30/05/2006

A "little billionairess" (as she was called by Teresa Ciabatti, the screenwriter/writer of the book on which the film is based) is the main character of L'estate del mio primo bacio [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (lit. “The Summer of My First Kiss”), the directorial debut of Carlo Virzì, to be released June 1 on approximately 45 screens by 01 Distribution.

It is the second half of the 80s. Camilla is a 14 year-old girl on vacation in Argentario. Her mother (Laura Morante) is a dissatisfied and depressed woman trying to write her autobiography. Her father (Andrea Renzi) is always away for work (though he is actually having an affair). Camilla falls in love with Adelmo, a local boy hired to clean their pool, who is too old to notice her.

Produced by Cattleya in collaboration with RAI Cinema, the youth-oriented comedy follows in the wake of the highly successful Night Before the Exams, but it does not seem to have the same evocative force of the 1980s and equally sympathetic characters. "We wanted to bring back the collective imagination of those years, during which I was an adolescent", said the director, brother of the famous Paolo, who wrote the screenplay together with Ciabatti and Francesco Bruni.

It was producer Riccardo Tozzi’s idea to adapt the novel Adelmo torna da me. He then asked Carlo Virzì to direct, "for his capacity to find the right actors. He’d already done that for his brother Paolo’s film, Caterina in the Big City, which we produced, recognizing the feelings that corresponded with the young protagonist ".

In effect, meeting the 16 year-old Gabriela Belisario is like speaking to the film’s Camilla. "We’re both defiant and pedantic, we don’t immediately come across as nice, due to our insecurities". To get the idea across, she uses a line from the film: "You, poor boy, are a normal boy to me".

There is an interesting aspect to this, however: L'estate del mio primo bacio is almost identical to a 1957 film by Alberto Lattuada, Guendalina, an Italian/French co-production that won the David di Donatello Best Director Award and a Nastro d'argento for Best Screenplay, written by Zurlini, Benvenuti, De Bernardi and Lattuada.

(Translated from Italian)