30/04/2025 - The actor-director plays Tony Chichiarelli, a figure at the heart of 1970s Italy’s most baffling mysteries, in the Netflix film directed by Stefano Lodovichi and produced by Cattleya

Pietro Castellitto in Il falsario (© Lucia Iuorio/Netflix)

Filming has now wrapped in Rome on Il falsario, the new Netflix movie directed by Stefano Lodovichi (Aquadro [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], The Guest Room [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and recently at the helm of the TV series Christian [+see also:
series review
series profile]), produced by Cattleya (of ITV Studios) and toplined by Pietro Castellitto. Recently seen playing Riccardo Schicchi in Diva Futura [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], having authored The Predators [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pietro Castellitto
film profile] (scooping Best Screenplay in Venice’s 2020 Orizzonti line-up and the David di Donatello for Best Emerging Director) and Enea [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pietro Castellitto
film profile] (in competition in the 2023 Venice Film Festival), the Roman actor and director plays Antonio Chichiarelli - otherwise known as Tony – who was a criminal with links to the Banda della Magliana gang and who was at the heart of Italy’s most baffling mysteries in the ‘70s.

Il falsario is scripted by Sandro Petraglia (the proud owner of five David di Donatello awards, not least for The Best of Youth [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Romanzo criminale [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Michele Placido
film profile]) in collaboration with Lorenzo Bagnatori (Prima della fine - Gli ultimi giorni di Enrico Berlinguer), both of whom also authored the film’s treatment.

We’re in Rome in the 1970s when Tony arrives in the capital with nothing but a talent for painting and a dream of becoming a great artist. But his thirst for life, the power of fate and perhaps history itself all lead to him achieving two extraordinary feats: he’s responsible for one of the biggest heists ever carried out in Italy (involving 35 billion lira in 1984) and for the most successful fake news story, communicated in the Red Brigades 7th press release, dated 18 April 1978, announcing the "suicide" of the leader of the Christian Democracy party, Aldo Moro. It was a move thought up by Steve Pieczenik, the American expert called in to help the then Home Secretary Francesco Cossiga resolve the Moro kidnapping, to set a trap for the Red Brigades. But who was Tony Chichiarelli? We only found out after his murder in 1984, when investigations revealed a life full of drug deals and fake art, blackmail and violence, the Red Brigades, the Banda della Magliana and the secret services.

Alongside Castellitto, the cast stars Giulia Michelini (Fasten Your Seatbelts [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ferzan Ozpetek
film profile] and recently seen in Volare [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]), Andrea Arcangeli (Like Sheep Among Wolves [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), Pierluigi Gigante (Public Disorder [+see also:
series review
series profile]) and Aurora Giovinazzo (Freaks Out [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Gabriele Mainetti
film profile] and recently seen in Diamanti [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]), together with Edoardo Pesce (awarded the David di Donatello for Best Supporting Actor in Dogman [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Matteo Garrone
film profile] and currently touring Italian cinemas in I Saw A King) and Claudio Santamaria (awarded the David di Donatello for Best Supporting Actor in They Call Me Jeeg [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
interview: Gabriele Mainetti
film profile] and recently seen in the box office champion Madly [+see also:
film review
film profile] and in The Negotiator [+see also:
film review
film profile]). 

(Translated from Italian)