06/10/2011

"I would like to stress that the film is Italian, written, directed and produced by Italians". It is with this clarification that the press conference opened with Paolo Sorrentino (photo), in Rome today to talk about his latest feature film, This Must Be the Place [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Paolo Sorrentino
film profile]. After the acclaimed participation in the competition of the Cannes Film Festival last May (see the news and the interview), the latest efforts from the author of Il divo finally reaches national cinemas on October 14, in 300 copies distributed by Medusa. "It is always said that Italian cinema does not sell much abroad", the Neapolitan director continued, "this film has been sold in the entire world, only China is missing".

Produced by Indigo Film, Lucky Red and Medusa, coproduced by France and Ireland, with support from, among others, the MEDIA Programme, This Must Be the Place is the happy result of a good quality method of production, which allowed for the participation of an American star such as Sean Penn, while keeping a characteristic European creative freedom. "We obtained a European budget and this was a guarantee of independence for us" stated the producer Nicola Giuliano of Indigo Film, "it would have been easier to rely entirely on a big American studio, it would have been harder to guard our autonomy".

The film does look to the US, however, apart for the fact that it stars several American actors and is shot for a great part over the Atlantic, for a possibly important aim: the Oscars. ''In December it will be out in technical terms for eligibility to the Oscars", said Lucky Red’s Andrea Occhipinti, "the distribution deal with Weinstein is recent, the campaign budget is being discussed''. And on the possibility of filming in the US again or, on the contrary, to come back and tackle more Italian subjects, Sorrentino, who defines working on This Must Be the Place as a "luxury holiday" in comparison with Italy’s complex mysteries explored in Il divo [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nicola Giuliano
interview: Paolo Sorrentino
interview: Philippe Desandre
film profile], states: "Italy’s reality is always full of novelties, it is a full reservoir for those who do our work. Italian cinema is destined to become more important than it is now, when it will be able to afford it ".

Photo: Pietro Coccia ©

(Translated from Italian)