Tamong the Italian films in competition, on the third day of the Venice Film Festival 2023 it is gone Finally dawn by Saverio Costanzo (at the cinema on December 14). The story is that of the young woman Mimosa (Rebecca Antonaci), Roman girl of the Fifties, very shy and awkward, already given by the family as betrothed to a certain Angelo, who is “kidnapped” by a star of the time.
The film opens in theaters: with Mimosa, his sister Iris (Sofia Panizzi) and his mother Elvira (Carmen Pommella) locked in a room watching a war film. Dream and reality merge when, on their way out, they meet a guy from Cinecittà who invites Iris – decidedly attractive – to audition at Cinecittà. An audition, she says, without fail. It will happen instead to experience a real adventure (not only on the set) will be Mimosathe resigned sister, first rejected (even if she didn’t want to participate in the audition), later taken as a favorite extra by Josephine Esperanto (Lily James). Movie star with an Egyptian setting.
After filming, the girl receives an evening dress as a gift from Esperanto, and an invitation to get into the car with her and her friends (including the star Sean Lockwood – Joe Keery). A night will ensue, for some magical points of view, for others of terror, of encounters “never in a lifetime” like the one with Alida Valli (played by Alba Rohrwacher) along with those with slimy characters: the living room sharks that hang around the stars. A fleeting night, full of events, thrills and humiliations, which will change forever the girl who keeps asking poor Willem Dafoe (Rudi Priori) to come home.
Joe Keery (Sean Lockwood), Rebecca Antonaci (Mimosa) and Willem Dafoe (Rufo Priori). (01Distribution).
Finally dawn in Venice 80: the adventure of Mimosa
The cast of the film arrived in Venice without Lily James, Willem Dafoe and Joe Keery, who were absent due to the SAG-Aftra strike. Present Rebecca Antonaci and Saverio Costanzo. Who at the press conference explained what he meant to tell this story of reality, news and ghosts through a female character. «It was a natural choice, it’s usually more fun and as a boy I learn a lot. Then the initial idea was to tell the murder of Wilma Montesi (aspiring actress whose body was found on Capocotta beach in 1953; a murder which, historically, has corresponded with a loss of innocence in public opinion, both due to the indifference towards the possible perpetrators, all authoritative, and due to the indifference he came upon the fact, ed.)».
The structure of the film then changed, continues Costanzo: «Then I wanted to create a character who would follow in Montesi’s footsteps but who would have a different outcome. Mimosa survives in Finally dawnalso thanks to the example of Montesi».
Rebecca Antonaci and Saverio Costanzo at the phocall of “Finally l’alba”. (Getty Images)
Rebecca Antonaci’s choice
«A fortune», Saverio defines it. As Adam Driver (Hungry HeartsLuca MarinelliThe solitude of prime numbers). «I met Rebecca on the set of an advertisement, I was very impressed with his concentration. She had struck me because she was able to emptiness in the confusion. In addition, she was very curious ».
What did it mean for Rebecca to play this girl? «I found a great closeness with Mimosa, a simple girl. I had a great time working with the whole cast, even though I had a great responsibility. it’s my first important film.’
But why bring up the Montesi case now? «In the meantime, working on the eras allows us to look at the facts without sociological facts in our times, then we are not so different. The 1950s were certainly simpler, but the Montesi case was an archetype. Because Italy is not a pleasant country for a woman, nor a dangerous country for a girl. Every time there was a similar event, call it femicide or not, I returned to the images of Wilma with her stockings pulled down, lying on the beach».
Lily James is Josephine Esperanto. (Getty Images)
The reconstruction of Cinecittà
«I’ve always made literary adaptations, so the whole structure of my films was always in the hands of the writer. I don’t know all the reasons around well Finally dawn: I had collected a great deal of material, yes, around Cinecittà and much more; Wilma was moreover an actress close to the place. And there, the light is particular, the extras that are us, are our faces, our ways and expression. It seemed to me the ideal place to shoot part of the film».
Does cinema still hold up well as an engine of fantasy compared to the new entertainment means of production? A question that Saverio says he cannot answer as he is still a man of the twentieth century: «Training through images has always existed, today there are more things, streaming, etc. Cinema has that extra fire, that propulsive thrust, which even the most beautiful series have in a different expansion than a film. I don’t know if for a 15-year-old boy cinema has the centrality of Mimosa in the Fifties, probably not. but this does not mean that that type of experience is not the one that still gives the most satisfaction today».
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