Andmanuele Crialese moves the Venice Film Festival with his The immensity (in cinemas from 15 September) in which he tells the very personal story of Adrianaa very young girl who feels like a boy .. Adri is none other than the director himself. “It’s me,” Crialese tells reporters that I’m back behind the camera after eleven years.
It took a long time to reach the right maturity and tell one so intimate story. It’s the movie about one transitionon one slice of life, about a family of the 70s. “A story that I have always wanted to tell,” said the director. To do it Crialese he relied on the skill of the young interpreters (one above all Luana Giuliani in the role of Adri), of Penélope Cruz and Vincenzo Amato.
The immensity: the plot
Rome, 1970s. Clara (Cruz) and Happy (Beloved) have a family of three children: Gino, Diana and the twelve year old Adrianawho prefers to be called Adri because it feels deep inside male, dresses like a boy and has a boy’s cut. Reject his identity. An attitude that is not accepted by the father. Over the months we follow the report of Adri with his brothers, with friends, with the mother, the only one who supports herand with a girl to whom he will give his first kiss.
The immensity follows closely Adriin a very delicate phase of his life, but also his family and especially Clarawith a marriage shattered and with a husband violent and treacherous. “I was inspired by my childhood – says the director – and I also tried to find a key that was not self-referential, but universal”.
Penélope Cruz and the innate sense of motherhood
The Spanish actress once again relies on an Italian director after making two films with Sergio Castellitto (Do not move And Came to the world). This time it is Crialese which transforms it into a little crazy mother. “Her being a little over the top and she too a child is to try to survive the life she is in – says the actress awarded last year in Venice with the Volpi Cup – she is a woman trapped in the house, who has no escape plan and who through the TV screen dreams and tries to escape from reality with her children ».
Clara she’s not a crazy mother, “she is oppressed and can no longer pretend to feel good – continues the Cruz – many women are trapped in their homes pretending. They do it to survive. These are terrible stories. This is one of the important themes addressed in the film“. Clara is one of the many mothers played by the actress. “It’s not a coincidence – she says – I have a strong and innate maternal sense, I’ve always wanted to become a mother. And today my family is the most important thing“.
Penélope Cruz. (Photo Angelo Turetta)
The immensityPenélope Cruz and Raffaella Carrà
Don’t expect a depressing and gloomy movie. The character of Clara carries with it a charge of positivity in its family microcosm. Crialese builds some dreamy curtains that will amuse you. The immensity opens right on the notes of Noise by Raffaella Carrà with the four who improvise a ballet while setting the table. There is also Penélope Cruz complete with a blonde wig that sings Prisencolinensinainciusol of Celentano together with Adri. “Raffaella Carrà she is a woman who has never gone out of fashion, who has always been true to herself while changing – she declares Crialese – is an icon ».
Penélope Cruz and Luana Giuliani. (Photo by Angelo Turetta)
Crialese: “I don’t deny woman, she is the best part of the man I am”
“It’s not a movie about coming out – the director is keen to specify – it is an autobiographical film ». And he has about the side of a woman that he has started to hide since childhood he reveals: “The woman is the best part of the man I am. The woman is not disowned, she is alive within me and she too is the object of my desires ».
“Female characters are the most interesting ones and that really interest me – continues the director – it is very difficult for me to describe a man, out of boredom. What about me then? I am and I am not, I want to remain like this, to be and not to be ».
iO Donna © REPRODUCTION RESERVED