Interview: Raoul Bova on Second Chances and the New Generation of Italian Filmmakers

Actor Raoul Bova recently presented two of his films in Canada at the Italian Contemporary Film Festival and the Niagara Integrated Film Festival: Carlo Vanzina’s time travel comedy "Rewind and Reboot" (Torno Indietro e Cambio Vita) and the romantic comedy "All Roads Lead to Rome," which he presented alongside cinema legend and co-star Claudia Cardinale.

Bova’s acting career spans more than two decades and it has been a joy to watch him grow and evolve as an actor. He’s not afraid to take on complex characters like Lorenzo in Ferzan Ozpetek’s "Facing Windows" while he seems to embrace and have fun with lighter storylines like the two he just presented.

I had the great pleasure of meeting Raoul Bova in Niagara Falls where he presented "All Roads Lead to Rome" with Claudia Cardinale. He had a full schedule lined up that day with very little time for interviews, but I managed to slip in three quick questions and he was graceful enough to take the time to answer them. He spoke about the message of his new film and the evolution of cinema on an international scale.

"All Roads Lead to Rome" is being shown all over North America now. What do you think audiences will take away from this film and the Eternal City?

You can watch all the beauty we have in Italy but the most important thing is the story, the love you have between this American woman and this Italian guy. They didn’t have the chance to show each other how much they loved one another. So they are given this second chance. I find that when you have a second chance, you say, now I have the time to show what I really have inside and they finally did. It’s the kind of story where sometimes you’re not ready for that kind of love but after 10 years, you are.

What was it like working with such a diverse, international, cast? There are newcomers, a legend, Italian actors and Sarah Jessica Parker. That's quite a group of people.

It was very interesting because it was one way to see our jobs as actors and then with this movie business. It makes you understand that it’s not the language you speak but the feeling you have because it’s always the same. It’s like mathematics. You are in front of the camera. You have your close-up. You have the story and you have to work on the script. The crew was the best. You have an Italian crew. You have an American crew. You have a great European crew- The DP (Director of Photography) is from Hungary. The crew was from all over the world, and right now the movie business is full of different languages. So we were prepared and it was very easy.

You had a production company a few years ago and you worked with young filmmakers. What do you think about the new generation of Italian filmmakers and what they’re doing? For example, the recent success of Gabriele Mainetti’s "They Call Me Jeeg Robot"..

That was a very unusual production. The director was also the producer of the movie and he was very brave because in the movie industry, not only in Italy but all over the world, when you have success with one type of movie, they repeat it again and again and again- the same story with different actors in a different production but it’s still the same story. I’m very happy that "Jeeg Robot" was successful because it’s a new way to see movies. It also gives encouragement to new directors. It's a different way to see cinema because it’s new, it’s modern.

Raoul Bova currently has three films in pre-production, slated for 2017 releases. In the meantime, "All Roads Lead to Rome" is available on the following platforms in the United States..

YouTube

Amazon Video

Vudu

Google Play Movies & TV

Comments

New faces of Italian cinema

Angelo Iannelli With the 2012 film festivals just about wrapped up, we saw a big emphasis this year on newly emerging and independent filmmakers. This was most notable in the Venice Film Festival's Horizon's program, which gave these filmmakers an unprecedented amount of visibility as the program reached out to people all over the world via the internet. To mark this current trend, I recently caught up with two independent filmmakers in Rome: Angelo Iannelli and Vito Napolitano. Each filmmaker has experience on both sides of the camera. Their origins are based in the south of Italy but they are now living in Rome. Angelo Iannelli was born in Benevento in the region of Campania, while Vito Napolitano is from Lecce in Puglia. What I enjoyed the most about our conversation is the passion with which the two young filmmakers speak about cinema. They are so enthusiastic and about their craft, they reel you right into their dreams. The three of us recently met up at the Li

The Timeless Talent of Stefania Sandrelli

On screen since the tender age of 14, she has captivated audiences for more than 50 years with a compelling combination of strength and vulnerability. She achieved stardom at just 14 years old playing the angelic cousin of a love-struck Marcello Mastroianni in Pietro Germi’s “Divorce Italian Style.” More than half a century later, she is still going strong and remains one of Italy’s most esteemed actors. Stefania Sandrelli was born on June 5, 1946, in Viareggio in the province of Lucca in northern Italy. As a child, she studied music and dance. Then in 1960, she won a beauty pageant and was featured on the cover of Le Ore magazine. Her purity captivated the country and shortly thereafter, movie offers began pouring in. Just one year later, she made her cinema debut in three feature films: Mario Sequi’s Gioventù di notte , Luciano Salce’s The Fascist, and Pietro Germi’s Divorce Italian Style . She instantly became a star and before long was a key figure in Italy’s legendary

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

A Conversation with Actor Mirko Frezza of David di Donatello Winner "Il più grande sogno"

The 2017 David di Donatello award show, which took place on Monday, was an exciting event that celebrated many great contemporary talents of Italian cinema. I was fortunate to have seen most of the nominees. Among my personal favorites is Michele Vannucci's Il più grande sogno simply because it is based on one of the most inspiring, beautiful stories I've ever heard, and the person behind that story is as authentic and down-to-earth as they come. The film won the 3 Future Award, which is determined by the public. With Director Michele Vannucci and Actor Mirko Frezza I first saw Il più grande sogno last September when it premiered at the Venice Film Festival. I didn't make it to Venice, but thanks to a great online platform called Festival Scope , which offers a handful of premieres to be screened on the web, I felt like I was there. The film itself blew me away, and then when I realized it was based on a true story, I knew that I would have to find out mor

Donald Sutherland and Helen Mirren navigate dementia in Paolo Virzìs 'The Leisure Seeker'

“The Leisure Seeker” is Italian director Paolo Virzìs first English-language feature film. Starring Helen Mirren as Ella and Donald Sutherland as John, it follows a couple who leave town, traveling from Massachusetts to Florida, without informing anyone, including their two adult children. The kids find out about their departure when their son, Will, pays them a visit and is informed by the couple’s neighbor that she heard them depart very early in the morning in their 1975 Winnebago, which bears the name of the film’s title. Will then launches a hunt to find his parents and return them safely home, but Ella has other plans. She intends to take John, an intellectual and aficionado of Ernest Hemingway, to the Hemingway Home & Museum in Key West. John is grappling with dementia and Ella, who copes with her sorrow by drinking a steady stream of whiskey, is clearly knocking on death’s door. “The Leisure Seeker” is a testament to their right to spend their final days as they wish — tr

Italian Cinema Today

Search This Blog