Gianni di Gregorio, writer of Gomorrah, director and star of Mid-August Lunch has been in town recently. With our commitment to exciting film talent do you think we'd let him slip away? Would we heck! Here's what he had to say...

MV: Where do you get your ideas from – life, dreams, and friends?

GDG: I have an investigative nature and I watch people and listen, on the bus, on the metro and all around.  Sometimes I get ideas from friends but mostly from observing and listening to people that where my inspiration comes from.  One time I was listening to a couple in love talk and got in trouble as they obviously saw I was eavesdropping!

MV:  Do you see the film as a comment on old age and of how the older generation is often forgotten by society and family?

GDG: I lived with my mother for 10 years from when she was 80 to 90 and I had the opportunity look at the world through her eyes and how she perceived life and along with her huge vitality, energy and strength came a sense of loneliness and fear of abandonment.  Although the vitality was often stronger than the feeling of being abandoned the two often worked in tandem and sometimes against each other time and again.

MV: Is it also a comment on the state of health care in Italy?

GDG: Yes there is no doubt that this was one of my intentions with the film and that on the whole social care is much better in Northern Europe than elsewhere.  There are social services in Italy too but the way the family network is structured and ingrained it is very difficult to persuade an old person to go into a care home, well near impossible!  That’s probably due to our long tradition to looking after elderly family members despite the fact there are perfectly good places for them to go.  It was definitely my intention to say that in big cities there is this idea of abandonment and of forgetting our elder families.

MV: What was the most important element in the film – story, cinematography, performance or music?

GDG: There all equally important but the most important is the way you approach the whole thing.  The more sincere and less sophisticated you are the better you can be at portraying this idea of reality on film.  Cinematography is very important as often I would get 2 or 3 images in my head and this is where the film comes out of these images. Also that it is important that scenes evoke certain specific feelings.

MV: Was it shot on DV or film and did it have a deliberate documentary style?

GDG: Personally I think that shooting on film is far superior to shooting on digital and the cost often works out the same. We shot on a super 16 camera and costs were equal to digital.  The use of the documentary style was deliberate and was also borne out of the need to allow people to be free to act themselves and be liberated whether this through the use of set or script.  The documentary style also lends itself better to portray reality; it gives you a feeling of authenticity and less formality.

MV: Are you drawn to stronger character stories rather than clichéd genre fare?

GDG: I am definitely drawn to strong characters and in this films it’s the four ladies who are strong and carry the film and there is a strong human element that I return to again and again however saying that I love genre movies but I also think its possible to combine the two and have an authenticity present in genre films that adds to the realism and makes it more authentic and believable to an audience. My writing work on Gomorrah and working with director Garrone showed me that his was such a personal and unique voice in creating this new reality on screen like using non-professional actors which gave an element of spontaneity to the film led me to do this on Mid August Lunch as I learnt so much from him despite being much older!

MV: Is this a love letter to your mother or to family and was it influenced by Scorsese’s short film Italian/American made about his parents?

GDG: Yes it is love letter to her, but I have not seen that film but heard of it and am honored that you compare me to him as I am a great admirer of his work! [Laughs]

MV: Is it an Italian trait to always complain about life as everyone does in the film?

[The translator here answers no and they laugh and joke for a moment]

GDG: This is a diplomatic answer!  I believe that men complain much more than women and had I made this movie with four men I believe this film would have fallen apart because men would’ve complained all the time, talked about back pains and not being able to get on with things.  So women tend to complain much much less, there was some complaining on set but due to the women’s energy and vitality they would just complain and then get on with the job.

MV: Was cooking important to show in the film?

GDG: Cooking is an integral part of my life so it features heavily in the film and is part of Italian life and the kitchen is an essential element as I used to sit for hours with my mother just trying to decide to what to cook and eat.

MV:  What do you want people to take from the film?

GDG: I want the film to make people happy and my intention was to portray the beauty and the sad aspects of old age and to promote tolerance towards the elderly. Also to show the description of freedom and dignity which every human being is entitled to even in old age.

MV:  What 2 films would you save from being sucked into a Movie Vortex?

GDG: Seven Samurai and The Trilogy by Sajit Ray



Words by Mark Cappuccio

 

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