11/10/2005

"Neither sanctimonious nor ideological. But it touches the heart." This is how Roberto Benigni defended his eighth film as a director, The Tiger and the Snow. Suspended between realism, fantasy and the sublime, the exploits of enamored poet Attilio show us that life is beautiful even in the midst of war and that what’s important is never giving up.

"It’s a love story, on the power of emotions, which is the most subversive kind there is. In the end, this little man, sitting on a barber’s chair with a flyswatter in hand, is waging his own personal war in Baghdad, while outside it’s Hell.
“I realize that there are modern documentary-like films that aim at the head. My film aims at the heart and tears it open it. It enters the subconscious and the soul because it is against war. It is not a cloying film, it’s also brutal, because there is violent death. I don’t claim to be Aesop, but I want to distract and move people, because art and cinema comfort us. There is both comedy and tragedy, parts that make you laugh, and parts that move you. Seeing a beautiful love story isn’t sanctimony, it’s force without ideology."

The main character is a poet, a man who lives in a dream but is full of innocent energy.
"It’s one of the rare films in which the main character is a poet! A poet who lives like everyone else, who teaches his daughters how to find words and put them together. His work isn’t easy, it requires time. I remember when I was working on the screenplay of The Little Devil. Federico Fellini asked me if I didn’t want to try writing it with poet Andrea Zanzotto and called him up right then and there. I asked Zanzotto: How long does it take you to write, maestro?!' And he said, 'Sometimes it takes me eight or nine months to find the right word.’ Poetry requires enormous work."

The two poets meet against the backdrop of a terrible conflict. Each reacts in his own way. The Iraqi poet Fuad, who decided to leave Europe and return home, says: “The only thing uglier than winning a war is losing a war.” He goes into a mosque then kills himself.
"Poets often kill themselves during wars, it’s always happened, sensitive people can’t bear the vulgarity and senselessness of war. My character Attilio’s desire to live is almost desperate, it’s frightening. He’s guided by love, which is a crazy emotion, it tears you apart, it turns your world upside down, it’s spasmodic and overpowering."

Although set during the war, the film takes no sides on the Iraqi conflict and the American presence. Perhaps we were expecting a more political, more partial tone.
"In Life is Beautiful, the Americans were liberators. Here the poet sees them purely as a presence, he doesn’t judge them. The soldiers are depicted with great pietas, they’re people who find themselves there because they need a job, they’re ‘armed unemployed people,’ as Carlo Cassòla called them. Undoubtedly, they evoke a very, very strong sentiment against war.
“However I believe that a direct discourse against war does not grab the public. An indirect approach has more evocative force. Thus we see the parody of a kamikaze and the paradox of an oblivious Attilio who runs through a minefield."

The script is enriched by wonderful verse, but the poetry is visually encapsulated in the faces of Jorge Luis Borges, Eugenio Montale, Giuseppe Ungaretti and Marguerite Yourcenar. Even the film references are direct. In particular, why did you use images from Sergio Leone’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly?
"The poets are seen in the main character’s dream, they’re metaphorical but recognizable, even those who don’t know them see their beauty, because they’re dream faces, like Tom Waits’ face, beautiful faces of extraordinary people who made us dream! As for Sergio Leone, there’s no need to look for too many meanings, it’s only a narrative device, necessary for the scene in which he meets the woman."

Once again, the leading lady is your wife Nicoletta Braschi, who also produced the del film.
"I choose Nicoletta every time because it seems to me that she best represents the character. I wanted an elegant, stern, mysterious and sweet female lead."

Have you considered showing the film in Iraq?
"I have hope and wish that it will happen. Also because the film was made with the collaboration of Iraqis who loved the screenplay very much."