“Tall ends sooner or later. Tomorrow we will return to Italy ». The intense festival days for the director of Night exterior, the series that explores the behind-the-scenes of the Moro kidnapping, successfully presented in the Premières sectionare running out.
The work on the new movie, working title is The conversion on the figure of Edgardo Mortara, the Jewish child who in 1858 was removed from his family to be raised as a Catholic under the custody of Pope Pius IX. A story that Steven Spielberg had already worked on for years.
Marco Bellocchio.
But before leaving the Italian Pavillon at the Majestic hotel where for 48 hours he gave interviews to the Italian and international press, Marco Bellocchio still reflects on Night exterior and on the reactions it aroused.
It is always very interesting to understand how time works on the ideas that, in the path of the authors, then lead to the realization of the projects. You worked in this case in a different way than, for example, the story of his brother from the film The eyes, the mouth to the documentary Marx can wait?
Different, yes. Good morning night and Night exterior they are two very different films. Night exterior it is not the integration of the 2003 film. It deals with other things and does it with a much less ideological spirit. Because I realize that ideology weighed heavily at the time, even if I was out of politics when I shot it. But I was surprised by the passionate, sentimental reaction of a large part of the Italian public compared to Good morning night. I don’t know how this film will go, what reactions it will arouse, its story began yesterday.
Fabrizio Gifuni is Aldo Moro. (Lucky Red)
However, there is a different closeness to the characters, the Pope, Cossiga, Andreotti …
But there is no judgment, no Christian understanding, the film does not say “we are all sinners”, there is none of this. The attitude is rather that of looking with understanding at the unhappiness of certain characters, and I am referring above all to Cossiga. But also in Moro. I think of that joke he says to his friend and party mate in difficulty in his marriage: “ours is a mission, you don’t have to hope for domestic life”. Moro lives it differently than Cossiga (kicked out of his marriage bed, ed), has children who are still at home, who console him. But he too is a man who makes himself a fried egg in the evening when he comes back after a day of work, despite being powerful, because his wife does not prepare dinner for him. Moro lives all this with the patience of a Catholic who must do penance. And then there are the Red Brigades … Someone told me that when they sing The International in the film, that would be too celebratory a moment. But, but … among the extras no one knew what it was The International, and some have improvised the chant quite out of tune. And then I said: “Let’s try to do it better if we can” and we put in an accompaniment to give solemnity. “Maybe it’s better if you take that music off,” someone told me. But those were the times when these things happened. It does not mean that I am taking the part of those desperate people who sang The International.
On the other hand, there are those who think that it is against it. Against Moro, against Andreotti …
But it is Moro himself who when he speaks of “absolute evil” makes a precise statement, and it is a statement taken from his memoir. Of course, which I decided to put in the film, and you might ask me: “Why did you do that?”. For my part there is no fury towards Andreotti. On the contrary, I see a man trying to keep himself and the institution he chairs together. It was not my intention to want to offend, strike or express contempt, absolutely.
Margherita Buy as the wife of Aldo Moro. (Lucky Red)
Marco Bellocchio: “neither with pacifists nor with Biden’s party”
His journey, which began with Fists in his pockets in 1965 it is a long reflection on Italy and politics. What thoughts did it lead you to about the present?
Many intellectuals have taken a stand on the war, but I see all my inadequacy on such a big issue. Whether I am in Cannes or at home, I cannot deny that a people have the right to defend themselves and defend themselves brings death and destruction. I cannot side with the pacifists or with Biden’s party. It is a tragedy. And then there are cases, coincidences … I can’t help but think that at this moment of my long life, Tolstoy is more important to me than Dostoevsky. I’m reading War and peace, and first he had read Life and destiny by Grossman, books that talk about global changes, such as what we may be experiencing now.
With a palingenesis or not?
War and peace I read it with apprehension, but calmly, I am not a devourer. Regardless of the outcome of what is happening, victory or defeat, what interests me are the characters, their human wealth. I am not a historian.
Olivier Assayas who will bring the series to the festival Irma Vep, taken from his 1996 film, said: “I took the liberty of doing everything I couldn’t do in the film. This is the time to break the rules ». Is that so?
On the duration of the works the rules are already jumping. Curiosity, the desire to recreate the story of the Moro kidnapping through other characters put me in front of the question of duration. And only at that point the client was found for what I had in mind and it was the client who asked for the shape of the series. A six-episode film forced us to imagine both writing and shooting a style and a look at the characters that was more essential. Keeping everything together in this very long story then came by itself.
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