Cristina Comencini's 'Bestia' gets the nod

Italy's Don't Tell in the running for Oscar's Best Foreign film

Italian director Cristina Comencini was overjoyed when she heard that her film, La bestia nel cuore ("Don't Tell") was nominated for an Oscar in the best foreign film cateogry.
"I wasn't expecting it at all," repeats Cristina Comencini to every journalist asking her for a comment. However, she hastens to add, "I had an irrational hunch that we might just make it."
She's obviously overjoyed: for herself, for Italy, and for women. "After Lina Wertmuller, no female director had been selected."
"We made it with very little advertising," she adds; "this movie truly speaks for itself!"
Actress Giovanna Mezzogiorno welcomed the news, brought by Press Agent Saverio Ferragina, with a yell of pure joy in the midst of Piazza Argentina, holding a shopping bag. The Oscar nomination left the protagonist completely overwhelmed. "Of course I yelled! What else should I do? I have a hard time realizing what is happening, how lucky I am. The mere fact of being there, seeing it all..."
Mezzogiorno has a theory explaining the success of this film in the United States. "I believe that the American critics were surprised by a movie that they wouldn't have expected from Italy: a film that broke all conventions, all the archetypes that are used to represent Italians abroad. What struck the jurors is the surprise of a delicate, deeply true film."
Prior to the nomination, the film was screened in Los Angeles at the local Istituto Italiano di Cultura, receiving a warm welcome from its audience.
"Reactions were fantastic," commented director Comencini, who attended the screening. "My movie had already been well received in Palm Springs, but here in Los Angeles it seemed to me that the American spectators liked the story being told even more."
Comencini admitted that she has great emotional investment in this film. "This was a difficult film to make, as I wished to talk about things that are very important for people, where deep and complicated feelings are stirred," she declared following the screening. "When I went to Venice I began to realize that I was entering a big, big world. After that, events simply overwhelmed me."
"Success in Venice was a pleasant surprise: La bestia nel cuore is a film on an important issue, and the constant changes of register are apparently popular," she said.
The choice to send Don't Tell as Italy's official Oscar candidate had a troubled genesis. Initially, the candidate was to be Private, but the movie was rejected by the Academy because it had not been shot in Italian.
"To me, what happened is quite clear," commented the director. "My film was the preferred choice right from the start, but then political infighting developed within the selection committee, with a polarization around extreme positions, where everybody had a flag to wave. In the end, the choice has fallen on my movie, which was what everybody wanted in the first place." Over the years, Italian candidates that managed to win Oscars shared an almost identical vision (historical, poor, Mediterranean) of our country and our people (Cinema Paradiso, Mediterraneo, The Postman), with the lone exception of Life is Beautiful.
According to Comencini, however, La bestia nel cuore stands good chances in the tough competition for the Academy Awards. "I think that Americans have a sensitivity for life's deep truths, which lighten the daily tragedy of living," she remarked. "This way of telling stories about life is a very Italian thing, much liked in the United States."
"My film talks about another Italy. It's no longer the country of tomatoes and sun, but a more modern Italy, where stories are told in a typically Italian character and style," observed Comencini.
During her press conference, after the screening, Comencini was asked for her opinion on the main differences between American and Italian cinema. "American cinema has plenty of money, it's a big industry," she replied. "In Italy, moviemaking is becoming an industry, albeit a small one. The difference can be seen in the stories told; I think that here in America there is a breathless drive to amaze: some times this gives extraordinary results, some times becomes mere convention. Italian cinema, on the other hand, always tries to describe many facets of things, even at the risk of occasionally getting lost in meandering plots."
Comencini was also asked whether she has her own 'beast in her heart.' "The beast in my heart is fear, especially fear of not being self-confident enough," she answered after a brief pause.


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Wanted: testimonies of emigration from Latina
Italian Province creating archive of those who live and work abroad


The letter we publish below was sent by Armando Cusani, President of the Province of Latina, and Fabio Bianchi, Minister of Social Policy of the same Province. The invitation to get in touch with them in order to create an archive on emigration, rich in documents and testimonies, is addressed to all those who emigrated from what is today the Province of Latina.

Dear friends,
We are the public institution representing the territory of the 33 municipalities of the province of Latina, in the Region of Lazio. We wish to hear from people who emigrated from our towns and villages, as well as from descendants of those who left since the 19th century.
We intend to create an archive that will keep documentation of the family, social, and professional history of our emigrants, to allow scholars to study it and schools to visit it, so that future generations may learn that there is a part of the Province of Latina that lives and works abroad. We are proud of them and grateful towards them.
We are therefore interested in getting news from you and finding out anything that might tell us about and testify to the stories, issues and problems encountered in the lands that welcomed our emigrants.
A simple reply form can be downloaded from our Web site: http://www.provincia.latina.it/download/pol_lavoro/emigrati/modulo_emigrati.doc
The form comprises a few questions in Italian. You can also contact us by e-mail: g.bove@provincia.latina.it
This communiqué concerns all emigrants, including those who emigrated in recent years, as well as the descendants of emigrants, from one of the following municipalities: Aprilia, Bassiano, Campodimele, Castelforte, Cisterna di Latina, Cori, Fondi, Formia, Gaeta, Itri, Latina, Lenola, Maenza, Minturno, Monte S.Biagio, Norma, Pontinia, Ponza, Priverno, Prossedi, Roccagorga, Roccamassima, Roccasecca dei Volsci, S. Felice Circeo, SS. Cosma e Damiano, Sabaudia, Sermoneta, Sezze, Sonnino, Sperlonga, Spigno Saturnia, Terracina, Ventotene.
Among all the replies, five people will be selected and invited, on out account, to take part in the conference where the results of this work will be presented; this will take place in Latina within 2006.
All those who will send in a form will receive a free copy of the book with the results of this research on emigration. The book will also include any photographs that the emigrants will choose to send to the Province.
Best regards.

Minister of Social Policy President of the Province
Fabio BIANCHI Armando CUSANI

The form can be obtained from the Web site at http://www.provincia.latina.it/download/pol_lavoro/emigrati/modulo_emigrati.doc or requesting it from g.bove@provincia.latina.it or by calling 0039-773-473-010 or faxing 0039-773-401450 or writing to

Provincia di Latina-Settore Emigrazione,
Dott. Silvestri-Bove,
via Costa, 1
04100 Latina

Publication Date: 2006-02-05
Story Location: http://www.tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=5941