To make up for lost time in our life, as Proust teaches
us, we have two instruments available to us: memory and art. It is the
only way we can give shape to our memories and bring them into the
present. Pupi Avata is a master in that area, and it is always with
much pleasure when he is directing a past he rebuilds and transforms
in a new reality, so shining and true that it intertwines and merges with
the actual experience. Maybe because of this, so as not to influence too
much with his perspective the image of Bologna, his city of origin, ideal
theater for all his stories, that for his external shoots in his latest
work, he has sent the second unit of the crew, his daughter Mariantonia,
also a great director, and his excellent director of photography Cesare
Bastelli.
Cesare Bastelli lives in Bologna and organized the
three-week filming sessions done these past months.
They tell us about their experience.
"The film is a made-for-TV
serial of 10 episodes, a fiction as we say today. There are six films
recounting events in a young couple's lives who met right after the war,
in 1948. They marry and live their whole life together. So, as the title
says: A Marriage, a long union through 50 years of Italian history, but
mostly Bolognese.
From the first episode taking place in 1948 to the
last one taking place today, the story of the two protagonists -- he is
the child of a middle-class antiquarian on Via Castiglione, she is from a
lower social class, living on Via Valdonica, more of a working-class
street -- unfolds throughout their long engagement, their marriage,
the birth of their children and grandchildren, all intertwined to the
historical events that took place over the years. In fact, as a background
to their personal life, we witness major and minor events characterizing
half a century of Bologna's life. From the heavy snowfall of 1956 to the
victory of the championship in 1963, from the student revolt in 1977 to
the terrorist bombing of the Central Station on August 2nd, 1980, and here
and there, events, big or small, intertwined in the life of so many
families, giving a cross-section of a society that has changed from 1948
to the present day."
A marriage, a story which is also that of Pupi
Avati's parents, Mariantonia's grandparents who, as she recounts, has a
close and conflicting relationship with the city.
"My idea of Bologna
is experienced with contradictory feelings because in that city I had
wonderful experiences as well as very difficult ones. Bologna is the
memory reflected by the life of my parents, when they first saw each
other, their love, my birth. It also represents situations of difficult
crisis, so much tears and years of torment. Bologna means the man I
married and whom I love, his family and friends. I met him in
Perugia, but obviously the fact that his origins led to mine (I had moved
to Rome as a child) reassured me somehow. Even today, when I come to the
city where I was born, I experience a profound yearning, a sensation of
warmth and serenity."
Like her father, and many artists with their own
vision of the world, Mariantonia no longer finds underneath the Bolognese
porticos and squares the contact with her own past. "The Bologna of my
fantasy does not correspond to the actual one, not only because it has
become a frenetic city, but most of all because I am the one who changed
in regards to my recollection of things. Today, I prefer to live the
contemporary dimension, made up of true friends and my parents whom I am
always so pleased to see. It is a city that has a lot to offer, it is so
stimulating, and its urban development was well done I think. But it no
longer has the characteristics of the past. The dimension of the small
town, welcoming and peaceful, was lost over the years."
So, Avati
decided to reconstruct all inside and part of the outside shots in the
Cinecittą studios, which gave him the opportunity to change fittings and
streets adapting them to the passage of time. But for sentimental reasons
he really wanted to have part of the outside shoots done in the actual
places of his youth. And, rejecting the possibility of filming outside of
the city,
They were really nice, they had a right to get
upset, but they did not, on the contrary. Even for Mariantonia, Via
Castiglione was a pleasant surprise.
"The shoots done on Via
Castiglione are the exterior scenes of the home of the protagonist, Flavio
Parenti. Son of an antiquarian, used to living among beautiful things, he
lives on one of the most typical and fascinating streets of the centre of
the city. We even made up a shrine dedicated to the Virgin, to
whom the father of the young man turns to, interpreted by Christian
De Sica. A sacred image that comforts him in the difficult moments of
his life, but also a figure of affection to thank every day for only
existing. The location is beautiful, even if there is a lot of traffic.
But, fortunately, the City policemen have helped us quite a lot." With
protagonist Micaela Ramazzotti in the role of Francesca, the cast is also
composed of Bolognese Andrea Roncato in the role of Avati's grandfather,
Francesca's father, Katia Ricciarelli in the role of the aunt and 140
other actors and extras. A true fresco that will bring memories belonging
to each one of us. And everything painted with the colours of a city, says
Bastelli, "that even if it lost a bit of its velvety yellows and reds
still offers the beauty of a soft, enveloping light."
The crew will
come back to film the last shoots during the summer,
concludes Mariantonia Avati. "Shootings went really well, I am very
pleased with what we have done and with the collaboration of the hundreds
of people who were with us during the preparation and during the actual
production. I was sad to leave the city, even knowing that we would soon
come back to shoot scenes that take place during the spring and the
summer. I am looking forward to that."