Skip to main content

Neapolitan Filmmakers Toni Servillo and Paolo Sorrentino Take On Hollywood


Toni Servillo in a scene from "La Grande Bellezza"
Italy's Oscar entry has made the short list. Paolo Sorrentino's "La Grande Bellezza" (The Great Beauty) which stars the director's top actor, Toni Servillo, was a huge hit in Italy and is gaining momentum for a coveted nomination in the category for Best Foreign Film.  

The film's A-list cast which also features Rome natives, Carlo Verdone and Sabrina Ferilli, tells the story of the Roman club underworld. Toni Servillo takes the lead role of Jep Gambardella, an uninspired writer who recounts his days as a young spectator who became seduced and intoxicated with power, finding himself caught in a web of superficiality, disillusionment and corruption. Sorrentino described "La Grande Bellezza" as "a film which probes the contradictions, the beauties, the scenes I have witnessed and the people I’ve met in Rome; a wonderful city, soothing yet at the same time full of hidden dangers."

Nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, the film has been called a "swooning love letter to Roman decadence," and Sorrentino did not hold back on the rich, colorful sets and wardrobe. Much of the film was shot on a terrace overlooking the colosseum, so there is always that element of Rome's indulgent, morally questionable history. The film takes us on a whirlwind trip through a select society with extreme highs and lows that produce euphoria one moment and desperation the next.


Paolo Sorrentino


Born in Naples in 1970, Paolo Sorrentino offers his original, thought-provoking perspective on some of Italy's darkest times. He is celebrated in cinema around the world as his films reach well beyond the borders of Italy.

One of the most innovative filmmakers of our time, whose films tell stories of complicated, layered characters faced with morally sound choices, Sorrentino is an artist's artist, one who makes films to satisfy his own artistic hunger and vision. In doing so, he succeeds to make films that are so simply honest and politically incorrect, you can't help but appreciate their fundamentalism and identify with some part of the protagonists' human flaws. His characters have ranged from rock stars to political icons and criminals. But the one thing all these diverse characters have in common is the inner moral struggle facing each of them. His characters find themselves on emotional, soul-searching passages in which they go through deep introspections of the choices their greed and ego led them to make.

Early in his career, Sorrentino teamed up with fellow Neapolitan filmmaker, Toni Servillo and the two have worked on several projects together, creating portraits of sometimes narcissistic characters who live in dark underworlds of society. These underworlds, sometimes having to do with the mafia.. and in other cases the Roman club scene, are parts of society that do indeed exist. They are realities, discussed in hushed tones, which the general public doesn't really want to acknowledge. But Sorrentino dives right into these worlds, carefully examining the characteristics and motives of the people behind them. 

Toni Servillo


Named by Vogue Italy as the most versatile actor in the history of Italian cinema, Toni Servillo hauntingly becomes these dark, troubled characters and gives an air of indifference to the methods they use to get what they want. Born in 1958 in Afragola, a town in the province of Naples, Toni Servillo teamed up with Sorrentino for the director's 2001 debut film, "L'uomo in più" (One Man Up). Set in the 1980's, the film shows the parallel lives of two men with the same name, Antonio Pisapia. One is a top soccer player and the other a successful pop singer. Servillo plays the part of the pop singer. Both men experience the height of success and the depths of failure.  It is a deeply poignant story that balances dreams and reality.


The two worked together three years later on Sorrentino's romantic psychological thriller "Le conseguenze dell'amore" (The Consequences of Love), which brought Toni Servillo his first David di Donatello award. The story follows a Mafia accountant found laundering the mob's profits. Servillo delivers an unforgettable performance of a lonely man who falls in love with a young barmaid and is willing to risk everything to be with her, including his life. 

In Sorrentino's 2008 international blockbuster "Il Divo," Servillo plays Giulio Andreotti, a former Italian prime minister and fixture in Italian politics for nearly eight decades, who was a subject of corruption investigations in the 1990's. Sorrentino and Servillo collaborated to present their take on the complicated topic of postwar Italian politics and succeeded in actually simplifying the subject, focusing on the career plateaus and valleys of one of its key players. Elected seven times as Italy's prime minister, Andreotti was known for his signature round-shouldered, slow moving stride and sense of strong inner energy. Servillo embraced those characteristics and was articulate in his portrayal of the former prime minister in his award-winning performance. Sorrentino and Servillo created a true contemporary classic and recounted a significant story in Italy's modern history.

 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Luminous Legacies: Yoichi Ohira’s Murano Glass at Magazzino Italian Art

A new exhibition in Cold Spring, New York, is bringing the luminous legacy of Murano glassmaking into focus through the work of Japanese artist Yoichi Ohira. “Yoichi Ohira: Japan in Murano” is on view at  Magazzino Italian Art  until February 2027. The exhibit showcases the work of Ohira, who became a leading figure in the design of Venetian glassworks on the island of Murano. The exhibition features works that highlight the uniqueness of Ohira’s art across the decades of his career. Ohira’s earliest Murano works blend Venetian glass techniques with his own style. These pieces show balanced shapes, clear surfaces, and striking color combinations. His Venezia e l’Oriente (Venice and the Orient) decanters reflect Venice’s ties to the East, creating vases inspired by Marco Polo’s tales with a modern twist. The exhibition shows Ohira’s respect for Murano’s glass masters, displaying objects alongside preparatory drawings that map ideas to the final works of art. It also explores ho...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Legend of Alberto Sordi - Rome's Eternal Son

′′They will always judge you, whether you behave well or if you behave badly. So screw it and live as you want but above all don't listen to anyone.′′  - Alberto Sordi By giving his fellow Italians something to laugh about during tumultuous times, he emerged as his generation’s King of Comedy. One of Italy’s best-loved personalities, Alberto Sordi played a pivotal role in Italian cinema from the end of World War II to the postwar economic boom of the 1950s. During those tumultuous years, he gave his countrymen a hearty laugh when they might have otherwise cried. Former Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi perhaps said it best: “Alberto Sordi interpreted the feelings of Italians, especially in their most difficult and tough moments.” Born in the Trastevere neighborhood of Rome in 1920, Sordi grew up in a creative household. His mother was an elementary school teacher and his father, a professional musician for the Rome Opera House. A young Sordi joined the children’s choir o...
Post a Comment
Read more

Alessandro Gassmann: Born to Act

Alessandro Gassmannin his directorial debut "Razzabastarda" Alessandro Gassmann is the son of the iconic Italian actor/director Vittorio Gassman and French actress Juliette Mayniel. He was born in 1965 and grew up around cinema royalty.  He made his cinema debut in 1982 at the age of 17 in his father's autobiographical film, "Di padre in figlio." He went on to study his craft under his father's direction at the Theatre Workshop of Florence.  Vittorio Gassman was very active in theater and seemed just as comfortable on stage as he did in front of the camera. Known for his powerful interpretations of Dante's "Inferno" and "Paradiso," it is no surprise that he nurtured his son's acting aspirations on stage before he launched his career in television and film. One of Gassmann's strong qualities, which he undoubtedly inherited from his father is his incredible range and ease in going from genre to genre. He can play ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Netflix's 'Il Gattopardo" — A classic reborn

Netflix photo A new Netflix series adaptation of “The Leopard,” based on Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s seminal novel, is captivating audiences worldwide. Directed by British filmmaker Tom Shankland, the series revisits the iconic tale first brought to the screen by Luchino Visconti in 1963. Set against the backdrop of 1860s Sicily during the Risorgimento, the film follows Prince Fabrizio Salina (Kim Rossi Stuart), an aging aristocrat witnessing the decline of the Sicilian nobility and the rise of a new social order. As Garibaldi’s forces land in Sicily, the prince reflects on the now-fleeting aristocratic way of life. His nephew Tancredi (Saul Nanni) embraces the changes and aligns himself with the new order, famously stating, “If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change.” Prince Fabrizio, once the epitome of male, moneyed privilege, finds himself grappling with a changing world where his way of life is becoming obsolete. He comes to realize that the aristocracy ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Sweetness and Genius of Giulietta Masina

Fellini and Masina on the set of "La Strada" As open-hearted and sunny as Federico Fellini was dark and complex, they were perfect counterpoints during a half-century of marriage and professional collaboration.  Nicknamed a  “female Chaplin” and described by Chaplin himself as  the actress who moved him most,  Giulietta Masina confronted the tragedy of her characters with an eternal innocence and enthusiasm that gave Italians hope in the most challenging of times.  Born in 1921 in San Giorgio di Piano, a commune north of Bologna, Masina was the oldest of four children born to a father who was a music professor and violinist and a mother who was a grade-school teacher. Her parents sent her as a child to live in Rome with her widowed aunt while she attended school there. As Masina took an early interest in gymnastics, her aunt saw in her a passion for performing and encouraged her to pursue acting. So after high school, Masina attended Rome’s La...
Post a Comment
Read more