Country: Italy
Year: 2024
Duration: 74
A found-footage documentary about the story of the artistic partnership of two legendary couples of Italian cinema: Federico Fellini and Nino Rota, Ettore Scola and Armando Trovajoli. In both cases the role of music was so crucial in creating the overall atmosphere of the film that the composer’s name emerges alongside the director’s, binding them indelibly in the audience’s memory. This has happened many times in the history of cinema. The successful collaborations of Scola and Trovajoli, and Fellini and Rota are among the most accomplished in Italian film history. When a director and composer not only achieve a unique artistic harmony but also experience a meeting of soulmates, the magic of the film is complete.
Biography
film director
Giovanna Ventura
(Italy) graduated in law at the Aldo Moro University of Bari and in 1987 made La cinepresa e la memoria - Momenti del documentario italiano. With Giuseppe Ferrara and Giacomo Gambetti, she collaborated on the creation of L’occhio magico, a program about the cinema professions broadcasted on RAI3. Also for RAI3, she made documentaries for Geo and conducts in studio together with Folco Quilici. From 2010 to 2016 she is the author and director of Autoritratti, monographs dedicated to the protagonists of Italian cinema and entertainment. In 2017 she realizes the thirteen-year program 13 anni di Rai - La tv di Ettore Bernabei, which tells the golden years of public service. In 2018 he made the documentary Oltre la sala - Le parole del cinema nella televisione pubblica, presented at the TFF, and the following year Oltre la sala - The words of cinema in public television, Nastro d'argento special cinema and journalism. In 2021 he then made Fellini e Simenon – Con profonda simpatia e sincera gratitudine, presented in Rome.
FILMOGRAFIA
La cinepresa e la memoria - Momenti del documentario italiano (doc., tv, 1987), L’occhio magico (doc., tv, 1990), Antichi borghi d’Italia (doc., tv, 1996), Autoritratti (doc., tv, 2010-16), 13 anni di Rai - La tv di Ettore Bernabei (doc., tv, 2017), Oltre la sala - Le parole del cinema nella televisione pubblica (doc, tv, 2018), Fellini e Simenon – Con profonda simpatia e sincera gratitudine (doc, tv, 2021), La musica negli occhi (doc, tv, 2024).
Declaration
film director
“‘I could watch Fellini’s films on the radio...,’ wrote once Roger Ebert: a strong and provocative statement which at first seemed almost offensive to me. Yet, upon reflection, I understood how it fully restored the relationship between the musician Nino Rota and the director Federico Fellini: the films of the exuberant and brilliant former were visible through the music of the shy and very refined latter. Hence the idea of deepening the almost mystical bond between the two masters, and the genesis of their masterpieces, to address the theme of the relationship between cinema and music in a broader way and to tell in a parallel way another wonderful meeting between a composer and a director in Italian cinema: Ettore Scola and Armando Trovajoli. In all the films made by Fellini-Rota and Scola-Tvajoli the same magic took place: the music and the image merged inseparably and remained imprinted in the mind and in the eyes, as in ‘a sound frame.’”
Cast
& Credits
DIRECTOR: Giovanna Ventura. SCREENPLAY: Giovanna Ventura, with the collaboration of Isabella Pomi. EDITING: Maria Grazia Pandolfo. CAST: Stefano Bollani, Sergio Castellitto, Franco Piersanti, Emilio Sala, Silvia Scola, Mariapaola Trovajoli. PRODUCTION: Rai Cultura, Rai Movie.
CONTACT: Rai Cultura ed Educational www.rai.it
