03/05/2011

What happens when an unemployed blue-collar man discovers that a bottle of whiskey placed in a shoe is worth hundreds of thousands of euros? The answer comes from director/artist Giovanni Albanese: He starts forging works of art and selling them at exorbitant prices.

In his new film Senza arte né parte [+see also:
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One thinks immediately of the 1956 film The Band of Honest Men, in which the legendary Totò and Peppino out of desperation, and between hilarious gags, start printing counterfeit money. Yet Senza arte né parte has little of the purely farcical. "The only thing it has in common with that film is the band’s innocence,” says Salemme, "everything else is more similar to a certain kind of English cinema, like Ken Loach and his social comedies.”

The film moreover is ruthlessly ironic about the language of the art world and the exclusive circles of galleries and millionaire collectors. "I believe that people in the art world will react well to this film because my characters treat the works with great respect,” explains the director, who also teaches at Rome’s Fine Arts Academy. "But this was a chance to shine a light on art pricing, which for some works has become crazy, and at times one witnesses truly strange situations at auctions".

Produced by Lumière & Co. and RAI Cinema, in collaboration with the Apulia Film Commission, Senza arte né parte is being released domestically on May 6 on 130 screens by 01 Distribution.

(Translated from Italian)