Genovese and Miniero: The “night” is still theirs
This March 19, Buena Vista International is releasing the new film from the Lucisano “factory”, Paolo Genovese and Luca Miniero’s Questa notte è ancora nostra (“This Night is Still Ours”), on 450 screens. The film was co-produced 50/50 by IIF-Italian International Film and the Walt Disney Company Italia (WDCI) for €3.5m.
“Our dream”, says Paul Zonderland, senior vice president and general manager of WDCI, “is to make Italian films that can complete on the international market. This is why we are intensifying our role not only in distribution but above all in production, uniting the Disney brand, a leader in family entertainment, to the equally admired creativity found in Italy”.
The ideal company for this goal was IIF, run by Fulvio and Federica Lucisano. “Working with Disney is a point of pride,” say the producers. “It means being able to count on the strengths of a major studio, as well as on the professionalism of a team receptive to an open exchange. All decisions in making the film were made together”.
Known to audiences in Italy and beyond for A Neapolitan Spell, Genovese and Miniero owe their first film to the esteem of Federica Lucisano, who several years ago suggested they direct Night Before Exams “We refused, we had no idea it would become so successful,” say the duo.
Successful indeed: the above title became the highest-grossing debut film in the history of Italian cinema, launching its star, Nicolas Vaporidis. The young actor here plays an aspiring musician who works in a funeral home and falls in love with a girl from Rome’s Chinese community.
“We were inspired by European comedies on integration such as East Is East, Bend it Like Beckham and Jalla! Jalla!,” say the directors. “We tried to make an ensemble film that was gentle and light”.
It is not a farce, however, as Vaporidis cares to point out, referring to the traditional “commedia all’italiana”. “Actors like [Alberto] Sordi, Mastroianni and Totò often acted in these kinds of films, which may not offer a cross-section of society but still have important things to say about the world in which we live,” he says.
(Translated from Italian)
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