Country: Italy
Year: 1987
Duration: 92'
Otello Morsiani is a lawyer who has been hired by his old friend Checco to appraise a large landed estate; methane used to be extracted there but it is now destined to become a natural park. There, he meets the old man Italo, who is the father of Daria, a young single mother; and the breeder Tornova, who employs all the local residents. It doesn’t take long before he discovers the many small secrets and the great complicity which binds them and he falls in love with Daria, who reciprocates his love. But soon facts and more serious mysteries come to the surface: Tornova, with Italo’s help, is secretly extracting methane from the apparently abandoned wells and is supplying his farms with energy. And above all, he is hiding the murder, which occurred years earlier, of a mining inspector who had brought his misdeeds to light. And as if that weren’t enough, Checco’s real intentions are revealed: he wants Otello to ignore the property speculation which is already underway and value the terrain at a lower price.
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).
Cast
& Credits
regia/director
Carlo Mazzacurati
soggetto, sceneggiatura/story, screenplay
Franco Bernini, Carlo Mazzacurati
fotografia/cinematography
Agostino Castiglioni
montaggio/film editing
Mirco Garrone
scenografia/production design
Giancarlo Basili, Leonardo Scarpa
costumi/costume design
Maria Rita Barbera
musica/music
Fiorenzo Carpi
suono/sound
Marco Streccioni
interpreti e personaggi/cast and characters
Marco Messeri (Otello Morsiani), Giulia Boschi (Daria), Remo Remotti (Italo), Tino Carraro (Melandri), Memè Perlini (Checco), Mario Adorf (Tornova)
produttori/producers
Angelo Barbagallo, Nanni Moretti
produzione/production
Rai 1, Sacher, So. Fin. A
Carlo Mazzacurati
soggetto, sceneggiatura/story, screenplay
Franco Bernini, Carlo Mazzacurati
fotografia/cinematography
Agostino Castiglioni
montaggio/film editing
Mirco Garrone
scenografia/production design
Giancarlo Basili, Leonardo Scarpa
costumi/costume design
Maria Rita Barbera
musica/music
Fiorenzo Carpi
suono/sound
Marco Streccioni
interpreti e personaggi/cast and characters
Marco Messeri (Otello Morsiani), Giulia Boschi (Daria), Remo Remotti (Italo), Tino Carraro (Melandri), Memè Perlini (Checco), Mario Adorf (Tornova)
produttori/producers
Angelo Barbagallo, Nanni Moretti
produzione/production
Rai 1, Sacher, So. Fin. A
