13/03/2008

“Being directed by your son is the best thing that can happen to a father,” says Nino D’Angelo, even though he initially wanted no part in Una notte [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (“One Night”), the feature debut by Toni D’Angelo.

“I was afraid of overshadowing him, that I’d be the only one in the limelight,” admits the popular singer-songwriter, who in the film (set, as the titles states, between sunset and sunrise) plays Raffaele, a good-natured taxicab driver with an honest face from a side of Naples too honest often eclipsed by stories of the city’s high crime.

Riding in the taxi are four men and a woman who were inseparable in their youth but whose lives have since taken separate directions. Says the director (co-screenwriter with Salvatore Sansone, one of the leads): “In writing the characters I tried to capture some of the aspects of the my friends’ personalities, and I invited them to play certain parts of themselves.”

“Starting, for example, with extremes, which are not so evident in me,” admits Luigi Iacuzio, “but only because I hide them well. And melancholy as well”. Discovered in Francesco Patierno’s Pater familias, the actor (who here plays a cocaine-addicted lawyer with a passion for jazz) also wrote and performed the film’s closing film.

Music plays an important role in Una notte, which is only to be expected given the leading man. He adds something of himself as well, such as a story about Miles Davis, who we’re told in the film, loved Neapolitan melodies and one singer in particular. “I was that singer,” says D’Angelo. He discovered my music in a taxi, listening to the radio. Seeing as how my records couldn’t be found in shops, he bought pirated cassettes!”.

Lensed (in 35mm, a counter-current choice for a low-budget debut) by Rocco Marra, the film was shot in 20 nights and edited in five weeks by Letizia Caudullo. Self-produced for under €200,000, it is being released on March 14 by DI.ELLE.O on five screens.

(Translated from Italian)