10/06/2010

What will remain of the lively vulgarity of Beach House, Sergio Citti’s cult film of 1977, in Tutti al mare (“Everyone to the Sea”), the debut feature by Matteo Cerami, currently shooting on the coast near Rome?

Producer Gianfranco Piccioli and screenwriter, Vincenzo Cerami (who wrote the script with the director, his son) are the same as the first time around. They’re shooting on the same beach (at the Castel Porziano Lido), and there will even be a cameo by Gigi Proietti, who was part of the motley and cosmopolitan crew of the original (that included Jodie Foster, Catherine Deneuve and Ugo Tognazzi).

Everything has changed since then: society (the filmmakers call it "bulimic", whereas in the portrait of the petit bourgeoisie of 30 years ago the "pangs of hunger" could still be felt) as well as cinema. Case in point: today it would be unimaginable, moreover for free, to put together the cast like that of the first film.

However, the director swears despite his respect for the original, he very much looked ahead. "Nothing seems to happen in this film, yet everything happens", he says. In the film, a beach kiosk (run by Marco Giallini) serves as the crossroads for various lives: including the owner’s mother, who is grumbles crabbily at her caretaker (Ilaria Occhini, ready to repeat her successful role of Mar Nero [+see also:
trailer
film profile]); a popular TV show host (Anna Bonaiuto); and a suicidal man (Ennio Fantastichini) who still has a lot of wisdom to impart.

The ensemble comedy (with over 30 characters) promises to be both tender and bitter in depicting these tragicomic characters that the Ceramis, however, don’t deny "the prospect of salvation".

Produced by Filmvision for €2.5m (of which 20% came from RAI Cinema and €500,000 from the Ministry of Culture), Tutti al mare, is in the fourth week of a seven-week shoot. The release date has not yet been set, but the film is expected to come out in autumn of this year.

(Translated from Italian)