Skip to main content

Basilicata: Terra di Cinema - Michele Placido Pays Tribute to Carlo Levi

On Friday, 18 September 2015, an event dedicated to the work of author Carlo Levi will kick off a year-long program of events in Aliano, a commune of Matera. Actor/director Michele Placido will take the stage in honor of Levi, performing excerpts from several of his works including “Cristo si è Fermato ad Eboli“ (Christ stopped at Eboli), which of course was later made into an iconic film by Francesco Rosi. Fellow actors Raffaele Nigro and Rocco Brancati will share the stage with Placido along with local theater actors and musicians. 
Michele Placido

Michele Placido is a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to cinema. He is a celebrated movie star and respected director whose career has spanned over five decades with countless films and international blockbusters.


Placido’s family origins go back to Rionero in Vulture, a town located in the northern part of Basilicata. My family is also from that town and I have visited several times. Furthermore, Placido is a descendent of the infamous bandit and soldier, Carmine Crocco- a fierce man who fought for equal rights and privileges for the people of the south.

Born in 1946, Placido actually grew up in the Puglia region near Foggia and then studied film in Rome at the famous Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia. He also studied with Silvio D'Amico at the Academy of Dramatic Arts, and made his acting debut in the play, “A Midsummer's Night Dream” in the late 60's. Shortly thereafter, he got into television and cinema and has been non-stop ever since. He was fortunate to begin his career under the direction of several cinematic geniuses like Mario Monicelli, Marco Bellocchio and Francesco Rosi. With guidance like that, it's no wonder he rose to the top of his field. Just seven years after his stage debut, Michele Placido won a David di Donatello for his work as an actor in Marco Bellocchio's "Marcia trionfale."



"La Piovra"
Placido has had much success as a director, especially with his 2001 film, "Un Viaggio chiamato amore" and then in 2005 with "Romanzo Criminale." Both films earned international acclaim and were featured in the programs of film festivals in the United States. However, Placido is most successful in the roles that he plays in front of the camera. He is perhaps best known in Italy for his role as a police investigator fighting organized crime in the 1980's TV series "La Piovra". Since then, he has gone back and forth between the big and small screen with memorable characters that push the envelope and call on the decades of experience that Placido has under his belt. Each of his characters has a quiet intensity to them that seems to be his signature as an actor. He can give dignity to the shadiest of characters and nobility to the most humble. His on-camera presence is strong and at times overwhelming as he demands all eyes on him without even saying a word.
Placido works on project after project and has new releases practically every year. The year of 2006 was memorable as he had roles in two international hits with Mario Monicelli's "Le rose del deserto" and Giuseppe Tornatore's "La sconosciuta" - the emotionally charged story of, Irina, (Kseniya Rappoport) a young woman who escapes the sex trade in her native Ukraine and starts a brand new life in an Italian village, working as a maid to an affluent young family. Michele Placido completely transforms himself into one of the most hated villains you will ever experience onscreen. His character, Muffa, is Irina's controlling, abusive pimp who makes her life a living hell. The outstanding performances given by Placido and Rappoport are reasons enough to watch this film. 

With Michele Placido at the 2016 Festa del Cinema di Roma
Both Monicelli's "Le rose del deserto" and Tornatore's "La sconosciuta", were huge successes outside Italy and further validated Placido's status as a versatile filmmaker. Placido tackles all kinds of roles, but is renowned for his characters who fight against organized crime. Perhaps this stems from "La Piovra". However, in 2008, he went for a change of pace and took on the complicated character of Bernardo Provenzano, a well-known mafia boss, for the television movie, "L'ultimo padrino".Then in  2011, Placido took on a lighter role, sharing the screen with comic maestros, Robert DeNiro and Carlo Verdone in the third installment of Giovanni Veronesi's all-star "Manuale d'amore." 

Michele Placido's talent run in the family. His daughter, Violante, is an actress and singer. Her mother is actress Simonetta Stefanelli, who is best known on this side of the Atlantic for her role as Michael Corleone's doomed Sicilian wife in “The Godfather." Violante followed in her mother’s footsteps and co-starred in a big-budget American project with George Clooney in the 2010 film, "The American".

If you’re anywhere near Matera or are able to make the trip, I imagine that Friday’s performance will be a powerful one, and shouldn’t be missed. For more information about the event, check out Matera Inside.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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

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

A Conversation with Documentary Filmmaker Luigi Di Gianni

His documentary films have given voice to a people who would have otherwise been forgotten while preserving rituals and traditions no longer practiced. Visually stunning and emotionally moving, they reflect an Italy we’re not used to seeing in cinema.   Born in Naples in 1926, Luigi Di Gianni captured a dimension of Italy that people outside the South didn’t even know existed. He began his career working in the region of Basilicata, which back then was referred to as Lucania. He first visited the region with his parents when he was a boy. His father, being from the Lucanian village of Pescopagano, wanted to show his son his homeland.    That trip made an impression on the 9-year-old and created a deep affection that would one day inspire him to return. “I always remained very emotional about returning to this part of my homeland of Lucania,” he says. “It seemed like a different planet compared to Rome, where I lived. The tiring journey, the unpaved roads, the difficulti...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Timeless Vision of Pier Paolo Pasolini

Pondering his films and poetry, I wonder if the uniqueness of Pier Paolo Pasolini's films was rooted in his unconventional childhood. Born in Bologna in 1922, Pasolini's father was a lieutenant in the army, and his family was always moving. He grew up in various small towns in Northern Italy. After his parents separated, he spent most of his time in his mother's hometown of Casarsa, in the region of Friuli Venezia Giulia. There, he grew to respect the area's peasant culture and began to write poetry in the region's dialect. He studied literature and art history at the University of Bologna and was drafted into the army during World War II. The war proved to be especially tragic for his family as his younger brother was executed by Communist partisans. Following the war, he returned to Casarsa where he worked as a teacher and ironically became a leading member of the Communist party there. Pasolini was later expelled from the party due to allegations of homo...
Post a Comment
Read more