24/10/2007

Received to boos and whistles at its press screening, Emidio Greco’s RomeFilmFest competition title A Private Man (L’Uomo private) is the director’s first feature since 2002’s The Council of Egypt.

Slow-paced and studious, the plot centres on a law professor (Tommaso Ragno) so private his name is never given, who enjoys professional success and a series of beautiful women, yet is indifferent to the emotions of others and perhaps even his own, as he breaks off a relationship with younger girlfriend Sylvia (Myriam Catania) for no apparent reason.

After establishing his detachment in the first act, the film moves into mystery territory when the man’s phone number is found in the pocket of a dead young man (Giulio Pampiglione), the professor’s student, who followed him and, it turns out, secretly filmed the professor, thus breaking through his closely guarded shell. When the police start investigating, to determine whether it suicide or murder, the private man’s privacy is further invaded.

At today’s press conference, Greco pointed out that it is no coincidence that film’s title has a double meaning, as “privato” in Italian means both private and deprived: “Something is taken from this man when, in trying to preserve his individuality, he discovers a kind of secret documentary made about him, which for the first time almost breaks through his indifference,” he said.

Unfortunately, this indifference and the film’s theatrical, stilted dialogue (complete with monologues both personal and professional, the latter at a conference that makes up the film’s third act) may be what inspired a reaction that was anything but indifferent from the press.

A Private Man was produced by Enzo Porcelli for Achab Film, in collaboration with RAI Cinema, the Turin Piedmont Film Commission and Ripley's Film, the film’s international distributor, and with support from the Ministry of Culture. Istituto Luce will release it domestically on November 2.