The love for Rome and Italian cinema (from Fellini to Sorrentino, who presented him with the award), but also the importance of not abandoning our responsibilities as citizens, to avoid the risk of people “against human rights” coming to power. These are among the themes that Javier Bardem touched on at the Rome Film Festival, where he received the Lifetime Achievement Award, on the occasion of the presentation of «Being Loved», the film by Rodrigo Sorogoyen, already competing at Cannes.
To journalists who asked him on the red carpet what he loved about the capital, he replied: «What can I tell you about Rome that hasn’t already been said? Its beauty represents the extraordinary things we can do when we use our imagination to create something good.” However «then there can be Mussolini, if we abandon our responsibilities as citizens and give power to those who are absolutely against fundamental human rights. But this is also Franco, and this is Hitler, and this is Netanyahu.”
Returning to the cinema, the actor said that his favorite Italian film is «Eight and a half. I watch this film every year. And every time there is something new.” For Bardem «cinema is important because it offers us a way to connect more and more with each other». According to him, we live in a «time of disconnection, in which we feel we are in contact with each other, but we are distant. We create bunkers around us, losing contact with each other.” Instead, with cinema «you sit in a dark room with your friends, your enemies, and you live, not only observe, but you live an emotional experience, a journey. It’s a wonderful thing.”
To those who ask him if he would like to work with an Italian director, he replies smiling: “of course, who wouldn’t want to?”. The theme also returns to the theater with Paolo Sorrentino, in introducing it to the public: “Every time I meet him he tells me: “we have to make a film together” which is probably not true, but he recites this line in such a beautiful and passionate way that I am happy and I believe it”. The Spanish actor reciprocates the esteem: “One of the films that made the greatest impact on me was The Great Beauty”.
In «Being Loved», which will be released in Italy on November 12th by Movies Inspired, Bardem plays a famous director who decides to entrust the leading role of his new feature film to his actress daughter (Victoria Luengo) with whom his relationships have been difficult for years. The actor, speaking about it to the audience before leaving the stage, defined it as “a beautiful, profound, courageous film”.
But in Rome it was also the day of «The Roses of Marrakech», the third film by Ginevra Elkann, full of poetry and memory and which tells of loneliness and friendship. A garden in Morocco full of wonder, beauty and order. Walls against the chaos of life and what is outside while inside the rich villa the no longer young and ill owner, Isabelle (Fanny Ardant), a true lady who cares about etiquette, knows the wine to drink and is surrounded by a lot of servants and has as her only reference, after her daughter no longer comes to visit her despite her state of health, the devoted housekeeper Leila (Nisrin Erradi) who meticulously safeguards the immutable order of the place. But the surrounding walls are often not enough to really block everything and so when Leila’s sister reminds her of a responsibility she cannot fail to fulfill, the tranquility of this paradise begins to fill with shadows.
«My character has made the choice of beauty – says Ardant – that of living in a gilded cage, but at the same time she has not completely forgotten all the ties with the family with which she is unable to have normal relationships. This is its ambiguity. In Leila he finds an equally generous woman and that affection that her family no longer gives her.” And the actress underlines the choices of her character: «I love people who seek detachment, who no longer want to be part of the beautiful world, but who at the same time create beauty. Because I believe that beauty is made to console.”
Rome Cinema: Jenna Ortega lights up the red carpet
Crowd and hundreds of delirious fans at the Rome Film Festival for Jenna Ortega. The global star of the Netflix series “Wednesday” lit up the red carpet of the capital, stopping for a long time on the catwalk to give selfies and autographs to the public. The actress arrived in Rome together with director Taika Waititi to present the new film “Klara and the Sun”, released in theaters with Sony starting from 22 October. Intercepted on the red carpet by AGI, the actress answered a question about her transition from the dark tones of Wednesday to the sensitivity of the new film and on her affinity with marginalized characters. «I love playing outsiders because I think everyone, at some point in their life, feels this way. It’s simply human nature,” Ortega said. «Being able to explore this condition, whether it’s a very positive character or a very dark and gothic one, is always a lot of fun and a great pleasure for me». When asked how she reacts to being told she’s “too young” to do something, the actress responded confidently: “Everyone is too young. We’re all doing things for the first time. You make mistakes, sometimes you’re ashamed of them, but sometimes you learn and draw strength from them.” The new film deeply touches on the topic of artificial intelligence and emotional support. When asked about the possibility that young people today end up trusting AI more than humans, Ortega defended her peers: «I actually have a lot of faith in the new generations. It’s difficult to make generalizations and I can’t speak for everyone, but I believe there is a rebellious spirit and a strong will to correct course compared to what previous generations have done. I think the kids will be fine.” Finally, reflecting on the power of art and acting in giving voice to emotions, he concluded: «Sometimes I struggle to express myself in words. But there was always a character, or maybe a soundtrack, capable of understanding exactly what I was feeling without ever having to explicitly say it. It’s something that has always moved me deeply and has greatly influenced the way I live my life.”
Deva Cassel in the dark tale of Immortal Love
At the Rome Film Festival on the day of Javier Bardem and Fanny Ardant, all eyes in the end are on her, Deva Cassel, doubly artistic daughter (father Vincent Cassel and mother Monica Bellucci), twenty-two years old and with a girlish smile. She is the absolute protagonist of ‘Immortal Love’ by Alexandre Castagnetti, soon to be released in cinemas with 01, where she plays Anastasia Marescu, a Romanian dancer who enters the prestigious Opéra Garnier to perform a ballet taken from ‘Orfeò, a legendary and cursed composition attributed to the mysterious Phantom of the Opera. Anastasia, now a prima ballerina, will have to face an impossible love story with a mysterious pianist (Julien De Saint Jean), on a journey between reality and legend. All inspired by Gaston Leroux’s novel, ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ and filmed in the Paris Opera House. For Deva Cassel, however, dancing is a sort of destiny, having played Angelica Sedara in the Netflix miniseries The Leopard. «But this time it was classical dance and I started from scratch. Three months of hard training and then a very good stunt double – says the model/actress in Rome -. I had to learn to have excellent synchronization with my body, you could say I discovered it with this film. However, the first time we shot a dance scene at the Opera I didn’t feel like dancing in front of an audience, I was very stressed. Then I said to myself, I’ve done so much training and I have to show that I’m up to it.” While on absolute love he says with great shyness: “It’s nice to believe that it exists, my parents taught me that to love you need to listen to the other and that the true gift is to love more than to be loved.” Why move from fashion (she was a testimonial for Dolce Gabbana) to cinema? «Meanwhile, the world of fashion is much more competitive than that of cinema and makes you immediately understand that the body is first and foremost a work tool, but it’s still just a matter of wearing clothes. In cinema, however, it’s not just about wearing clothes in motion, there’s also music, there are words, all things that allow me to show more of myself. In short, it’s a completely different thing.” Finally, director Alexandre Castagnetti, of Italian origin and with an opera singer father, says: “Of course in some way we gave a feminist version of both ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ and ‘Orpheus’ which we invented out of nothing. In the latter case the myth of Orpheus changes completely, the heroine becomes Eurydice and no longer Orpheus” ‘Immortal Love’ is produced by Fulldawa Production – SND in co-production with Umedia with the support of uFund, and with the participation of Disney+ and Prime it also has Romain Duris, Laïka Blanc-Francard and Guillaume Diop in the cast.