07/09/2005

The vivid Fausto Paravidino, 28 years old, is full of promise. Already considered a child prodigy of the Genova Theatre, the producer Domenico Procacci brought him to Venice with his first feature film Texas [+see also:
trailer
interview: Fausto Paravidino
interview: Valeria Golino, Valerio Bin…
film profile] (Orizzonti). The opening is fulminating and the editing looks like that of Tarantino or even Roger Avary's for The Rules of Attraction. The film, shot in the heart of the Piedmontese countryside, depicts the stories of the different characters, at first frantic then more thoughtul. Son of Pavese and Fenoglio, still fans of Ed Norton and Kurt Cobain, these young devourers of Saturday evenings must confront the previous generation, a society that came from the agriculture that made today's Italy, the former advocates, unscrupulous small businessmen, fragile people in their forties.

"It's a very Chekovian story with Pinterian dialogues. The result is an endless jump from tragic to comic, while preventing the story from being either a comedy or a drama", says Paravidino on his film written with Carlo Orlando and Iris Fusetti. Somebody even mentioned Altman ("But which Altman?", jokes the filmmaker), but we will have to wait for the next tests.
The cast provides us with a more and more convincing Valeria Golino and a great Valerio Binasco, next to younger actors such as Riccardo Scamarcio. "An occasion to describe a potentially antipathetic character, a bitterly honest woman, who it is difficult to forgive", says Valeria.

According to the producer, Procacci, "the film cost two million euros, a rather low budget" and it has been financed by Medusa. It will be released in Italy on October 7th. "We would have liked to be granted State aids, but we haven't". He then polemized on the Mostra's artistic director: "The film has not been selected in competition, Marco Mueller thinks the festival should not discover new talents. But not taking risks can sometimes be risky".

(Translated from Italian)