13/04/2007

On April 20, Warner Bros Pictures Italia will release 500 prints of Daniele Luchetti’s new film, Mio fratello è figlio unico [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Daniele Luchetti
interview: Riccardo Tozzi
film profile] (lit. “My Brother is an Only Child”), which might participate in the upcoming Cannes Film Festival (May 16-27).

Riccardo Tozzi of Cattleya, who produced the film with Warner Bros. and France’s Babe, revealed this morning after the press screening that "Cannes selectors really liked the film but it still isn’t clear whether it will be in competition or in the Un Certain Regard section. They will decide in the days to come".

With masterful performances from young actors Elio Germano and Riccardo Scamarcio, the latter who has become an undisputed idol for Italian teenagers, the film is a coming-of-age tale inspired by Antonio Pennacchi’s novel Il Fasciocomunista and covers 12 years of Italian history, from 1962, the year of the Cuban missile crisis, to 1973, the beginnings of terrorism. The main characters are two brothers, sons of factory workers from the Lazio province with opposing political ideologies.

"I kept the easygoing tone of the autobiographical novel", said the director, "which looks at the period with nostalgia and affection and uses comedy to maintain a distance from politics".

Despite the very different tones, one cannot help but be reminded of Marco Tullio Giordana’s The Best of Youth, given that both films were written by the same screenwriters, Sandro Petraglia and Stefano Rulli. However, explains Tozzi: “The first was a middle-class drama and the second a working-class comedy. Here they drew upon provincial life for their inspiration. It marks a return to the Italian tradition, which united popular films with a ‘high’ cinematic language".

(Translated from Italian)