email print share on Facebook share on Twitter share on LinkedIn share on reddit pin on Pinterest

PRODUCTION Italy

Salvatores: "My bad father, who teaches hate with love"

by 

A rainy, desolate landscape in the North of Italy is the setting for Gabriele Salvatores‘ hotly-awaited new film, As God Commands, based on the 495-page novel of the same name by Niccolò Ammaniti, who co-wrote the screenplay along with the director and Antonio Manzini. On his second screen adaptation with the Oscar-winning filmmaker -- the first was the acclaimed I'm Not Scared [+see also:
trailer
interview: Gabriele Salvatores
film profile
]
In 2003: Ammaniti explains, "We decided to use only the key characters".

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

They are Rino (Filippo Timi), the bad father, his son Cristiano (newcomer Alvaro Caleca), and his mentally retarded friend Quattro Formaggi (Elio Germano). The result is a Shakespearean threesome: Rino, the wounded animal who "teaches [his son] hate with so much love" (in Ammaniti's words) then Quattro Formaggi who plays the role of the Fool, elf-like but given to sudden bursts of rage. The three drift around identical houses all in a row, factories, shopping malls, and into the woods, losing their souls and getting mixed up in a horrendous crime.

"I find that Ammaniti's novels possess an ancestral dimension, an archetype that goes well beyond a portrayal of Italy today by way of the noir genre," Salvatores claimed during a press conference this morning in Rome. "On the one hand, all the figures show that 80% of all crimes are committed within the family: love turns dangerous. On the other, I felt moved by a Latin sense of pietas for these characters.”

The result is high drama, achieved with long tracking shots in the rain and mud, interrupted and reassembled in the editing; lean, fast-paced dialogue; moments of silence; and rapid-fire monologues by the three protagonists with quite complex characters to play.

Produced by Colorado Film and Rai Cinema in collaboration with the Friuli Venezia Giulia Film Commission, the film is distributed by 01 Opens December 12th.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

(Translated from Italian)

Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.

Privacy Policy