Cannes

The entire film cast of Reality, the film by Matteo Garrone presented this Friday in Competition, answered questions from the journalists.

Matteo Garrone, about the genesis of Reality:
"After Gomorrah, I was looking for a subject which would live up to the mark, with at least the same force, and which would be as surprising and as sound as Gomorrah, if not more. Little by little, I realised that I was heading for disaster. One day, I came across this small story which takes place in Naples, which became the basis for Reality. I told myself that I could relate it in the form of a tale."

Matteo Garrone, about the tone of his film and the similarities with great Italian comedies:
"We shot this film without any desire to criticise. We didn't want a story which recalled great Italian cinema. We were just out to tell the story of the different characters. We can nevertheless see Reality as a tribute to great Italian film-makers. I hope that I have managed to not copy them and to have kept my own point of view. Alexandre Desplat pointed out that if we compare Reality with Fellini's films, we will be reminded more of his first feature films. I think that the only thing we have in common is that he was also talking about television."

Matteo Garrone, on the choice of Naples as the film set:
"We chose the city of Naples because there are still a lot of contradictory places. We kept this element when choosing the actors for the film - they are all totally different."
 
Matteo Garrone, and the importance of reality TV on the Italian television scene:
"Italian TV programmes have slightly changed. As far as we are concerned, we wanted to show television as an eldorado, as a kind of heaven on earth. Reality TV is a place where many people believe that they can change their life and fate."
 
Matteo Garrone talks about his desire to make his film like a fable:
"We tried to make it like a fable by playing with the light and music. The vast majority of the film sets were entirely rebuilt. There is a subtle boundary between dreams and reality in this film, even though we made sure that we didn't forget the thread of the story. The great challenge of this film was to create a link between dreams and reality."
 
Interview directed by BP