30/03/2009

After the dramatic Giovanna’s Father (which won Alba Rohrwacher the Coppa Volpi at the latest Venive fest for Best Performance), Pupi Avati is back in cinemas with Gli Amici del Bar Margherita [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (“The Friends of Margherita Bar”), which springs forth from the joyous memories of his native Bologna of the 1950s.

Taddeo, played by newcomer Pierpaolo Zizzi, is the alter ego of the director’s 18-year-old self, whom everyone calls Coso (“Thing”). "The nickname came from my trouble expressing myself at the time,” admits Avati.

Through Coso’s eyes, we discover the characters that pass through the bar: Diego Abatantuono, Gianni Cavina, Neri Marcorè, Luigi Lo Cascio, Fabio De Luigi, Alfiero Toppetti and Claudio Botosso give life to a universe of men that is both cynical and ruthless but with a tremendous desire for gaiety in a post-war period that was going through the first illusory effects of the economic boom.

The women are depicted with a mix of attraction and misogyny – they are mothers (Katia Ricciarelli), kept women (Laura Chiatti) and easy piano teachers (Luisa Ranieri). But the number one rule at the Margherita is no women are allowed.

"It was a male chauvinist society", said Avati. "But my Margherita Bar was a kind of Pantheon of samples of innocence,” who lives in a web of dreams, adventures and ferocious laughter.

In a cinematic landscape that seems to describe today’s world, Gli Amici del Bar Margherita depicts the past with humour and a light touch (the clubs and repression of strikers by Minister of the Interior Mario Scelba of 1954 are very distant) because, according to the director, "someone must confront the past from the perspective of the present".

Produced by the director’s brother Antonio Avati for DueA Film, in collaboration with RAI Cinema, the film is being released April 3 on 250-300 screens by 01 Distribution.

(Translated from Italian)