After winning a Silver Lion in 1994 for Il toro (The Bull), Italian director Carlo Mazzacurati returns to Venice with Vesna va veloce (literally: Vesna Goes Fast). Written by Mazzacurati with the Il toro screenplay team of Sandro Petraglia, Umberto Contarello and Stefano Rulli, plus novelist Claudio Piersanti, Vesna va veloce is an Italian-French co-production between the Cecchi Gori Group and Paris-based Ima Films, which contributed some 20% of the film's estimated US$2.5 million budget.
Shot over nine weeks on location in Rimini and Trieste late last year, Vesna va veloce stars Teresa Zajicková, who makes her screen debut as Vesna, a young Czech woman who emigrates illegally to the promised land of neighbouring Italy. After stealing across the border on a bus she hitchhikes to Rimini and the same evening starts her new life as a prostitute. Occasionally she writes letters home, describing how she has 'made it' and is living life in the fast lane, going to night-clubs, living in a plush apartment and holding down a smart job. The reality is a little different, with freezing nights spent prowling the street for business and taking silent, unknown customers back to her flea-pit of a room. To make matters worse, she runs into organised crime, and gets hurt in a fight and her passport stolen.
But then she meets Antonio, a building-site foreman with no roots or ties. Played by well-known Italian TV comedian Antonio Albanese in his feature debut, Antonio rescues Vesna from some violent gang members and puts her up in his construction yard. Romance blossoms amid the concrete, but Vesna wants money, not love. As winter sets in she decides to leave for the glamour of Milan. Without her passport, however, Vesna is forced to dodge police checks, and the further she goes, the less likely her chance of enjoying la dolce vita.
Although Vesna va veloce has a distinct social realism to it, Mazzacurati emphasises its characterisation. 'This is the story of an individual, not an explanation of a problem,' says Mazzacurati, whose previous credits as director and writer include 1992's Un'altra vita, 1989's Il prete bello and 1987's Notte Italiana. Mazzacurati points out how prostitutes are usually stereotyped as drug addicts, looking more like disturbing ghosts than human beings. Conversely, 'Vesna and her friends are like any other Italian girl,' he says, 'that's why their clients like them. Ultimately the only immoral characters in the movie are the customers who buy what they cannot have without money. Vesna, however, doesn't lose her innocence. She's not dirty, she sells her body with such a detachment that indicates the presence of a deep pain inside.'
To create a character informed by such apparently contradictory ethical strengths and practical actions, Mazzacurati wanted a female lead who he believed could address problems 'which a man would not be able to resolve.' As Mazzacurati explains, 'Vesna has the skills to survive humiliations by turning her fragility into interior strength. This will cost her a lot, and she is probably unaware of it. She's like a child who has to bear such heavy responsibilities that she has neither the time nor inclination to play. She looks at love as a superficial luxury.' He chose Teresa Zajicková to play this virgin/whore character because 'there is something childish and at the same time ancient' about her.
Playing Antonio, Albanese was more used to clowning around as Epifanio in TV and stage shows. It was an important transition, he says: '[Antonio] has a good heart and respects the two immigrants and the young kid working in his team, who appreciate him for his honesty. One of the strong points in Vesna is the attention given to values that we are forgetting; I believe the result is a bitter reflection on humanity and civilisation, a significant snapshot of our present.'
Adam Minns
Prod cos: CGG Tiger Cin ca,
Ima Films Prods: Vittorio & Rita Cecchi Gori
Dir: Carlo Mazzacurati
Scr: Umberto Contarello, Carlo Mazzacurati, Sandro Petraglia, Claudio Piersanti, Stefano Rulli
Ph: Alessandro Pesci
Prod des: Leonardo Scarpa
Costumes: Lina Nerli Taviani
Mus: Jan Garbarek
Ed: Mirco Garrone
Cast: Teresa Zajicková, Antonio Albanese, Silvio Orlando
Running time: 92 mins
Int sales: Cecchi Gori
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