Tfreshly raumatized from passage to a better life of The Italian by Toto Cutugnothe Venice Film Festival 80 has seen fit to fill the unbearable void with The true Italian Salvatore Todaro (played by Piefrancesco Favino), Commander of the Cappellini submarine of the Regia Marina in service during the Second World War.
The monster biopic of Edward De Angelis which opens the exhibition focuses on an episode that took place in 1940, when after a battle with the Belgian merchant Kabalo in the middle of the Atlantic, Todaro decides to recover 26 castaways of the enemy ship condemned to certain death, to land them in the nearest port. A gesture that contravened every safety rule and directive – having to sail on sight for three days – which the Captain justified with a statement that has become legend: “Because we are Italians”.
Piefrancesco Favino and part of the cast, together with the director and Sandro Veronesi, author with De Angelis of the novel based on the film, as well as the niece of Salvatore Todaro, spoke about the film in a private conference. The conversation started from the fact that in Italy there are very few films set on a submarine. In fact, only two cases are mentioned: one released in 1942 by De Robertis and another from the 1950s that touched on the story of Todaro without ever mentioning him explicitly.
Edoardo De Angelis and Piefrancesco Favino. (Getty Images)
«The reconstruction of the submarine took place through the archives of the Navy archive – says Edward. Even if we had to imagine the chromatic part, because the photos were black and white. While in De Robertis’ film there was all the functioning. However, beyond these aspects, for me every adventure works like this: first an emotional inspiration comes, then everything follows, it depends on which story I tell. Todaro showed us what it means to be strong, to be Italian today».
Pierfrancesco Favino: who is Salvatore Todaro
Favino did not know Todaro’s story: «It is a magnificent example of what I always look for in my profession regarding a human being, that is, that it is never one thing. A single adjective, but simultaneously a Catholic and a spiritualist (just like the Commander), in short, not a single thing». He is also capable of disobeying: «and of obeying a more noble law: put the man in a higher position, moreover making the same saving gesture twice more in his career».
Piefrancesco Favino is the “Commander”. (01 Distribution)
When asked if he had asked Salvatore’s family for help with details and particular aspects of empathy, Favino replied that he doesn’t like asking about the real characters he has to play. But the fact that his daughter told him that she had never heard her father’s voice made him very emotional. Instead the granddaughter of Commander, Jasmine, spoke about how the film represents a great happiness, for her and for her mother. A job that was not easy to manage, but with Sandro Veronesi, and then Edoardo and all the others, the adventure, although emotionally heavy, it was a beautiful experience».
Was your grandfather a hero? «I believe that we should all be normal, and perhaps, therefore, all heroes. Gestures like my grandfather’s should belong to everyone».
Piefrancesco Favino is the “Commander”. (01 Distribution)
“Does the political implication of celebrating the fascist hero scare you?”
“It’s a question that’s easy to answer”, says Edoardo De Angelis: «No!». Immediately followed by Favino who added that “Nothing creative comes from fear. You can’t not do something out of fear. My greatest career victories came when I went against the fears that someone might have said something. I should have been afraid of being a mafioso, an anarchist, a politician. In any case, there are those who will see his Buscetta, his Craxi, his Todaro».
Pierfrancesco Favino with Massimiliano Rossi (magnificent interpreter of Vittorio Marcon). (Getty Images)
If the hero on the screen is a super Italian, we might as well ask what it means to be Italian today. For De Angelis it means extending Todaro’s message: «It means carrying 2000 years of civilization on one’s shoulders, welcoming but not rejecting. Enrich yourself in diversity. When Salvatore was asked why he made that rescue, he replied ‘Because I am/we are Italian’. That’s what it means to me today.”
The Venetian dialect
Born in Messina but moved to Chioggia during the Great War, Todaro had acquired a strong Venetian accent. Favino replies as per his usual skill with accents. «We were helped by Mariella Verano, a very good and very generous actress. However, this is not a cadence that brings a lot of warmth, it would have been easier to use a heroic, low and involving tone. It also had to be a pure Chioggiottohowever, we have chosen a middle path, a language that puts you in your place, without immediate warmth. She was also married to a screenplay without a real mother scene, with emotion that they came from below, from the sea».
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