With his 1994 Cannes hit Caro diario (Dear Diary), Nanni Moretti, already a big star in Italy, achieved international acclaim as one of the most distinctive filmmakers in contemporary European cinema. Representing that particular title with great success, The Sales Company is hoping for a repeat with La seconda volta (The Second Time), in which Moretti both takes the lead and co-produces for Mimmo Calopresti's debut feature.
After Caro diario, Moretti and his associate Angelo Barbagallo at Sacher Film were looking for a film to produce, in line with their practice of alternating Moretti's own projects with those by other directors.
The script for La seconda volta, written by Calopresti with Heidrun Schleef and Francesco Bruni, had already obtained article 28 - the equivalent of advance on receipts - when Sacher Film came on board. The resultant film, which was released in Italy in October last year, became the company's most successful theatrical performer to date, and now makes its international bow at the festival.
La seconda volta is set in Turin, where university professor Alberto Sajevo (Moretti) has a chance encounter with Lisa Venturi, played by Valeria Bruni Tedeschi. The storyline about their developing relationship is informed by the fact that, some 12 years earlier, Lisa had attempted to kill the professor in a terrorist attack. An interesting irony underlying Tedeschi's stellar performance is that she herself fled Italy in the 70s for reasons connected with terrorism.
In the film, Alberto has survived with a bullet lodged in his skull and, although he recognises her immediately, Lisa has no idea who he is. Thus begins a cruel game of cat and mouse as the professor starts to plan seemingly casual encounters.
They start seeing each other on a regular basis and Lisa continues to give the impression that she is just another ordinary working girl. For his part, Alberto pretends to accept the pretence, even though he is fully aware that she returns every night to her prison cell where she is serving a 30-year sentence.
Alberto is trying to find some answers to questions that have obsessed him for years, but perhaps there are no answers.
Other producers shied away from the project, arguing that the public would not want a film dealing with the subject of terrorism. Moretti, however, proved to be a far more sympathetic audience. "He said he liked the script and we talked about ways of directing the film, not about the tastes of the public," recalls its director.
Moretti was attracted to the way in which Calopresti had dealt with the still politically sensitive themes of the film. "Political films often lose all cinematographic ambition," he explains. "In this case, terrorism was only a point of departure, and I especially liked the fact that no use was made of flashbacks.
"In this kind of story, there often tend to be flashbacks that are either too literary, didactic or just superfluous Here, the past is very important, but it is a story about the present with characters who are alive today and who carry their past and ours within them, not behind them."
Calopresti confirms Moretti's analysis. "The film is a commentary on our times, not on the past," he says, arguing that the film has little in common with the tradition of Italian political cinema. Indeed, La seconda volta is more of an auteur film, with Calopresti's contribution very much in evidence, despite the powerful presence of his mentor.
Calopresto, whose background lies in social documentaries dealing with some of the themes reprised in this film, pays homage to the latitude afforded to him by Moretti. "Nanni is someone who has great freedom with regard to the cinema, and I wanted him to allow me the same scope," he says. "Of course, he is a great filmmaker yet he still allowed me to make my own mistakes and choices without interference."
As Moretti himself points out, "Angelo and I did not create Sacher in order to make films in the manner of Moretti. There is no question of me imposing my tastes and sensibilities on another filmmaker but rather, when I produce his film, I accept him and the project as they stand."
The result, according to critic Umberto Rossi, writing in Moving Pictures' European Film Reviews, is "an important, sad and profoundly moral picture, examining the conscience of a people, a piercing and necessary inquiry which has been delayed for far too long."
Nick Thomas
Prod Co: Sacher Film, Banfilm, La Sept Cinema, in collaboration with RAI Uno and Canal+
Prod: Nella Banfi, Nanni Moretti, Angelo Barbagallo
Dir: Mimmo Calopresti
Scr: Heidrun Schleef, Francesco Bruni, Mimmo Calopresti
Ph: Alessandro Pesci
Prod des: Giuseppe Gaudino
Costume: Lina Nerli Taviani
Music: Franco Piersanti
Editor: Claudio Cormio
Cast: Nanni Moretti, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Valeria Milillo, Roberto De Francesco
Running time: 80mins
International sales: The Sales Company
