Skip to main content

Sicily Through the Eyes and Heart of Emanuele Crialese

Emanuele Crialese 

Emanuele Crialese is one of the most inventive and poetic filmmakers working today. The messages in his films speak to the dreams and desires within the soul, and their breathtaking cinematography reveals the  pride he feels for a land to which he is deeply connected.

Born in Rome in 1965, Emanuele Crialese’s Sicilian roots are the driving force to the plots of his movies. Crialese earned his degree at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.  He originally set out to take a short film course at the university but was granted a full scholarship after presenting a sample of his work. Much of Crialese’s career has been dedicated to exploring the plight of the immigrant, and the irony of this lies within the fact that while in New York City attending film school, he lived in a Lower East Side tenement, which was once occupied by immigrants during the immigration wave of the 20th century. One has to wonder if that experience has had any influence on his work today. Crialese made a number of short films during his years in New York, and then made his first feature in 1997. The film, "Once We Were Strangers," is about a Sicilian man living illegally in New York wandering from job to job when he falls in love with a local radio show host.  The story follows the lives of a number of immigrants living in New York including those from India. The film is about the culture clashes and expectations of immigrants coming to America in search of a better life. 

Upon his return to Italy, Crialese made the visually stunning masterpiece, "Respiro." Staring Valeria Golino and Vincenzo Amato, the film was shot on the Sicilian island of Lampedusa and tells the story of a not so traditional mother and wife who struggles with meeting the demands of a politically correct society in a village where everyone knows your business. It's a story of freedom, self-expression and love that was shot in a place as close to paradise as one can get. The film has been a huge international success thanks to its beautiful landscapes and timeless story. 


Nuovomondo

His next film "Nuovomondo" (Golden Door), was released in 2006, and again focuses on the Sicilian culture. This time, Crialese travels back to the beginning of the 20th century and examines the experience of immigration to the United States from the perspective of Sicilian peasants. It's a beautiful yet heartbreaking portrait of an immigrant faced with the daunting task of leaving his home forever. It's an emotional journey through the eyes of a man trying to make a better life for his family. The film gives insight into the conditions and struggles that our own ancestors must have faced when making that life-changing decision so many generations ago. Crialese has said that he found inspiration to write the story when he visited Ellis Island back in the '90s and saw photographs of people “looking into the camera as though it was a strange instrument.” Those images made him fantasize about the immigrants’ past and culture. He started to research the topic and discovered a passion for the story which ultimately led him to make this film. Part of that research included reading letters the immigrants sent home. He wanted to make a film about “the kind of man who was willing to cross the ocean to go to an unknown place.”  

Perhaps he kept that research in mind when making his latest film, "Terraferma." It's another work that deals with the topic of immigration. This time, however, the immigrants are not Italian. The film tackles Italy’s current issue with clandestine immigrants. The plot explores the moral side of the issue when a Sicilian family helps save an immigrant mother and child from drowning and takes them into their home. Such practice is illegal and the family faces criminal charges. The screenplay was articulately written and directed as Crialese shows the growing problem of illegal immigration from multiple angles. The film premiered at last year’s Venice Film Festival and took home a Special Jury Prize. It was also Italy’s submission for the 2011 Academy Awards, but unfortunately was not on the final ballot.

Terraferma

In 2018, Crialese directed Episode 8 of the FX Network series, "Trust," which recounts the 1973 kidnapping of John Paul Getty III. The episode, titled, “In the Name of the Father,” shot entirely on location in Calabria, was hailed by The New York Times as the best episode of the series. Click here to read my interview with Fortunato Verduci, one of the regional actors featured in the episode. It's available to stream on numerous platforms, including-  Hulu, YouTube, Amazon Prime, Sling and Google Play.
Crialese is such a relevant filmmaker because his work shows the ideals of a country that is anchored in tradition while exploring the current issues of its modern inhabitants.  He does so in a unique way that captures the physical, magical and emotional aspects of Sicily’s Mediterranean beauty.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Anna Foglietta: Actress and Activist with Old School Elegance

One look at actress Anna Foglietta in her any of her roles, and the Golden Age of Italian cinema comes to mind. Among Italy’s most sought-after actresses today, Foglietta brings to the table a classic eloquence of yesterday while representing Italy’s modern woman. Born in Rome in 1979, Foglietta began her career in 2005 with a role in the RAI television series La squadra . Her character Agent Anna De Luca had a two-year run on the series as she was transitioning to cinema with Paolo Virzì’s 2006 ensemble project 4-4-2- Il gioco più bello del mondo . Since then, she has become one of Italy’s most diverse actresses, transforming herself into interesting, layered characters for comedies and dramas alike. Aside from a small part in Anton Corbijn’s 2010 film The American starring George Clooney, Foglietta’s work began reaching mainstream American audiences in 2015. As Elisa in Edoardo Leo’s 2015 comedy Noi e la Giulia , Foglietta showed her funny side playing a goofball pregn...
Post a Comment
Read more

Director Gianni Di Gregorio explores relationships in later life with 'Never Too Late for Love'

In “Astolfo” (“Never Too Late for Love”), director Gianni Di Gregorio delivers a coming-of-age film for the golden years of life about a retired professor who leaves Rome to return to a tiny mountain village in Abruzzo. The film opens with the title character, played by Di Gregorio, walking through the streets of his Roman neighborhood, groceries in hand, only to find his landlord waiting for him when he arrives home. She is there to announce that he will have to vacate his humble residence to make way for her daughter, who is getting married soon.  After some contemplation, he calls his ex-wife to ask her about an old family castle he split with her in their divorce. When she confirms that a portion of the castle is his for the taking, he gleefully returns to his spacious new home only to discover it has been occupied by a squatter, who turns out to be an acquaintance from his childhood who is also down on his luck. Without hesitation, Astolfo adopts the man as his roommate. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

La Grande Bellezza of Sabrina Ferilli

The 2015 Rome Premiere of "Io e Lei" Sabrina Ferilli has been gracing Italian screens, big and small, since the mid-80s. With her recent role in Paolo Sorrentino's international blockbuster, "La Grande Bellezza" (The Great Beauty), audiences throughout the world are getting the chance to see why she is one of Italy's most beloved treasures. Born in Rome in 1964, Sabrina Ferilli is the daughter of Giuliano Ferilli, the former leader of the Communist Party of the Lazio Region. Ferilli attempted to study her craft at Rome's Experimental Center of Cinematography, but later decided to abandon her studies and dive right into her career. Time has proven that she made the right choice. With dozens of movies to her credit, Ferilli has appeared on television and on the big screen, becoming a household name in Italy. Ferilli is the very portrait of Italian beauty with her infamous figure, long brown locks and dark eyes. But as cliched as it may sound, s...
Post a Comment
Read more

Nicoletta Braschi and Roberto Benigni.. What cinema dreams are made of

The Toronto International Film Festival is wrapping up its retrospective of the cinematic collaboration of husband and wife team, Nicoletta Braschi and Roberto Benigni. Over the last few days, the couple have participated in discussions, Q & A sessions and have introduced several of their films. Today, I attended a screening of "La voce della luna" (The voice of the moon). It was  Federico Fellini's last film and is a wonderful tribute to the director's signature poetic madness. The film gave Benigni the opportunity to team up with fellow beloved comic, Paolo Villaggio, and the two created a truly unforgettable adventure. Today's screening began with an introduction by Benigni. The moments leading up to his introduction were noticeably serious and somewhat tense. Benigni's publicist and TIFF security staunchly guarded his privacy. There was no interaction and no photos were allowed. Guided by ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Paola Cortellesi shines as La Befana in a family comedy blending tradition and modernity

A wildly successful Christmastime film, earning over $8 million at the box office when it premiered in 2018, "La befana vien di notte" (“The Legend of the Christmas Witch”) is a wholesome holiday comedy that the whole family can watch. Directed by Michele Soavi, the film stars two of Italy's most diverse contemporary actors, Paola Cortellesi and Stefano Fresi, as gift-giving foes. Paola (Cortellesi) is a grammar schoolteacher by day, but at night, she turns into La Befana, the Christmas witch, a mystical being who brings gifts to the good kids and coal to the naughty ones.   On one of her Befana nights, she was attacked by a dog that tore her Befana gift list. When she returned home from a night of riding on her broomstick, delivering gifts to children all over the world, she realized that she had forgotten one child. When she discovered the torn-up list, she figured out who the child was, got back on her broom, and headed straight to his house. Having arrived late, the b...
Post a Comment
Read more