Musician-Turned-Actor Fortunato Verduci Adds Authenticity to Calabrian Stories

Fortunato Verduci made a name for himself in his native Calabria as a musician specializing in traditional folk songs. One day, he received a call to audition for an American production being shot on location in his region. Three years later, he is responsible for helping to create some of the most memorable scenes in television, which thanks to VOD platforms like Netflix and Amazon, represent Calabria on the international stage.

Born in the Calabrian commune of Motta San Giovanni, located on a mountain top overlooking the Ionian sea, Verduci was raised by a family of musicians. “I grew up to the sound of the tarantella and since I was a child. I’ve accompanied my father with the Motta folk group to play and dance around Italy and Europe. The dance facilitated me in acting because I was used to performing in front of the audience.”

Verduci didn’t initially have plans to pursue an acting career. A few years ago, word got around that an international film crew was shooting in the mountains of Calabria and looking for locals. He received a call to audition for a part as a musician playing traditional music. “I went with four other guys to the casting call, which was held in Praia a Mare (in the province of Cosenza, Calabria). That’s where I met the director. We did the audition and we danced. He liked it right away. We explained to him the significance of the dance, our regional tarantella, and the symbolism it holds in Calabria,” he recalls.

The director was Emanuele Crialese, best known in America for The Golden Door. The international production was FX Network’s 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. “Aside from having this small role, I had the chance to dance with all of these other actors, including Luca Marinelli, Donatella Finocchiaro and Francesco Colella. They learned our tarantella. They took dance lessons in the afternoon and then we all gathered on the set in the evening. The scene took us about two hours to shoot. The most beautiful part was the human interaction with the actors, engaging with each other on a human level, not just professional.”

Watch a clip from our interview in Rome in which he talks about the filming of that scene..

Watch "Trust," Episode 8, "In the Name of the Father" on Hulu, YouTube, Amazon Prime, Sling and Google Play.

Crialese was impressed with Verduci’s work and recommended him to other filmmakers. So before long, more offers came rolling in. The next project, "Lo spietato" (The Ruthless), a film by director Renato De Maria who is known for his depictions of historical events, called on the traditional music of Verduci’s Calabrian roots once again. Like "Trust," the film touches on the infamous kidnappings that plagued Italy during the 1970s and '80s as well as the rise of the crime organization ‘Ndrangheta. Verduci’s scene, which features his signature music and dance, offers a beautiful cultural respite from an otherwise heavy and violent story.

Watch "The Ruthless" on Netflix.

Performing on the set of "ZeroZeroZero" in Calabria

Verduci’s third and latest work is Stefano Sollima’s screen adaptation of "ZeroZeroZero." The series is based on the bestselling novel by Roberto Saviano, which explores the roads of organized crime from South America to Europe.

“One of the scenes I took part in was shot during the procession of the Madonna of Polsi. In that scene, I sing and play a song dedicated to the Madonna,” recounts Verduci. The scene to which his is referring was shot at the actual sanctuary of the Madonna. Located in the Aspromonte mountains of Calabria, the sanctuary was founded in 1144 and has become a sacred place for the people of the region. Although the series focuses on the brutal reality and consequences of organized crime, the scenes shot in Calabria reveal the region’s purity, beauty and rich culture. “The bearers of the statue of the Madonna were the real ones, that historically in that feast are from Calabria. So these were the actual bearers of Bagnara Calabra, a town near Scilla,” explained Verduci.

Watch this video of Verduci on set performing with his fellow musicians...

Stream "ZeroZeroZero" on Amazon Prime..

-Written by Jeannine Guilyard for Fra Noi Magazine. Click here to subscribe.

Comments

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 t...

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 legend...

7 Days - 7 Women: Interview with Actress Sabrina Impacciatore

Photo by Rossella Vetrano On Day 6 of our series, 7 Days - 7 Women, in which we are profiling seven strong, talented women working as filmmakers, writers or visual artists, we talk with actress Sabrina Impacciatore about the diversity of her roles. Whether she's playing a devoted mother trying to protect her child, Jesus Christ's "Veronica" in Mel Gibson's controversial film, "Passion of the Christ" or a young woman coming of age, Impacciatore escapes into the life and mind of each character she takes on, sometimes so deeply that she believes she is actually them. It's a fine line between reality and fiction, but she treads it carefully and anyone watching her performance benefits from her emotional connection to the character that she becomes. I spoke with Impacciatore at the 2010 Open Roads: New Italian Film series in New York City. We talked about her lifelong dream of becoming an actress. She also gave me some insight into the diff...

'Salvatore Giuliano' blends documentary realism with dramatic storytelling

"Salvatore Giuliano" is a 1962 Italian crime drama directed by Francesco Rosi that dramatizes the real-life events surrounding the life and death of the legendary Sicilian bandit and folk hero. Giuliano rose to notoriety after the liberation of Sicily from fascist control in 1943, when he formed a gang that joined a separatist army. When the army dissolved, he and his gang intensified their outlaw activities. One of their most significant crimes was the Portella della Ginestra incident, during which dozens of men, women, and children were killed or wounded. This act prompted the authorities to launch an all-out war against Giuliano. His defenses slowly crumbled, and on July 5, 1959, his body was discovered in the courtyard of a house in Castelvetrano. That moment serves as the starting point for Rosi's film. Giuliano's fame is tied to his involvement in the Sicilian independence movement and his battles against both the Italian government and the Mafia in the 1940s a...

Review: “Hitler Versus Picasso and the Others” by Claudio Poli

A compelling 2018 documentary by Claudio Poli aims to shed light on a chapter of Nazi history that is still relevant today. “Hitler Versus Picasso and the Others” is the story of how the Führer didn’t just take countless human lives but also robbed a whole culture of its artistic heritage. Narrated by actor Toni Servillo, “Hitler Versus Picasso and the Others” takes viewers on an incredible journey in search of masterpieces stolen during World War II. The stories of individual works are told by people who witnessed the looting, much of which took place during raids on homes and galleries belonging to Jewish collectors. The documentary reveals that 600,000 works of art were stolen from private owners, museums, churches and galleries. The confiscated artwork was either kept by the Nazi elite, warehoused, sold or destroyed in bonfires. Few benefited more from this large-scale heist than Hildebrand Gurlitt, Hitler’s so-called art dealer, who kept many of the most priceless treasures ...

Italian Cinema Today

Search This Blog