Stefano Consiglio - Evviva Giuseppe

Evviva Giuseppe is a film about the life and the many valuable talents of Giuseppe Bertolucci: film, theatre and TV director; writer and poet. It is told through the voice of his father Attilio (who refers to the “painful privilege” of being a younger brother), of his older brother Bernardo (who tells a story of heart-breaking sweetness about his birth), the witness accounts of friends and colleagues: Lidia Ravera, Mimmo Rafele, Marco Tullio Giordana and Nanni Moretti as well as the memories of some of his favourite actresses, Stefania Sandrelli, Laura Morante and Sonia Bergamasco. The story is told with the help of Gian Luca Farinelli (the director of the Cineteca di Bologna), and the participation of Fabrizio Gifuni, Emanuele Trevi and Aldo Nove (in whose texts we can find some of Giuseppe’s thoughts). Roberto Benigni’s final monologue was written as a homage to his now departed old friend. Giuseppe’s physical presence and voice are found in interviews, backstage footage, debates and especially in his last and moving theatre performance: A mio padre – Una vita in versi (To my father – A life in verse), in which he tells of the anxiety and joy of his relationship with a father-poet who had made of him the topic of his lyrical production.

How can one talk about such a multifaceted artist, someone of such human richness as Giuseppe Bertolucci, to whom I was so close for such a long time? This is the first question I asked myself when I decided to address this film project. The answer came while thinking about another Bertolucci, Attilio, the father-poet, who chose Paul Klee’s words: “Follow every beat of his heart” as an epigraph to his famous essay, Poetica dell’extrasistole. And this is what I tried to do, looking among the materials (both filmed by me and stock footage) I had to work with. It was an emotional path more than a biographical/critical one, a story told through similes and contrasts, interwoven with free associations.

PRODUCTION 1: Célestes Images
Via Peri, 4
6900 Lugano CH – Switzerland
Tel. +41 (0)91 923 23 07
samanta@celestesimages.ch

PRODUCTION 2: Verdiana
Largo Otto Marzo, 9
43124 Parma – Italy
Tel. +39 0521 967088
verdianafilm@gmail.com

PRODUCTION 3: Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna
via Riva di Reno, 72
40122 Bologna
+39 051 219 42 14
gianluca.farinelli@cineteca.bologna.it
www.cinetecadibologna.it

OTHER COPRODUCTIONS: With the support of Regione Emilia Romagna - Film Commission

WORLD SALES: The Palindrome SA
Via Peri, 4
6900 Lugano CH – Switzerland
00 41 (0)91 923 23 07
alm@thepalindrome.ch
www.thepalindrome.ch