Milanese film director Gabriele Salvatores and producer Maurizio Totti held a screening/press conference for their film "I'm Not Scared" (Io Non Ho Paura) for Italian Journalists in NYC.

They did not receive the welcome they expected as reported by Linda Loshiavo in  Fra Noi, "Fear and Skepticism (Greet 'I'm Not Scared')".

One journalist (rumored to have been Ms. Loshiavo), queried: "Your movie depicts an entire village of Southern Italian adults as criminal, immoral, violent wretches, who abduct and abuse children." "Do we need MORE films that depict the Southern Italians as violent and unethical criminals?

Salvatores flinched, as if to dodge the thorny question or flee the sound of 100 contrary Italian journalists clapping.

Totti, asserted with pride that he didn't want to follow the typical Hollywood formula relying on sequel possibilities or fantasy, but preferred to make a film depicting a small slice of reality.

An eloquent Northern Italian reporter disagreed: But this IS a series-one more dispiriting title about small town miseria. Ma che fantasia! When have you ever visited a village where each and every resident was morally bankrupt?

Totti's feeble response, elicited the Northern Italian critic's further retort "La mafia, la miseria, la poverta" he drawled, quite comically. "Cinema is a powerful representation of a country, of a society. Whoever is cranking out these stereotypes has decided an audience must only want to see la mafia, la miseria.

The critic continued: No wonder when people travel to Sicily they are shocked to discover they have running water. For heaven's sake! Doesn't Italy have a different view of the world to share in moviehouses other than la mafia, la miseria, la poverta?!!

Salvatores and Totti, seemed ill prepared for the onslaught, contradicted themselves numerous times, and gave lame excuses in trying to justify the Negative Stereotyping.

For example, Salvatores claims as an excuse for the "dark" depiction, that he followed the text "faithfully", when in fact the screenplay does not blindly lock-step along with the book.

Further, the screenplay wasn't a documentary, or even based on one event, but was "loosely" based on a series of events that occurred in Italy during the 1970's. Why the necessity to adhere to a "fictionalized" drama??

Then when asked why he significantly changed the novel's climax, he answered, it was because.... it was less expensive.

Salvatores most offensive prounoucement was: "not everything onscreen should be a travelogue, an ad that whitewashes our history."

Not everything should be a Whitewash? REALLY??? I've seen only a Torrent of Negative Depictions, but I'm willing to listen to evidence to the contrary.

My commendations to those 100 Italian Journalists who voiced their Displeasure!!
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FEAR AND SKEPTICISM IN THE BIG APPLE

Fra Noi
By LindaAnn Loshiavo
Page 19
May 2004

Milanese film director Gabriele Salvatores and his producer Maurizio Totti flew to New York City recently for a press conference and screening of their latest film "I'm Not Scared" (Io Non Ho Paura).

Touted as a coming-of-age film akin to the screen adaptation of Stephen King's "Stand by Me", "I'm Not Scared tells the story of the horrors unearthed when a young boy responds to a dare from his chums in the Southern Italian town in which they live.

The appearance of Salvatores and Totti after the screening was greeted by the customarily respectful applause from an audience of Italian journalists.

However, one journalist's question received an even heartier round of applause: "Your movie depicts an entire village of Southern Italian adults as criminal, immoral, violent wretches, who abduct and abuse children."

"Do we need MORE films that depict the Southern Italians as violent and unethical criminals?

Salvatores flinched, as if to dodge the thorny question or flee the sound of 100 contrary Italian journalists clapping. No, he did not see the script in those terms. According to the 53 year old director, he approached Niccolo Ammaniti's cinematic novel as a thriller, a suspenseful narrative that could capture the loss of innocence. Defensively, he pointed out that the children are neither entirely good or evil.

Moreover, he followed the text faithfully, he claimed, since the author himself penned the screenplay based on events that occurred in Italy during the 1970's, when more than a hundred children were abducted.

(The author of the book upon which the film was based, became the youngest-ever winner of the prestigious Viareggio-Repaci prize for his efforts. The book has since been translated into 20 languages, and it's English language version rendered by Jonathan Hunt, has been acclaimed by the Washington Post, The New Yorker, and the San Francisco Chronicle among others.)

"I wanted to show that a beautiful golden wheat field can hide something ugly", Salvatores said. " I offered sharp contrasts: darkness and light, big and small. Visually, this dualism is an invitation to look beneath the surface." His intention, he argued, is "never to commercialize Italy in films," and that not everything onscreen should be a travelogue, an ad that whitewashes our history."

Totti, who founded Colorado Films with actor Diego Abatantuono and Salvatores, added with pride, that a typical Hollywood blockbuster is often conceived as part of a sequel relying on fantasy_ like the "Lord of the Rings", or as a series like "The Godfather"-whereas they set out to make an indie film depicting a small slice of reality.

An eloquent Northern Italian reporter disagreed: But this IS a series-one more dispiriting title about small town miseria. Ma che fantasia! When have you ever visited a village where each and every resident was morally bankrupt?

Defending the film's approach, Tonti (who was born near Ravenna in 1954) explained that they have made films on other subjects but failed to find foreign distributors. " In fact, Italian films are almost always targeted solely to a national market and that's why most have a limited budget," said the producer.

The Northern Italian critic refused to let that pass. "La mafia, la miseria, la poverta" he drawled, quite comically. "Cinema is a powerful representation of a country, of a society. Whoever is cranking out these stereotypes has decided an audience must only want to see la mafia, la miseria.

No wonder when people travel to Sicily they are shocked to discover they have running water. For heaven's sake! Doesn't Italy have a different view of the world to share in moviehouses other than la mafia, la miseria, la poverta?!!

It is quite vexing that Salvatores did not choose to humanize at least one supporting character with a mix of good and bad points, especially since the screenplay does not blindly lock-step along with the book.

The novel's climax, for example, features pigs and a downpour that renders clothing as dark as wine. On screen, the night is dry and swine-less. Why? "Making rain," confessed Totti, "is expensive".

Roman-born actress Laura Caparrotti, who now lives in Manhattan and reviews for American Oggi, mentioned that this reminded her of an Italian version of Charles Laughton's 'Night of the Hunter' in many respects." … the viewer is not allowed to forget that dangerous acts invite consequences. Taking a risk could recast the universe in unforeseen or sinister ways.

Though the film manages its suspense well, jolting the audience a couple of times in classic thriller style, the pace can drag occasionally. Filippo is a disappointment, never permitted to be more than a symbol, not given much to do besides raving about angels and behaving every inch the wild child. And despite a bravura performance by newcomer Giuseppe Cristiano, the ending is a cheat, formulaic in the extreme.

Italo Petriccione's photography dwells on summer soaked buildings and faces, keeping the horizon high in the frame to duplicate the child's point of view, and shuttling back and forth between the view and shuttling back and forth between the view up from the  bottom of the kidnap victim's pit prison's pit prison and the view down from the rim.

"Et in Arcadia ego", wrote Virgil. In other words, don't enjoy the unimpeachable beauties too much because death visits pretty places too.

Humanity, in all its inscrutable complexity, is also present in hamlets and a more nuanced portrait of rural Italians would not have harmed the film's chances abroad.

LindaAnn Loshiavo
nonstopny@aol.com

Fra Noi Chicagoland's Italian American Voice
http://www.franoi.com/