Articles by: Natasha Lardera

He has an iPhone6. And he left it on the table face up, so that everybody in the room can see when he gets a message. Of course nobody is going to ask him to read it aloud... Jokes, aside, Paolo Genovese, the director of Perfect Strangers, the Italian box office hit on how cell phones and social media have entered into fragile territories and affect almost everyone's lives, made himself available to share some of the secrets of his latest film.

Genovese, who is also co-writer of Perfect Strangers, has a history of having directed more than three hundred commercials and several successful films, including Tutta colpa di Freud (2013) and :a Banda dei Babbi Natale (2010).

“With this film, the idea was to sketch out that secret life we cannot come clean about, up until 20 years ago, our secrets were kept inside us: today, they are buried in our mobile phones, which have become a little bit like our black boxes,” Genovese has often said about his movie, where a group of friends play a dangerous game: during a weekly dinner everybody should place their cell phone face up on the table. Each message received should be read out loud and every call must be taken on speaker for everybody to know. Secrets, some innocuous others dangerous, are therefore revealed and people who are familiar become strangers. 

Perfect Strangers which features a star studded cast, Valerio Mastandrea in the role of Lele, AnnaFoglietta in the role of his wife Carlotta, Kasia Smutniak in the role of Eva, Marco Giallini in the role of her husband Rocco, Alba Rohrwacher in the role of Bianca, Edoardo Leo in the role of her husband Cosimo and Giuseppe Battiston in the role of Peppe, is nominated for nine David Di Donatello awards (The Italian Oscars), including best picture and best director of the year.

Produced by Medusa Film and Lotus Productions, the film has had its International Premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on the 14th of April, and rumors are that Harvey Weinstein attended such screening. Perfect Strangers was the only Italian title selected to compete in the festival's narrative section, and it raised buyers’ interest worldwide.

You attended the screenings, how was the film received by American audiences?

I attended two screenings and the reaction was amazing. Comedies are the sort of films that could definitely be totally lost in translation. Dramas and thrillers speak a more universal language while comedies risk having a sense of humor that is understood only by people in their native country. People laughed and reacted just the same way audiences did in Italy. At the end of each screening there always was a Q&A, and I was asked lots of interesting questions, at times even more interesting than in Italy. Usually, back in Italy, I was asked both by audiences and journalists alike  “how did you get the idea,” “how did you chose the cast.” These are good but ordinary questions. While here people seemed to want to go deeper, both on a technical and a narrative point of view. They were more specific about situations captured by the film. This showed me that the film was viewed with careful attention in all of its context.

In Italy the film has been defined as a Comedy, and even the representative of the rebirth of the famous Commedia all'Italiana. Here in the US, it's been defined a Dramedy. Which description do you consider more accurate?

In Italy we are losing grasp of the real concept of comedy and confusing comedy with funny films. In reality Commedia all'Italiana is a drama of some sort, the films were brilliant comedies that didn't lack of sadness and social criticism. A comedy captures aspects of our society that are difficult and dramatic but with some sort of lightness. Some of the greatest Italian comedies that have received awards and honors all over the world and have been made by some of the masters of Italian cinema always included some sort of drama: there was defeat, loss and even death. La Grande Guerra by Mario Monicelli is one of the greatest Italian comedies of all time and the two main characters end up dying. Even more popular comedies, like the films featuring Fantozzi (a stereotypically unlucky Italian accountant created by actor Paolo Villaggio), are very funny but they actually capture in a deeply sad manner the situation of the white-collar class. Therefore I don't find any contradictions in defining my film either a dramedy or a comedy. While often comedic films, where laughter is the one and only scope of the movie, are mistakingly labeled as comedy.

What happens in Perfect Strangers is very familiar, it's something that could happened to anybody, therefore the audience identifies strongly with the characters. That is not achieved only by the storyline but also by the way the film is actually shot. 

When shooting a film around a dining table, the filmmaker definitely tries to invite the audience in, as if they are participating in the dinner itself along with the actors. In this film there actually is an empty seat that seems to be there just for the spectator as we used a square table for eight with only 7 guests. Conceptually, the 8th seat is where the audience is “sitting.” Many shots were indeed made from that empty seat so that you'd feel like you are a part of what is happening. There was no room for any directorial virtuosities, my directing was and is focused on the story without any
aesthetic tricks that, especially in this film, were not needed. 

The idea of the film was yours, and you wrote it with four other screenwriters (Filippo Bologna, Paolo Costella, Paola Mammini and Rolando Ravello). How was that collaborative process and how did you maintain your original concept intact?

It was very rewarding. In a film like this, a piece that captures real life with many different characters and numerous stories, it is useful to have many different personal stories. You end up having so much material that puts you in the position to make a selection of “the best of,” meaning the individual experiences that you need the most to tell your story. The way I collaborate with other writers is very rewarding: we meet twice a week and each one of us contributes his/her ideas. Then I use the other 5 weekdays to actually sit down and write, I do need to write things myself, in order to organize all the different ideas. We then meet again and criticize or comment what's been written and we go on.The great advantage of this process is that we have lots on the table. In a film like this where people can talk about anything that comes to mind this allows you to have a unique narrative level.

During the dinner the characters don't only address the calls and messages they receive but they also mention numerous issues, many reflecting issues of Italian society. An example can be Peppe's short term contract that has been illegally renewed for ten years or the role of children in a married couple.

It's veiled criticism, but the film does not want to criticize Italian society. The choice to address some topics, like religion, kids, homosexuality, is simply to give realism to this dinner among close friends. If you sit down at the table with your buddies you talk about all different things. And this is what happens in the film. You never know where conversations may lead you to.

Was there any space for improvisation for the actors?

Very little. I really care about what is written on the script. I spend hours choosing an adjective or a specific word. Italian is a very rich language, we have different terms to describe the same thing so the choice of words is vital. I did give the actors some freedom in expressing the characters' long term friendship: so the sly remarks and private jokes among them were often unscripted and this added to making the whole more realistic.

Is there a character you feel closer to or that has some autobiographical traits?

Not really. All writers include something personal in what they write because real life always is source of inspiration. Films that portray real life, in order to feel real, have to capture something that belongs to you. That said, I absolutely try to avoid to tell stories that are entirely based on my life. I am afraid that the lack of detachment from what has happened to you personally could make you believe you are telling the story of some interesting characters but in reality they are terribly boring. This happens because they are  seen through the eyes of your personal experience. It's almost like when your friends show you the videos of their vacations; they are having a blast reliving through those moments but you find them incredibly tedious. That emotional element speaks to you but fails with others. I suppose that when you'd rather tell other people's stories, stories that have moved you in the first place, they most likely would move others as well.

If you had to describe each character what would you say?

Bianca (Alba Rohrwacher) is fragile, but in the end her fragility turns into strength. That's often the case in real life, people who seem to be sensitive and easy to break are the ones who end up having stronger reactions and actions than others. Eva (Kasia Smutniak) is diabolical. Nobody really understands why she suggests to play this game. Only at the end you realize she is the only one who couldn't have discovered anything painful, because her man loves her. Rocco (Marco Giallini) is the classic family man. I wanted to represent a very Italian figure, someone reassuring, who tries to keep the family together, who loves his wife no matter what... all good values. Lele (Valerio Mastandrea) represents the average man, who, though, appears to have no values but definitely redeems himself. Thrown into the right situation he can show his true valor, just like the aforementioned characters of La Grande Guerra. The story is obviously very different, but the concept of giving a character the opportunity to redeem himself is interesting.

What role does the lunar eclipse play?

The eclipse is simply a metaphorical situation. I used it to give the film tempo. The film is about the unsaid, and the eclipse, just like the characters, hides something else. Secrets are what we cover up, keep hidden from our life, during a lunar eclipse the Earth's shadow hides the Moon from view. I thought it was an interesting metaphor.

What about the “I Will Survive” ringtone of Cosimo's phone, is that a metaphor too?

The film definitely is based on the double, on the said/unsaid, public/hidden. Maybe in the States, because you have a different understanding of the lyrics, it's a bit different, but in Italy “I Will Survive” has two “lives.” It can be a fun song you can dance to, but if you listen to the words, it's a cry of desperation. I liked this double role of the song. Generally speaking, we worked a lot of the cell phones used in the film, as we wanted them to be as real as possible, so we had to request a lot of licenses. We had to do the same for the use of apps and social media. We didn't want to talk about WhatsApp and then it looked or sounded fake. We wanted to use Siri's real voice. Everything had to be as real as possible, as in every day life: there are those we have iPhones but there are also those who have old flip phones, some use a specific song as a ringtone others don't really care to change the ringtone tat all... if anything looked fake it meant something was wrong.

We have a saying here “Ignorance is Bliss.” Is it really?

In this situation ignorance could be seen as useful, you keep going without knowing what is really going on. But ignorance can also make you suffer. At some point Carlotta (Anna Foglietta) says “we have to learn to break up” in that case the term “learning” proves that many couple would love to end their relationships but they don't know how to. So they ignore what is going on, they embrace ignorance, and this ignoring reality doesn't make you really happy, only apparently.

 
Spending half a century trying the best international wines on the market: Vinitaly, Italy's greatest international wine competition and exposition, is indeed celebrating its 50th anniversary. This year, the so-called largest wine show in the world, which is held every April, this edition from the 10th to the 13th, and has been called the “most important convention of domestic and international wines,” is reaching new records: more than 4.100 exhibitors and operators in the wine sector hailing from more than 140 countries.

“A great future comes from a great past,” Maurizio Danese, president of Veronafiere (the Verona  Exhibition Authority, the organizer of exhibitions in Italy) has said, “Going over 50 editions of Vinitaly, created in 1967 in Verona as "Giornate del Vino Italiano" (The Days of Italian Wines) means retracing fifty years of the history of our beloved country. A country that has been able to make itself known and appreciated in the rest of the world. The 2016 edition wants to better represent the two faces of the wine business: economic and convivial, each to be enjoyed in the right place and at the right time. Veronafiere is making it very clear: business is taken care of in the pavilions while the wine festival is being held in the city's various restaurants and bars. Indeed, a couple of days before the show's opening we will launch Vinitaly&the City in order to involve consumers in a variety of activities all through the city. Our focus is both on the exhibitors and on the clients.”

Giovanni Mantovani, the General Manager of Veronafiere, added “This edition also marks the implementation of a strategic development project that will make of Vinitaly not only a year-long wine fair but much more: a community of producers, of leaders in the communications field and of international buyers who are able to come up with and let circulate ideas and trade relations on a global scale through Vinitaly International, OperaWine, VIA-Vinitaly International Academy, wine2wine, VinitalyWineClub, Sol&Agrifood, Enolitech and Awards such as the new 5 Star Wines Award.”

But that's not all. “This Vinitaly will have more international exhibitors,” Mantovani continued, “Not only in the designed area called Vininternational, which has already welcomed producers from Spain, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Australia, Serbia, Switzerland, Great Britain, France, China, Portugal and Argentina. This year we will have 1000 buyers coming from abroad in order to facilitate business with some target countries such as the USA and Canada, Japan, Germany and Austria. This activity brings together our efforts with the ones of the Ministero delle Politiche Agricole e dello Sviluppo Economico (Ministry of Agriculture and Economic Development) and the ItalianTrade Agency.”

Italy's wine business, amounting at a total value of 12.4 billion euros, “has become source of pride for the country,” Danese added, “Thanks to companies that have been able to give unique value, with their own productions, to natural environments, rural landscapes, integrating the cultural offer of the territories.” In 2015 wine exports have exceeded 5.4 billion euros, which means a growth of 5.4% compared to 2014. This is a new record for Italian wines that need to continue being strong if we want to reach the 2020 goal of 7.5 billion euros that Prime Minister Matteo Renzi indicated during Vinitaly 2014.

Yet Vinitaly is not celebrating alone: indeed ten DOC wines are also celebrating five decades of presence on the market. From North to South these wines, which together outline the history and geography of the Italian wine sector, are: Vernaccia Di San Gimignano; Est! Est!! Est!!!; Ischia; Frascati; Bianco Di Pitigliano; Brunello Di Montalcino; Barbaresco; Barolo; Aprilia; and Vino Nobile Di Montepulciano. Each wine will be celebrated with special tastings in specially dedicated pavilions.

And in order to make the celebrations official all through the country, on the 11th of April the Italian Postal System will launch a new stamp dedicated to Vinitaly for its series focusing on Italian excellences.. wine is indeed an excellence that makes Italy stand out in the whole world.  

Grammy award winning singer John Legend and the famous fashion model Chrissy Teigen chose Lake Como; Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka picked a castle in Perugia, while Kim and Kanye opted for Florence. For decades celebrities have decided to tie the knot in Italy, one of the loveliest destinations. Things have changed though and arranging a wedding in a distant country like Italy is not a dream anymore. 

Italy is indeed Europe's number one wedding destination, followed by France and Greece, and only the runner up on a global level coming second after the Caribbean and Hawaii, unparalleled for their romantic and breathtaking beaches. The information was presented in Ravello during a special event, “Italy coast to coast weddings,” that welcomed some of the most renown international wedding planners and local administrators.

The following data has been provided by the Observatory of International  Weddings of  Sposa Mediterranea Network a group of international event planners based in Ravello. The event's objective was to “educate and explore the territory,” while discovering cultural and landscape riches as well as traditional food specialties and unique artistic gems.

A wedding in Italy means excellent food, astounding wines, unparalleled art and culture and unique landscapes but also a general sense of friendliness and warmth that cannot be found in any other country. Data show that 75% of people vacationing in Italy decide to get married there. In 2014 the wedding business earned more than 350 million euros, roughly calculated on 6200 weddings that cost about 50.000 euros each, and in 2015 earnings amounted to more than 400 millions.

It's too soon to tell how 2016 is going to be but predictions show that this constant rise will increase by 50%. On top of that, after their wedding, couples decide to spend their honeymoon in Italy. 25% of couples who marry in Italy return to celebrate their first anniversary, 47,6% return after 2 or years, and 12,4% return after 5 years. 90% of couples suggest to their friends to get married in Italy. This proves that international weddings are an excellent vehicle to retain tourists and thereby to increase even general tourism.

The Amalfi Coast (favored by 38%) comes second behind Tuscany (43%) that has been a favorite for decades. They are followed by Umbria (8%), Venice and the Lakes (6%). The regions that are just recently getting more popular are Puglia and Sicily. The first who love getting hitched in Italy are the Brits, followed by the Americans and Canadians, the Russians, the Japanese and the Chinese.

"The wedding business should not be underestimated or considered frivolous,” Suita Carrano, General Manager of Sposa Mediterranea Network and coordinator of the Observatory has explained, “It is a significant economic sector. The data speak clearly. All institutions should be more aware of this phenomenon as it can help increase tourism and all other sectors. The potential is immense and international celebrities such as George Clooney,who married in Venice, could become efficient testimonials.”

The locations that couple seem to prefer are unique hotels, not necessarily luxurious hotels but places that have something special to offer, followed by historical villas and castles. “There are also requests for more rustic locations,” Carrano continued, “such as agriturismos (a farm designed to also receive guests), masserias (a masseria is a country estate found in the region of Puglia), cellars, and unknown borghi (old towns).” Some planners, such as Slow Dreams, can even arrange an "armada" of boats to one of  HYPERLINK Italy's most secluded and dramatic cliff surrounded beaches.

Italy has often been called the country of love, as it is  beyond doubt such a romantic getaway, not only because of its beauty and romantic views but also the Italian lifestyle. Italians love romance, even their songs are all about love, and people from all over the world are welcome to enjoy a piece of that.

The Italian Cultural Institute had its second appointment os the series “American authors and their ties with Italy.” Foreign authors are invited to speak about their personal connection to Italy that is often poured into their work. The series was launched with the testimony of Indian-American writer Jhumpa Lahiri, and it continued with Egypt born writer Andrè Aciman.

André Aciman was born in Egypt in a French-speaking home where family members. He is the author of the memoir Out of Egypt (1995), and of two collections of essays, False. 

Papers: Essays on Exile and Memory (2000) and Alibis: Essays on Elsewhere (2011). He has co–authored and edited The Proust Project (2004) and Letters of Transit. 

He is also the author of four novels, Call Me by Your Name (2007), Eight White Nights (2010), Harvard Square (2013), and of the forthcoming Enigma Variations. also spoke Italian, Greek, Ladino, and Arabic. He grew up in a family of Jews of Turkish and Italian descent that was thrown out of the country when he was only fifteen. 

That's when they moved to Italy first and then to New York City. Aciman is currently distinguished professor at the Graduate Center of City University of New York teaching history of literary theory and Marcel Proust's work. He previously taught creative writing at New York University and French literature at Princeton University.

The biographical Out of Egypt, won a Whiting Award and it has been described as a “richly colored memoir that chronicles the exploits of a flamboyant Jewish family, from its bold arrival in cosmopolitan Alexandria to its defeated exodus three generations later.”

The novel Call Me by Your Name is, for now, the only one set in Italy and it narrates a boy's erotic coming-of-age at his family's home on the Italian Riviera and during a trip to Rome. 

Rome is the Italian city that welcomed Aciman and his mother for five years after they were forced to leave Egypt because of anti-semitism. Through the years Aciman had studied Italian with a private tutor originally from Siena but despite his studies he was not totally fluent. He identified with being French even though his father had bought Italian citizenship and his family had Italian roots in Pisa and Livorno. 

“We arrived in Naples as refugees,” Aciman explained, “I immediately hated it and I didn't understand a single word. My mom was relying on me to translate what was being said but I couldn't. On top of that we were welcomed with remarks about being Jews. We left on that same day and we went to Rome.

I instantly hated it too and felt that I did not belong there. I attended an American school and my only contact with Italy and Italians was on the bus I used to take to and from school. After classes I'd get home, close the curtains because I didn't even want to see the outside, and started reading.”

But little by little Aciman's resistance started to crumble: he discovered museums, the city's squares, music... and by the time this contamination was taking over, they moved to New York. “I immediately hated New York too,” Aciman confessed, “but here's where I started falling for Italy, the Italy I was reading about in the books of the romantics like Keats, Shelley and Byron. And a visceral relationship that is mostly imaginary took over against my will.”

Aciman travels to Italy twice a year and goes back to all the same places, dragging his family with him despite their complaints. “I am always disappointed by what I see but I just love it,” he explained. 

When asked by the Institute's director, Giorgio Van Straten, what he loves about Italy, Aciman answered “Not the food, as I have never been a foodie, or the wine. I love the silence in the afternoon in Rome and the Italian temperament. Italian people have a unique friendliness that nobody else has. And when I am there I immediately become more friendly, even my voice changes when I speak Italian. 

When I am here, instead, I become more ironic. I also love the scenery, especially by the water. I used to take the train to go up to Liguria and I would get lost in a dream world along the coast... I would see castles and mansions that I have not seen anywhere else, yet it reminds me of somewhere else. A place in my imagination or memory. It's a love like no other. I don't know why but Id I did, I'd stop loving it.”

The appointments with “American authors and their ties with Italy” will continue: in April it will be David Leavitt’s turn and in May, Rachel Kushner's.