Moretti sustains he's "not Moretti-esque" in Quiet Calm
"These things happen – in life and in films,” said Nanni Moretti conclusively, on the scandal provoked by his sex scene with Isabella Ferrari in Antonello Grimaldi’s Quiet Calm [+see also:
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film profile], in competition at the upcoming Berlinale and out in Italian theatres on February 8 by 01 Distribution.
The scorching sequence that has stirred gossip and anticipation even ended up on YouTube. "I haven’t seen it on the Internet, I still don’t know how to use a computer. I think the scene works, and I don’t even remember how we shot it," added the actor-director in perfect Moretti fashion.
In fact, "Morettization" is all journalists could talk about at this morning’s press screening in Rome. Main character Pietro Paladini (Moretti) borrows obsessions, tics and taboos from Michele Apicella, the character the Italian director created and embodied 32 years ago in I Am Self-Sufficient. "I don’t know what Moretti-esque is or isn’t…but I don’t like how it sounds", he said in defending himself. Moretti wrote the screenplay with Laura Paolucci and Francesco Piccolo from Sandro Veronesi’s eponymous novel.
The story about a man who loses his wife just as he saves another woman from drowning in the sea and shares his pain with his 10-year-old daughter – while in his office a power struggle has broken out – could easily be reminiscent of the grieving and characters from The Son’s Room [+see also:
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film profile], yet Quiet Calm sets itself apart for the complexity of the events and its nuances.
Nevertheless, the anxiety-ridded humour that has made all things "Moretti-esque" a generational emblem overwhelmingly permeates each scene. "I felt like I was supporting all the other characters," commented Moretti, who made room for wonderful performances by Valeria Golino, Alessandro Gassman, Isabella Ferrari, Blu Yoshimi and high-calibre French actors Hippolyte Girardot and Denis Podalydès (as well as a magnificent cameo by Roman Polanski).
(Translated from Italian)
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