Virzì returns to Livorno for La Prima Cosa Bella
Twelve years after Ovosodo, Paolo Virzì returns to his native city of Livorno, to tell the story of a mother and her children that spans 40 years.
La Prima Cosa Bella (“The First Good Thing”), written by Virzì with Francesco Bruni and Francesco Piccolo and produced by Motorino Amaranto (run by the director and his brother), Indiana (founded in 2005 by Gabriele Muccino, Marco Cohen and Fabrizio Convito) and Medusa (which will also distribute), seems a departure from Virzì’s latest films.
"This time, less society and current events, and more family. In fact, I feel more defenceless," Virzì told daily paper La Repubblica from the film’s set.
The stellar cast includes Stefania Sandrelli, as the mother Anna today, while Micaela Ramazzotti (the director’s wife), will play young Anna, specifically in August 1971, when she is voted Miss Summer at the local beach. As sensual as she is naïve, Anna will be rejected by her husband and separated from her beloved children (who as adults are played by Valerio Mastandrea and Claudia Pandolfi), who will feel the weight of such a lively and unconventional mother their entire lives.
Costumes are by Oscar winner Gabriella Pescucci (The Age of Innocence, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) and supporting actors are Marco Messeri, Dario Ballantini and Paolo Ruffini.
"Behinds its defiant and bubbly crust, Livorno is mean and spiteful," said the director. "There is another Livorno, not the one of the Communist workers but of the middle class that dreams of the icons of those years. In the midst of which the main character will have to stand up to a social and masculine environment of squalor and cowardice".
(Translated from Italian)
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