Untitled - Ellipsis

MAIN FESTIVALS AND AWARDS
December 2011: Turin “Under-18 Film Festival” (Sottodiciotto Film Festival) – Presented in
the Panorama section
November 2011: 34th Festival du Film Italien de Villerupt - Competing
October 2011: 29th Annecy Cinéma Italien - Competing. Benedetta Gargari awarded
with Best Actress Award.
September 2010: Winner of Fiuggi Family Festival Prize – 67th Venice International Film
Festival
SYNOPSIS
Maledimiele is the story of Sara, a 15-year old girl who falls ill with anorexia. It is not the story of
an anorexic.
Sara leads a double life: the up-front one, where she plays the role of a good and diligent girl
apparently without problems, and a secret one, made up of constraints, self-discipline, and
strict rules to force an unattainable ideal weight on her body.
In the beginning, nobody seems to notice anything wrong: neither her parents nor her close
friends realize the evolution of her disease. Sara manages to conceal her habits: forced food
abstinence, runs in the park up to exhaustion, hours and hours spent training at the gym,
lunches and dinners cleverly hidden in the trash container in front of her house. At the same
time, Sara builds her "room of secrets” in a self-storage building, where, with some furniture
taken from her old house, she creates a lounge where she can relax and act undisturbed.
As Sara loses weight, she feels stronger and stronger, more and more powerful and invincible.
Everything seems to proceed smoothly until the girl faints during a school trip. Henceforth, her
problems with food, which have remained invisible till then, become evident to everybody.
DIRECTOR’S NOTES
Maledimiele is a film based on the story of Sara, a fifteen-year-old girl who, slowly yet
unavoidably, falls into the depths of anorexia.
Each narrative block is subdivided into and highlighted with a number indicating the
protagonist's weight. The sequence of numbers leads the viewer, step by step, into the
evolution of the disease and makes him get its very mental dimension, while avoiding any
voyeuristic complacency.
In the beginning, the girl wants to lose weight and fit her perfect size, but she loses control of her
fasting and forces all of her thoughts, dreams and emotions to stay under its rule. The purpose
of physical training is to exhaust energy and calories, while the mind has to devise any possible
tricks and ploys to avoid ingesting or to expel food, and human relations are crystallized by a
project imposing a vision of yourself focused on the force of will.
The person who falls ill with anorexia is slave to a faceless tyrant demanding unconditional
submission.
While an anorexic loses more and more weight, she makes herself beautiful in a courtship of
death. The symptoms of anorexia are like a language of the body claiming to be listened to.
But in the frantic daily life there is no time to see somebody else's pain.
In the society of abundance, an anorexic lets herself starve to death.
Maybe too much of everything is becoming too much of nothing.
THE DIRECTOR
After receiving an Arts degree with specialization in Social Communications from the Catholic
University of Milan, he attended "Ipotesi Cinema", coordinated and directed by Ermanno Olmi.
He has been working as the director of commercials and industrial documentaries since 1996.
He has directed the documentary Motus- perpetuus Umberto Mastroianni (1994), fictions short
films Assolo (1995), Doom (1996) and Cra-cra (1997), which have earned him important awards
and prizes at the main international film festivals (including the Venice Film Festival, Clermond
Ferrand, Valencia, Montreal) and have been bought by the major international movie and TV
distributors.
His first full-feature film, 20-Venti, participated in the Berlinale in the Forum section (2000). The film
was in competition at the Williamsburg Film Festival of New York, (Best Cinematography and
Best Soundtrack 2000), at the Annecy Festival (CICAE award by the International Jury of Critics)
and many other international festivals and film fests.
He directed Bradipo, a metalinguistic sit-com consisting of twelve 30-minute episodes produced
by MTV Europe (2002).
He directed Zobeide, a free film adaptation of one of the invisible cities described in Italo
Calvino's novel having the same title. The film and the relevant installation were part of the Città
In/visibili collective show organized at the Triennale di Milano (2003).
He directed the documentary Senza tregua presented at the 60th Venice Film Festival in the
Nuovi Territori section (2003).
He directed the documentary Il primo giorno, made with a grant from the President’s Office
and Department of Culture of the Province of Milan on the occasion of the 60 th anniversary of
the Liberation Day (2005).
He directed the documentary Dimmi qual è il colore del cielo, a little love meeting on
adolescence, in which four 16-year-old girls tell their stories and reveal their relation with the
world (2007).
CREW & ACTORS
BENEDETTA GARGARI (Sara)
She started working in advertising when she was very young, taking part in several promotional
campaigns. In 1998 she had her television debut with the miniseries Una donna per amico.
Subsequently, she was chosen for Casa Famiglia (2000), Una donna per amico 3 (2002),
Distretto di polizia 4, Un medico in famiglia 3 and Casa Famiglia 2 (2003), and in 2003 she got
the chance of her life: her first cinematographic role in Facing Windows by Ferzan Ozpetek,
where she interpreted Martina. In the following years she worked for both TV and cinema:
Amiche, Amanti e segreti, Incantesimo 7 (2004), Amanti e segreti 2 (2005), Nati ieri (2006) and,
once again under the direction of Ozpetek, Saturn in Opposition (2007). After interpreting
Monica in the miniseries La terza verità by Stefano Reali, she returned to cinema in 2010 with
Maledimiele, for which she won the award for Best Actress at Annecy Film Festival 2011. Her
most recent parts have been in the TV products Don Matteo 8 and, as leading actress, in Dov’è
mia figlia (2011).
SONIA BERGAMASCO (Anna)
She’s an actress, musician and poet; she graduated in piano performance and at Piccolo
Teatro di Milano acting school. In theatre she has worked with Giorgio Strehler, Carmelo Bene,
Thodoros Therzopoulos and Massimo Castri. She debuted in cinema with Silvio Soldini. After
having worked with Franco Giraldi and Paolo Rosa, she was chosen by Giuseppe Bertolucci to
interpret the role of Sofia in the film Probably Love(2001). She then started to act under the
direction of very important names in Italian cinema: from Marco Tullio Giordana (The Best of
Youth, 2003) to Liliana Cavani (De Gasperi, Einstein).
Her most recent participations include Wild Blood (2008) by Marco Tullio Giordana, Giulia
doesn’t date at night (2009) by Giuseppe Piccioni, La donna della mia vita (2010) by Luca
Lucini and Maledimiele(2010) by Marco Pozzi.
She’s currently taking her latest show - KARENINA - Prove aperte di infelicità – on tour, with the
double role of author and interpreter.
GIANMARCO TOGNAZZI (Enrico)
He started acting when he was a child, in films such as Don’t Touch the White Woman(1974) by
Marco Ferreri, Popular Romance (1974) by Mario Monicelli and Duck in Orange Sauce (1975) by
Luciano Salce. After meeting Beatrice Bracco, his approach to working and interpreting
changed. Through the ‘90s he acted in films with a social content: from Ultra (1990) by Ricky
Tognazzi to Skinheads (1992) by Claudio Fragasso. Simultaneously he carried on with his career
in theatre where he started his association with Alessandro Gassman in Uomini senza donne. In
1999 he was the main character in First Light of Dawn by Lucio Gaudino, the only Italian film
competing at Berlin Film Festival 2000, and for which he was nominated for the Silver Ribbon
awards as Best Actor. Among his other films are: Io no (2003) by Simona Izzo and Ricky Tognazzi,
Cielo e terra (2003) by Luca Mazzieri, Crime Novel (2004) by Michele Placido, Ex (2008) by
Fausto Brizzi and The Last 56 Hours (2009) by Claudio Fragasso. His most recent participations
have been in Maledimiele (2010) by Marco Pozzi, Nero Fiddled (2011) by Woody Allen and I
soliti idioti (2011) by Enrico Lando. He’s currently taking his new theatrical performance on tour Un nemico del popolo by H. Ibsen and directed by Armando Pugliese - and can be seen in the
new film by Marco Bellocchio Dormant Beauty with Isabelle Huppert.
ISA BARZIZZA (Grandmother)
Daughter of orchestra conductor Pippo Barzizza, she started her career very early, in the ‘40s, in
the Italian “Rivista” genre and in drama, together with artists such as Eduardo De Filippo,
Erminio Macario and Totò and in the ‘50s with directors of the calibre of Garinei, Giovannini and
Renato Castellani.
Mario Mattoli, Steno, Ettore Scola, Luca Barbareschi and Claudio Malaponti are only a few of
the many directors who have directed her throughout her extraordinary career.
On the 3rd of January 3 gennaio 1954 the day of Italian television officially started to broadcast,
RAI transmitted the one-act play by Carlo Goldoni The Tavern at The Mail Station where Isa
Barzizza was the main character.
After a long pause, she came back to theatre only in the early ‘90s once again in comedies
such as La pulce nell’orecchio directed by Gigi Proietti, or Arsenic and Old Lace directed by
Mario Monicelli.
Her most recent cinematographic participations include Maledimiele (2010) by Marco Pozzi, A
Second Childhood (2010) by Pupi Avati and Studio illegale (2011) by Umberto Riccioni Carteni.
PRODUCTION
3per is a recent Milanese production company that combines the experience of cinema and
communication professionals.
They produce institutional films and commercials for the industry and public organizations, as
well as developing cross-media communication projects.
Maledimiele is the first cinematographic feature film produced by 3per.
Simone Bianchi, Marco Pozzi
DISTRIBUTION
Movimento Film is a distribution company established in December 2007 by a group of authors
and producers who joined forces to draw audiences back into art cinemas.
The difficulty in Italy of distributing the kind of films which distinguish themselves at the biggest
international festivals, drove a group of cinematographers to try out this new adventure.
Movimento Film prefers distributing to cinema halls within quality cinema circuits, together with
dealers who are more sensitive to art cinema, while exploring, in the meantime, the new
distribution opportunities offered by digital cinema and web platforms.
Among the distributed films are Katyn by Andrzej Wajda, The Dust of Time by Théo
Angelopoulos and News from the Excavations by Emidio Greco, presented Out-of-Competition
at the 67th Venice International Film Festival.
Mario Mazzarotto, Emanuele Nespeca
www.movimentofilm.it
CREW
PHOTOGRAPHY
Alessio Viola graduated in visual communication from “I.T.S.O.S.” in Milan; he works with many
photographers, directors and photography directors, world-wide famous for their advertising,
cinema and documentary products.
Among his works: Waalo Fendo – Là où la terre gèle (1997, directed by Mohammed Soudani),
Fernanda Pivano: A Farewell to Beat (2001, Luca Facchini), Senza Tregua (2003, Marco Pozzi). In
2000 he was awarded with Best Cinematography Prize at Williamsburg Brooklyn Film Festival with
20-Venti (directed by Marco Pozzi).
EDITING
Claudio Bonafede (born in Milan, 1961) is a versatile professional working for directors, artists
and advertising agents.
Remarkable is his editing of Waves by Francesco Fei (2004) and The Award by Ermanno Olmi
(2009) in cinematography. He has edited documentaries, reports and TV programmes for the
biggest Italian broadcasting companies (Rai, Mediaset, Sky) and music videos for artists such as
Luciano Ligabue, Elisa, Negrita and Laura Pausini. He has also worked with the director Spike
Lee.
In advertising he cooperates with the most important production companies of the Milan area.
MUSIC
The song L’altra parte di me, accompanying the closing credits, is interpreted by Chiara Iezzi
(from the Italian duo Paola & Chiara) and has been purposely composed for the film by
Claudio Pelissero (awarded with “Best Original Soundtrack” for the film Venti at Williamsburg
Film Festival of New York) and written by Diego Calvetti (well-known music lyricist and producer:
among his “creatures” are Max De Angelis, Francesco Facchinetti and Noemi) and Elena Fazio.
TECHNICAL INFORMATION
Original title Maledimiele
ScreenplayPaola Rota and Marco Pozzi
Direction Marco Pozzi
PhotographyAlessio Viola
ScenesValentina Pavan
Costumes Sabina Maglia
EditingClaudio Bonafede
Live recordingRoberto Mozzarelli
Original musicClaudio Pelissero
Production3per S.r.l.
Executive producers Simone Bianchi and Paolo Boriani
Format 2K
Running time97’
Actors
Benedetta Gargari, Sonia Bergamasco,
Gianmarco Tognazzi, Isa Barzizza, Alessandro
Marverti, Dafne Masin, Micol Donghi, Tazio
Nicoli
Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities –
“Special project” award; Ministry of Agricultural,
Project carried out with the contribution of Food and Forestry Policies; Municipality of Milan
– Department of Health; Regione Lombardia –
General Directorate for Education and Culture
of Regione Lombardia;
And sponsored by
Ministry of Health – Committee for Food; Ministry
of Youth Affairs; Municipality of Milan –
Department of Health and “Tavolo Moda e
Salute” (Fashion and Health Roundtable) and
Department of Culture; Fondazione IULM.
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