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

Federico Fellini: A Look into the Life and Career of an Icon

A Fellini family portrait  “The term became a common word to describe something on the surface you can say is bizarre or strange, but actually is really like a painter working on a film,” said Martin Scorsese when asked to define “Felliniesque,” an adjective inspired by one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. The oldest of three children, Federico Fellini was born in the seaside town of Rimini in 1920. His father was a traveling salesman, so his mother was left to do the bulk of raising the children. One can argue that Fellini was born for his destiny. “You could tell that even as a child, he was different and unique. He was very intelligent, well above average. He was always the one to organize things, direct the others, make up games. He could control the other kids with just a look, said Fellini’s sister, Maddalena, in an interview with journalist Gideon Bachmann.  Not only was Fellini directing the children, but he was also putting on shows and charging ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Model/Actress Anna Falchi

Anna Falchi was born Anna Kristiina Palomaki, on April 22, 1972, in Tampere, Finland. Her mother, Kaarina Palomaki Sisko, is Finnish, while her father, Benito "Tito" Falchi, is from Romagna, Italy. Growing up in Italy, Anna was a tomboy, and had a fervent imagination. She is known mostly for her prolific career in modelling. However, she tried her hand at acting and landed a role in one of my favorite Italian comedies, Nessun messaggio in segreteria . I consider it my one of my favorites because it brought together so many amazing, talented filmmakers during a time when they were all just starting out. Those filmmakers, Pierfrancesco Favino, Valerio Mastandrea, Luca Miniero and Paolo Genovese are now huge names in contemporary Italian cinema, so it's great to look back and see their work in a low-profile film completely different from the bigger-budget stardom they now know.   Watch the trailer . Anna Falchi started her career as a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ornella Muti: Five decades of Acting and Still Going Strong

Ornella Muti was born Francesca Romana Rivelli in Rome in 1955 to a Neapolitan father and an Estonian mother. She began her career as a model during her teenage years and made her film debut in 1970 with “La Moglie più bella” (The Most Beautiful Wife).  Her follow-up role was in the 1971 film, “Sole nella pelle” (Sun on the Skin), in which she played the daughter of wealthy parents who runs off with a hippie they don’t approve of. The film offers a telling journey through Italian society in the seventies, with its political climate, breathtaking seaside, and the styles and cars of that time.  Much of the film is set amid the sunny Italian seaside and captures the innocence and beauty of first love.   Muti made her American film debut in 1980 with "Flash Gordon." She played the role of Princess Aura. She’s appeared in two other American films, including “Oscar,” directed by John Landis and starring Don Ameche, Chazz Palminteri, and Sylvester Stallone. In 1992, she w...
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

Cineuropa's Interview with Michele Placido

It was announced this week that Michele Placido's new film, "7 minuti" will be shown at this year's Rome Film Festival. 11 amazing actresses women star in "7 minuti" by Michele Placido , a drama co-produced by Italy, France, Spain and Switzerland and being distributed by German company Koch Media. The cast features Cristiana Capotondi , Ambra Angiolini , Fiorella Mannoia , Maria Nazionale , Ottavia Piccolo , Violante Placido , Sabine Timoteo , Anne Consigny , Mimma Lovoi and Clémence Poésy . The film is based on the play of the same name by Stefano Massini, who wrote the screenplay with Placido, and is the story of 11 women, a mixture of manual labourers and office workers, who are called to the negotiation table when the owners of the textiles company they work for sell the majority of their shares to a multinational. In a short space of time they must decide, for themselves and on the behalf of their fellow colleagues, whether to accept the...
Post a Comment
Read more