04/05/2011

Just days before the presentation of This Must Be the Place [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Paolo Sorrentino
film profile], in competition at the 64th Cannes Film Festival (May 11-22), director Paolo Sorrentino (winner of the 2008 Jury Prize on the Croisette for Il divo [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nicola Giuliano
interview: Paolo Sorrentino
interview: Philippe Desandre
film profile]) gave a sneak peek into his new film, his life and his career.

“With This Must Be the Place I wanted to use some autobiographical elements as well. And seek out a more essential approach to directing", he said in an interview with the magazine Sette of Italian daily paper Corriere della Sera. "It is about a father-son relationship with numerous gaps, as mine very much was with my own father".

He added: "Until now I’ve used a lot of fireworks in my visuals. I wanted to take a step back and give more room to the authenticity of the characters. I saw the very first film of the Lumière brothers when they invented cinema and they documented their life in their nieghbourhood in Lyon. Those silent images enchanted me with their simplicity, joy, the sense of life they conveyed".

The film’s star Sean Penn (photo) admits: "I look a little like Robert Smith of the Cure, who still today at over 50 has long hair and wears lipstick".

In speaking about his inspirations and where he draws his continue influences, the Naples-born director confessed: "I’m the son of older parents, they had me late. My observation pool, in the period I was growing up, were not my peer but my parents’ peers. Which is why I think I’ve always been outdated, and always fascinated by middle-aged men".

(Translated from Italian)