28° TORINO FILM FESTIVAL
ONDE - LUNGOMETRAGGI

BUTTERFLY - L'ATTESA

BUTTERFLY - WAITING
by Tonino De Bernardi
Country: Italy
Year: 2010
Duration: 98'


butterfly - the waiting

 

A woman surrounded by greenery in a farmhouse is singing an aria from Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini while another woman is sewing a geisha outfit and three children gaze at the iridescent fabric. In a store in the city, a third woman tries on a kimono, helped by the expert hands of the Japanese salesclerk. The women meet in a place that is suspended in time; a man dressed like a sailor and a young foreigner also appear, while the old people of the town enjoy the opera music, comfortably seated around a table set for a springtime afternoon snack.

 

“A moment of a more general ceremony or ‘mystery’ which is life itself, when we invite someone to enter our home suspended between Piedmont and Japan, with the memory of deviations toward potential horrors. Thus, the film ‘opposes’ and ‘blends’ two languages, documentary and fiction. It is a film that leans ‘toward’ primary things and the present, ‘toward’ novels. Puccini’s Butterfly, and one of the most popular arias of Italian operas, was the departure point, but to me it was all about straying beyond the limits; it’s stronger than me.”

Biography

film director

Tonino De Bernardi

(Chivasso, Turin, Italy, 1937) was an underground filmmaker from 1967 to 1983. He shot his first “official” feature in 1987: the film Elettra (based on Sophocles’ tragedy), produced by RAI3, involved the participation of non-professional actors from Casalborgone, where he worked as a middle school teacher until 1992. Viaggio a Sodoma (1988) was the co-winner, with Jean-Luc Godard’s film, of the World Wide Video Festival in Den Hag. He participated at the Venice Film Festival in competition with Appassionate (1999), and in Orizzonti with Médée miracle (2007), starring Isabelle Huppert. A restless filmmaker overflowing with projects, he makes at least a film a year. In 2018, together with his wife Mariella, he’s also protagonist of Teresa Villaverde’s O termómetro de Galileu, presented at TFF, in Onde section, just like many others films of De Bernardis'.

FILMOGRAFIA

Dei (1968-1969), Il quadrato (1971-1972), Il rapporto coniugal parentale (1973-1976), L’io e le aggregazioni (1977-1979), Donne (1980-1982), Viaggio a Sodoma (1988), Piccoli orrori (1994), Fiori del destino (1997), Appassionate (1999), Rosatigre (2000), La strada nel bosco (2001), Farelavita (2001), Lei (2002), Le cinéma dans tous ses états (ep. Terra, cm, 2002), Serva e padrona (2003), Latitudini (2003), Marlene de Sousa (2004), Passato presente (2005), Accoltellati (Accoltellatori) (2006), Médée miracle (2007), Pane/Piazza delle camelie (2008), Butterfly - L’attesa (2010), Ed è così. Circa. Più o meno (2011), Casa dolce casa (2012), Hotel de l’Univers (2013), Jour et nuit - Delle donne e degli uomini perduti (2014), Il sogno dell’India - Quarant’anni dopo (2015), Ifigenia in Aulide (2018), Resurrezione (2019), Ou n'etes vous? (mm, 2022), Universi circoscritti 2 (2022).

Cast

& Credits

regia, sceneggiatura, fotografia/director, screenplay, cinematography

Tonino De Bernardi

soggetto/story

tratto dall’opera/from the opera Madama Butterfly di/by Giacomo Puccini

montaggio/film editing

Silvia Palermo

interpreti/cast

Manuela Giacomini, Alessandra Dell’Atti, Walter Riccarelli, Amin, Chiara Pauluzzi

produzione, vendita all’estero/production, world sales

Lontane Province Film

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