27° TORINO FILM FESTIVAL

LA BELLA GENTE

BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE
by Ivano De Matteo
Country: Italy
Year: 2009
Duration: 98'


BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE
The couple Alfredo and Susanna are two well-off fifty-year-olds who lead a stimulating cultural life. He is an architect and she is a psychologist; they live in Rome but spend their weekends at their country home in Umbria, where they love to spend their days walking in the forests or relaxing poolside with a good book. One day, as she goes into town, Susanna sees a girl prostituting herself in the bushes on the side of the road and decides to save her from her unhappy existence, despite the enormous differences that separate their ways of life.


“Can a woman from a poor family, from a poor country, whose first job is that of a prostitute – can this woman become someone else? Can she redeem herself, can she aim for a better life? And can a family which has always lived in wealth, that is warmed by an intellectual climate and is esthetically sophisticated – can this family risk everything they have inherited and everything they have constructed to respect what they boast of as their ideals? Maybe. But this screenplay talks about the norm and so the answer is no.”

Biography

film director

Ivano De Matteo

Ivano De Matteo (Rome, Italy, 1971) began his artistic career studying at the theatrical laboratory Il Mulino di Fiora, directed by Perla Peragallo. His documentary Prigionieri di una fede (1999) received a special mention at the 17TH Torino Film Festival, while Barricata San Calisto (2001) competed at various festivals, including Arcipelago and the Rome Film Festival. In 2002, he directed Ultimo stadio, in which he also starred. The film screened at the 25TH Festival du film italien in Villerupt, at the Zoom Festival of Italian Cinema in San Francisco, at the Open Road New Italian Cinema at Lincoln Center in New York and at the Seville Film Festival. He has also received numerous awards for his theatrical activity.

FILMOGRAFIA

Grazietante (cm, 1997), Prigionieri di una fede (cm, doc., 1999), Mentalità Ultras (doc., 2000), ProvocAzione (cm, doc., 2000), Barricata San Calisto (doc., 2001), Ultimo stadio (2002), Codice a sbarre (doc., 2005), Fermata Pigneto (doc., 2006), Sulla zattera (doc., 2006), Pillole di bisogni (cm, 2007), Requiem XIII (doc., 2007), Human Rights for All (ep. Articolo 10, cm, 2008), AMORE 09 (doc., 2009), Niente di personale (2009), La bella gente (2009).

Cast

& Credits

regia/director
Ivano De Matteo
soggetto, sceneggiatura/story, screenplay
Valentina Ferlan
fotografia/cinematography
Duccio Cimatti
montaggio/film editing
Marco Spoletini
scenografia/production design
Luca Servino
costumi/costume design
Loredana Buscemi
musica/music
Francesco Cerasi
interpreti e personaggi/cast and characters
Monica Guerritore (Susanna), Antonio Catania (Alfredo), Vittoria Larcenko (Nadja), Elio Germano (Giulio), Giorgio Gobbi (Fabrizio), Iaia Forte (Paola), Myriam Catania (Flaminia)
produttori/producers
Guido Servino, Guglielmo Ariè
produzione, vendita all’estero/production, world sales
X Film
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