VENICE 2008 Competition / Italy
Nostalgia and psychological horror in Avati’s Giovanna’s Father
Love and friendship are the "background noise" (in the director’s own words) to the films of Pupi Avati, who turns 70 in three months. On the Lido, the director presents Giovanna’s Father, which is adapted from the eponymous novel published by the filmmaker on the occasion of the Venice Film Festival. The film explores a father’s love for his daughter and the failed love of a wife and mother.
The father of the title – played with the usual skill by Silvio Orlando – is a jaded history of art teacher in Bologna in 1938 (two years before Mussolini’s decision to enter the Second World War), whose only desire is to make his awkward and shy 17-year-old daughter Giovanna (Alba Rohrwacher) happy.
He never achieves his desire, indeed his attempts only hasten the tragic outcome to which the girl is doomed. Giovanna is a victim of the painful and unresolved relationship with her beautiful mother Delia (an icy Francesca Neri), who is excluded from the father-daughter bond and infatuated with their attentive neighbour (Ezio Greggio in his first acting role), a fascist police officer.
The brutal murder of her classmate causes Giovanna to end up in the hell of the mental hospital: the young girl regresses to a childlike state, and her father as well, while the mother distances herself from them both, with poverty and then the War playing their part.
Avati shoots beautiful sepia images of his native city, reconstructing down to the smallest detail (at Cinecittà studios) the house where he lived as a child and skilfully directing – with a very linear script – this chilling psychological horror film.
"If the protagonist seems disturbing, then I am too", the director explained to journalists at the Venice Film Festival. "I didn’t experience this tragedy, but I have a daughter who, at certain times in her life, has had difficulties in her relationship with the world, and I too tried to stay by her side, with energy and affection, even lying to her in order to make her happy. I’ve poured into this film everything I know, both good and bad, about being a father".
The film – produced as always by the director’s brother, Antonio Avati, in collaboration with Medusa and Sky – will be released by Medusa on September 12 on 250 screens. Meanwhile, fingers are crossed for the results of the Venice competition.
Nostalgia and psychological horror in Avati’s Giovanna’s Father Love and friendship are the "background noise" (in the director’s own words) to the films of Pupi Avati, who turns 70 in three months. On the Lido, the director presents Giovanna’s Father, which is adapted from the eponymous novel published by the filmmaker on the occasion of the Venice Film Festival. The film explores a father’s love for his daughter and the failed love of a wife and mother.
The father of the title – played with the usual skill by Silvio Orlando – is a jaded history of art teacher in Bologna in 1938 (two years before Mussolini’s decision to enter the Second World War), whose only desire is to make his awkward and shy 17-year-old daughter Giovanna (Alba Rohrwacher) happy.
He never achieves his desire, indeed his attempts only hasten the tragic outcome to which the girl is doomed. Giovanna is a victim of the painful and unresolved relationship with her beautiful mother Delia (an icy Francesca Neri), who is excluded from the father-daughter bond and infatuated with their attentive neighbour (Ezio Greggio in his first acting role), a fascist police officer.
The brutal murder of her classmate causes Giovanna to end up in the hell of the mental hospital: the young girl regresses to a childlike state, and her father as well, while the mother distances herself from them both, with poverty and then the War playing their part.
Avati shoots beautiful sepia images of his native city, reconstructing down to the smallest detail (at Cinecittà studios) the house where he lived as a child and skilfully directing – with a very linear script – this chilling psychological horror film.
"If the protagonist seems disturbing, then I am too", the director explained to journalists at the Venice Film Festival. "I didn’t experience this tragedy, but I have a daughter who, at certain times in her life, has had difficulties in her relationship with the world, and I too tried to stay by her side, with energy and affection, even lying to her in order to make her happy. I’ve poured into this film everything I know, both good and bad, about being a father".
The film – produced as always by the director’s brother, Antonio Avati, in collaboration with Medusa and Sky – will be released by Medusa on September 12 on 250 screens. Meanwhile, fingers are crossed for the results of the Venice competition.
(Translated from Italian)
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