PRODUCTION Italy
Stijn Coninx films in Apulia, Depardieu on set in Abruzzo
by Vittoria Scarpa
19/09/2012 - On 17 September in Apulia, in the Foggia province, filming got under way for Marina, an international coproduction, directed by Belgian Academy Award nominee Stijn Coninx. The film, coproduced by Eyeworks Film & Tv Drama by Peter Bouckaert (Belgium), Orisa Produzioni by Cristiano Bortone (Italy), and Les Films du Fleuve by Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne (Belgium) is being supported by Apulia Film Commission. It is the first production to be financed by the Apulia International Film Fund, a unique and innovative Italian fund aimed at supporting audiovisual, cinematographic and television productions from Europe and beyond (read the news story).
With Luigi Lo Cascio and Angela Finocchiaro in the main roles, the film is set in 1948 in a small southern Italian village. The story is based on a musician named Rocco Granata, known for having composed the ‘Marina’ song. Alternating between Italy and Belgium in the 1950s, a time where many Italians emigrated to northern Europe for jobs in coal mines, the film focuses on the epic story of a man who manages to make his dreams come true thanks partly to the extraordinary musical revolution going on in those years.
Meanwhile in Abruzzo, filming of a comedy started this Monday. Gérard Depardieu and Carolina Crescentini are the stars in Niente può fermarci which is directed by Luigi Cecinelli. Produced by Angelika Vision and coproduced by Rai Cinema, filming is ongoing at the Semivicoli Masciarelli Castle (inhabited by Depardieu’s character) in the Chieti province. The cast is further made up of young actors Emanuele Propizio, Mariachiara Augenti, Vincenzo Alfieri and Federico Costantini. The tale is one of friendship, adventures and summer romances with four youngsters traveling from Italy to Ibiza, passing through the French countryside.
Further north in the seaside town of Follonica in Tuscany, Daniele Luchetti, the director of La nostra vita [trailer] started filming for his latest cinematic endeavor on Monday September 17 too. Storia mitologica della mia famiglia, will star Kim Rossi Stuart and Micaela Ramazzotti, as well as German Martina Gedek (The Lives of Others [trailer, film focus]) and, for the first time on screen, children Samuel Garofalo and Niccolò Calvagna. The film, written by Sandro Petraglia, Stefano Rulli, Daniele Luchetti and Caterina Venturini, is being produced by Cattleya with Rai Cinema, coproduced with French Babe Films and distributed by 01 Distribution. Filming will take place over nine weeks, in between Rome, Follonica, Milan and the Camargue region in southern France.
(Translated from Italian)
