Official Selection - Competition 2013 / Viva la libertà / Italy 2013
It’s coming up to election time and the country’s biggest opposition party isn’t doing so well. Its leader Enrico Oliveri can’t take the pressure, and he disappears. Fearing a scandal, the party’s éminence grise uses the politician’s look-alike brother to fill the gap. Giovanni Ernani is the spitting image of his sibling, but is diametrically opposed in character. Thanks to his open-minded approach and forthright expression, the party starts to win popular support.
Enrico Oliveri, leader of the main opposition party, is depressed: the election is coming up and current polls suggest things aren’t going his way. Unable to face the situation, Enrico ups and leaves one night without a trace. The party leadership tries to keep it hush-hush, and so éminence grise Andrea Bottini approaches his look-alike brother. Although Giovanni Ernani is the spitting image of Enrico, he is diametrically opposed in character. In The Empty Throne, the successful novel on which the film is based, Roberto Andò compared two different mentalities that symbolize two differing approaches to life and, therefore, to politics. Such is the starting point for this comedy portrait of the querulous Italian political scene and the flagrant attributes of its ruling classes. The picture thereby aligns the director with the political movie tradition made famous by the Taviani brothers, Marco Bellocchio, Bernardo Bertolucci and Elio Petri. Thanks to the marvelous performances by Toni Servillo (playing both brothers) and the rest of the cast, we are treated to an entertaining film that raises more questions than it can ever answer.
93 min / Color, DCP
International premiere
Director Roberto Andò
/ Screenplay Roberto Andò, Angelo Pasquini podle novely / based on the novel by Roberto Andò
/ Dir. of Photography Maurizio Calvesi
/ Music Marco Betta
/ Editor Clelio Benevento
/ Producer Angelo Barbagallo
/ Production Bibi Film
/ Cast Toni Servillo, Valerio Mastandrea, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi
/ Contact BiBi Film Tv, Rai Trade
Roberto Andò (b. 1959, Palermo) began as a writer and screenwriter. As a movie director he debuted with Undated Diary (Diario senza date, 1995) in which he combined news reports and dramatic elements with interviews featuring cultural figures. Then followed The Prince’s Manuscript (Il manoscritto del principe, 1999), a feature portrait of the author of The Leopard, Italian writer Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. He next shot the mystery melodrama Under a False Name (Sotto falso nome, 2004) and the family oriented Secret Journey (Viaggio segreto, 2006). He also directs for the theater and, above all, the opera. In 2008 he came out with the essayistic novel Undated Diary (Diario senza date), devoted to the city of Palermo. The year after publishing The Empty Throne (Il trono vuoto, 2012 – Premio Campiello award for Best Debut) he turned the novel into Viva la Liberta.
BiBi Film Tv
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Italy
Phone: +39 065 740 141
Fax: +39 065 713 346-4
E-mail: [email protected]
Rai Trade
Via Umberto Novaro 18, 001 95, Rome
Italy
Phone: +39 063 749 8469
Fax: +39 063 751 6222
E-mail: [email protected]
Roberto Andò
Film Director
Lia Pasqualino
Film Crew
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