Orlando Zurro, played by Michele Placido, has never left his Italian mountain village. At 75, he runs his little farm alone. His wife died a long time ago, and their only child, Valerio, dreaming of other ways of living, emigrated to Belgium at 20. Since then, father and son have not spoken to each other.
Even when they lived together, they didn’t share much: Orlando is a quiet man who keeps his feelings to himself, only making his voice heard when he has “something to say,” as he says in the film. But when Valerio, who is sick, calls for help, it is his face that speaks for him, and displays, in every look, every wrinkle, every breath, all the love he has for his boy.
Presented out of competition at the 40th Torino Film Festival before its Italian release on Dec. 1, “Orlando” starts with this race against time. The main...
Even when they lived together, they didn’t share much: Orlando is a quiet man who keeps his feelings to himself, only making his voice heard when he has “something to say,” as he says in the film. But when Valerio, who is sick, calls for help, it is his face that speaks for him, and displays, in every look, every wrinkle, every breath, all the love he has for his boy.
Presented out of competition at the 40th Torino Film Festival before its Italian release on Dec. 1, “Orlando” starts with this race against time. The main...
- 12/4/2022
- by Trinidad Barleycorn
- Variety Film + TV
Anyone who ever thought that secretive Italian author Elena Ferrante is actually a man hiding behind a female nom de plume is surely dreaming. The deeply realized dynamic between childhood best friends turned frenemies Elena Greco and Lila Cerullo could hardly be conjured from a male gaze. Their riveting, decades-long push-pull is explored across the four novels in Ferrante’s Neapolitan series, which have been adapted into an equally riveting series for HBO. The Italian production now begins a gorgeously wrought second season that vividly recreates 1950s postwar Naples, and the complex relationships among its denizens, all of whom are looking for something more among the ruins.
Director Saverio Costanzo returns to helm the first episode of the new season, lifting from the sequel to “My Brilliant Friend,” “The Story of a New Name.” However, this season he hands over directing duties on two episodes to fellow Italian filmmaker Alice Rohrwacher,...
Director Saverio Costanzo returns to helm the first episode of the new season, lifting from the sequel to “My Brilliant Friend,” “The Story of a New Name.” However, this season he hands over directing duties on two episodes to fellow Italian filmmaker Alice Rohrwacher,...
- 3/16/2020
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
When Paolo Sorrentino needed a new conclave of cardinals for HBO’s “The New Pope,” his specialized casting agent Alessandra Troisi sent a team combing through Rome’s community centers for senior citizens who, she says, are the “biggest reservoirs” from which high-ranking prelates get picked.
For cloistered nuns, Swiss Guards and papal chair-lifters, instead they headed straight for the streets of the Eternal City, where they selected roughly 7,000 people from 65 countries who appear in the flamboyant show’s second series. “All the extras in Paolo’s movies or TV series come from street-casting, rather than being professional extras,” Troisi says. And Sorrentino always wants to know what these people do in real life. “He draws inspiration from this information,” she says.
For another HBO Italian original, “My Brilliant Friend,” based on Elena Ferrante’s best-selling series of Neapolitan novels, casting agent Laura Muccino and her team saw roughly 9,000 kids...
For cloistered nuns, Swiss Guards and papal chair-lifters, instead they headed straight for the streets of the Eternal City, where they selected roughly 7,000 people from 65 countries who appear in the flamboyant show’s second series. “All the extras in Paolo’s movies or TV series come from street-casting, rather than being professional extras,” Troisi says. And Sorrentino always wants to know what these people do in real life. “He draws inspiration from this information,” she says.
For another HBO Italian original, “My Brilliant Friend,” based on Elena Ferrante’s best-selling series of Neapolitan novels, casting agent Laura Muccino and her team saw roughly 9,000 kids...
- 2/13/2020
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
When Saverio Costanzo, the director of HBO and Rai’s “My Brilliant Friend,” started to plan how he would depict the grand but gritty city of Naples — one that’s so vivid in the imaginations of millions of Elena Ferrante readers, he quickly decided that the working-class neighborhood at the core of her four Neapolitan novels had to be fictional.
“Our starting point was always the fake city,” he says, noting that precisely because no other city in Italy has such a strong identity, keeping the right distance from Naples was what enabled him to represent it so intensely.
The drab ’hood called Rione Luzzatti was reconstructed on the grounds of an abandoned glass factory in Caserta, about 20 miles north of Naples, a roughly 5-acre converted space that’s become among the largest sets in Europe. Production designer Giancarlo Basili and local craftsmen built many of the story’s most...
“Our starting point was always the fake city,” he says, noting that precisely because no other city in Italy has such a strong identity, keeping the right distance from Naples was what enabled him to represent it so intensely.
The drab ’hood called Rione Luzzatti was reconstructed on the grounds of an abandoned glass factory in Caserta, about 20 miles north of Naples, a roughly 5-acre converted space that’s become among the largest sets in Europe. Production designer Giancarlo Basili and local craftsmen built many of the story’s most...
- 1/18/2019
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.