Italian film director Paolo Genovese He has a degree in Economic and Commercial Sciences. He worked at the McCann Erickson Agency for which he filmed over a hundred commercials and after winning numerous awards, he passionately devoted himself to telling stories, first on TV and then on film.
After the success of “Perfect Strangers”, which won the David di Donatello award for best film, he rose to international fame and became one of the most important references in European cinematography. Released in 2016, it has had more than twenty-three remakes made in different countries and now the North American version is being prepared. “The opportunists” would come later, in which he inquired about issues such as morality and the need to judge our behavior. in the recent “The first day of my life”addresses the issue of depression and the need to start over in times of darkness.
In the middle of editing “The Lions of Sicily”, the series that he has just shot for Disney +, he was in our country, on the occasion of the 9th Italian Film Week.
News: What did you want to narrate in your new film?
Genoese: The idea was to have the possibility of starting over when we have hit rock bottom. When we have reached a point of total darkness. It is no coincidence that this happened after the Covid-19 pandemic, just when it happened to a lot of people. I think it was interesting to think about how it can be rebuilt.
News: The story is based on his novel.
Genoese: Yes, because when I had the idea, the need to tell it immediately appeared, without waiting for the long cinematographic, production and rehearsal times. I went to New York, there I locked myself up and wrote the book.
News: Is the protagonist played by Toni Servillo some kind of alter ego?
Genoese: No. He is a metaphorical character who can represent something different for each viewer. He is a person who can simply help us change our perspective in the midst of great difficulty. It can be a brother, a friend, a partner, a mirror where the problems that we are unable to get out are reflected, or God for those who believe in him. He can be anything that lends a helping hand in times of hardship.
News: What resonance did it have with the public when dealing with difficult subjects like depression and suicide?
Genoese: The response was very good because the subject is taboo from a social and religious point of view. It’s something you generally don’t want to talk about. I thought that the public was going to reject it, but I have to say that the response, from the point of view of the collection, which at the moment is decreasing in Italy, has been more than expected. There was great acceptance of criticism and many people who wrote me through Instagram, telling me about their experiences, related to depression, suicide and the desire to start over. In this sense, I believe that the film did good for many people.
News: What is the current situation of cinema in Italy?
Genoese: Right now the situation is not good. There is a 50 percent drop in concurrency and it still cannot be recovered. During the pandemic, people got used to using platforms like Netflix, Prime Video, Paramount or Disney, to watch movies at home. To go to the cinema you have to be an event film, have a very important cast or have won multiple awards. Average movies, not mediocre, are preferred to watch on television. The majority, almost ninety percent, do not manage to raise more than one million euros.
News: Does the film industry have state support?
Genoese: 40 percent is financed with what is called Tax Credits (tax credit that benefits production companies and technical industries). A small film can cost around a million euros, an average film close to three, a large production can cost six. The platforms, on the other hand, are willing to invest much more.
News: How many remakes were made of “Perfect Strangers”?
Genoese: Today there are twenty-three filmed and two in preparation. Thanks to this I entered the Guinness Book of Records with the film that has the most remakes in the history of world cinema.
News: What do you feel when you see that what you imagined is transferred to cultures in places as dissimilar as Greece, Japan, India or Poland?
Genoese: It produces a strange effect on me because the film, my film (remarks), was released in ninety countries. When it is shot again there is a kind of contrast. On the one hand, I enjoy that the film was liked and that they want to shoot it again in other countries, but I also feel something different and the versions I see often don’t finish convincing me. I have mixed feelings.
News: There he referred to the issue of the invasive use of cell phones and social networks. How do you get along with these technologies?
Genoese: I have a love hate relationship like I think everyone does. On the one hand, there is a physiological part that allows us to make contact with the whole world, inform ourselves, communicate and give our opinion. On the other, there is a pathological side that is giving too much importance to replacing real life with a false one. Relationships or links multiply, but without quality. Instead of having few, but deeper and good relationships, we have a lot of relationships, but more superficial. Another aspect that I don’t like is that everyone can be judge of others and of anything. In fact, a new category has emerged which is that of haters or haters when we live in a reality in which affection is most necessary. If this type of category arises, it means that something is not going well.
News: In the networks we are all happy…
Genoese: We are all happy, beautiful and we go to wonderful places (smiles).
News: What is the most beautiful part of making movies?
Genoese: I personally like being able to enter completely different worlds and stories each time. It is in a certain way to be able to live so many lives, to return to childhood, which is the period of life when with fantasy we could be what we wanted. The cinema allows us to be able to recover what we lived during childhood.
News: And the worst or what you like least?
Genoese: I think that having to compare or measure myself with what the public may like or with what the industry thinks they may like. Instead, I think that we must give the viewer, not what they like but what can provoke other things, what can question it. Motivate him in some way and lead him to reflect on new topics. For example, they had proposed me to do a sequel and a series on “Perfect Strangers”, after the success of the first film. I said, “Enough.” We must propose other topics and raise other situations. You have to take risks.
News: Did you get proposals in Hollywood?
Genoese: Hmm, yes. (Doubt) I wouldn’t have to say it yet, but I come from Los Angeles where they asked me to do the version of “Perfect Strangers” in the United States.
News: Other projects that are not based on their stories?
Genoese: Yes, before the pandemic they offered me two scripts, but I didn’t like them.
News: Could you see Argentine cinema?
Genoese: Yes, I really liked “Argentina 1985” and the performance of Ricardo Darín, its protagonist.
News: What advice would you give young film students?
Genoese: One positive aspect of cell phones is that they can be used for filming. There is no need to think about a lot of gadgets or lighting like before. I would tell young people not to worry about the technical part because what matters is the story. It is a craft job that you learn by doing, filming a lot.
News: How do you see the current socio-economic situation in Europe?
Genoese: It is so long to explain that it would be for another interview (smiles).
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