation, a layering-over of cement, an offense. Andrea Zanzotto then traces the fundamental signs of what has been called the century of optimism, manifested by a growing faith in science and the collapse rationality. Language is an adventuresome discovery, it is the sign of a familiar vocabulary, music and village songs, but it is also the result of borrowing terms from other languages, of searching through the various levels that interweave them, and winds up at poetry and the keys to understanding it in order to rediscover its sacredness.

"Ritratti was born of the need to meet people who usually keep their distance from others, far from the noise of the media. We feel that these occasions are useful in order to understand, to know. Like when in moments of difficulty, the tribes would sit around a campfire and ask questions of the wise men, the shamans. Andrea Zanzotto is both the most radical and the most delicate person we have ever met. Everything seems to be dominated by extreme and unexpected contrasts in him. Suffering and lightness, fragility and profundity" (Carlo Mazzacurati, Marco Paolini).

Biography

film director

Carlo Mazzacurati

Carlo Mazzacurati (Padua, Italy, 1956-2014) started off as a screenwriter for cinema and television. In 1987 he directed his debut film, Italian Night, which was presented at the Venice Film Festival, and won the Nastro d’argento and the Golden Ciak Award. In 1994 The Bull received a Silver Lion in Venice, where he also presented Holy Tongue in 2000. In the same year, he also participated at the Torino Film Festival with Ritratti: Andrea Zanzotto, the documentary co-directed with Marco Paolini dedicated to a great poet and fellow countryman. In 2007 he participated at the Rome Film Festival with The Right Distance, and three years later he returned to Venice with his next feature The Passion. He attended again Torino Film Festival in 2013 with La sedia della felicità and he received the Gran Premio Torino Award.

FILMOGRAFIA

Vagabondi (cm, 1980), Notte italiana (1987), Il prete bello (1989), Un’altra vita (1992), Il toro (1994), L’unico paese al mondo (1994), Vesna va veloce (1996), L’estate di Davide (1998), Ritratti: Mario Rigoni Stern (doc., 1999), La lingua del santo (2000), Ritratti: Andrea Zanzotto (coregia/codirector Marco Paolini, doc., 2000), A cavallo della tigre (2002), Ritratti: Luigi Meneghello (doc., 2002), L’amore ritrovato (2004), La giusta distanza (2007), La Passione (2010), Sei Venezia (doc., 2010), Medici con l’Africa (doc., 2012), La sedia della felicità (2013).

Marco Paolini

Marco Paolini (Belluno, 1956) began his career as a theatrical actor in the 1970's with groups such as Studio 900 in Treviso, Tag Teatro in Mestre and Laboratorio Teatro Settimo. He has acted in many films, including Caro Diario (Nanni Moretti, 1993) and I Piccoli Maestri (Daniele Luchetti, 1998).

FILMOGRAFIA

Questo radichio non si toca (1998/1999), Bestiario veneto - Parole mate (1999).

Cast

& Credits

Regia, soggetto e sceneggiatura: Carlo Mazzacurati, Marco Paolini.
Director of photography: Alessandro Pesci.
Editor: Paolo Cottignola.
Sound: Remo Ugolinelli.
Cast: Andrea Zanzotto, Marco Paolini.
Production company and Italian distribution: Vesna Film, corso Milano 94, 35139 Padova, Italia, tel. +39-049-8724140, fax +39-049-8735194, e-mail vesna@libero.it.
CoProduction company: Regione Veneto.
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