L'Italo-Americano

italoamericano-digital-11-28-2019

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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2019 www.italoamericano.org 26 L'Italo-Americano " There is a sort of prequel to this movie: it happened when the producer pro- posed me to direct a film about Tommaso Buscet- ta. That's when I began to read and study, to understand a little more about this unusual man." That's how the conversation between director Marco Bellocchio and actor Pierfrancesco Favino took off during an exclusive interview with L'Italo-Americano, recounting the work behind Il Traditore, The Traitor, while on tour around the United States. The movie is also the Italian selection for the 2020 Oscars. In the '80s, Sicily was home to an internal war between mafia gangs and the Corleonesi, led by Totò Riina, only had one pur- pose: get rid of all families con- sidered enemies. While the num- ber of deaths rose day by day, Tommaso Buscetta, leader of the old Cosa Nostra, was spend- ing his life hidden in Brazil with his third wife, Cristina, and their children. Don Masino's bella vita ended when the federal police tracked him down and decided to hand him over to the Italian jus- tice. In Palermo, judge Giovanni Falcone was ready for him to be back, hoping to get precious testi- mony to break down the criminal mafia apparatus. Buscetta then became, if not a pentito, the first informant to talk about Cosa Nostra's structure. His direct enemy, at least up until the Capaci massacre, wasn't Riina but Pippo Calò, who failed to protect his children. Tommaso Buscetta, the key figure of the movie, was not just the man of the two worlds. Buscetta is remembered as the man who revealed all about Cosa Nostra, about its structure, and its way of operating in Italy and the world, even though he never regretted to having been part of it. Maestro Bellocchio, what prompted you to talk about Buscetta? "Through journalists and writ- ers, I began to get passionate about this man who travels around the world, just like me, yet is so different from me. I also traveled a lot, but my life is, per- haps, the opposite of Buscetta's. Don Masino, the last of 17 chil- dren, became part of the mafia very early on, in a war-torn Palermo. He was noticed by some of the gangs and began a brilliant mafia career that he found out to like." A particular, unique personali- ty who has attracted the interest of many directors and actors. "When I heard that Mr Bellocchio was shooting a movie about Buscetta, I tried to get his attention," Favino reveals. "I did a first audition and tried to con- vince Marco. I already knew enough about Buscetta and one thing that has always fascinated me is that he doesn't represent the cliché (of a mafia man) we all are used to. For me, he was a unique character because of his diversity. I still wonder why I had that strong desire to play Buscetta, maybe I knew that this role would allow me to show what I am capable of." What did you discover you didn't already know about Buscetta? "Don Masino is a man where the criminal side of mafia and bourgeois traits — such as being a family man, a person with a sense of nobility and ancient loy- alty — coexist," Favino conti- nues. "Mafia is a sad note for us Italians, nevertheless seeing how he represented some aspects of 'Italianness' was surprising and interesting. Buscetta loved stuff for which Italy is well known in the world, such as fashion, music, love, and puts them together in his life, turning them around in a totally personal and unique way." Director Bellocchio, speaking of clichés, did you take into account or were you worried about falling into a stereotyped depiction of mafia? "I didn't have the problem of distinguishing myself from great examples of American directors and, because of my style of directing, I knew there was no way I would repeat the experi- ences of other movies. We worked using imagination to tell real events and we worked them out in our own way, with total freedom, unlike La Piovra or movies shot in America, like Il Padrino." Buscetta is an ambivalent character, who changes over time: how did you manage this aspect, we asked both. "It was a very complex movie — Mr Bellocchio admits — because we wanted to avoid the celebration of the character at all costs, and that's pretty obvious in different scenes. Falcone was able to obtain important information to take down Cosa Nostra from Buscetta, and it is all made explicit through their dialogues. Buscetta was the first of hundreds of informants who followed, thanks to whom Cosa Nostra was brought down." On the same note, Mr Favino: "We, as viewers, feel relieved from personal responsibility when we can say that a bad char- acter is different from us. It is easier to think that man is not a loving person, that he doesn't love his children, or he cannot build friendships. Buscetta built a kind relationship with his guards, just like that between a grand- father and his grandchildren. He built good relations within judges. Thinking of him as an ambivalent character is more useful because, when we know who the bad guy is, we don't fear him anymore." Could you tell us more about the Sicilian context of the movie? "We spent some time in Sicily, with the aim of avoiding shallowness," Bellocchio says. "1980s Sicily's gone, but we managed to experience important things, like listening to those who lived those times. The local lan- guage was a crucial, penetrating and important element, thanks also to Sicilian actors and actress- es. In addition, it was essential to shoot our main trial scene in the real high security courtroom where it took place." Favino adds: "Today's Sicily is different. Thanks to its young people, it has become a region that wants to stand out, and has been succeeding at it. The movie doesn't want to be pro-mafia, you don't get out of the theatre think- ing you want to be like them." Maestro Bellocchio, what does the movie bring in American theaters that other directors haven't already brought? "I believe I bring both facts and our way of looking at this story." And Favino echoes: "This movie is an absolute novelty because, so far, mafia was exclu- sively the one told by American movies. In reality, that is the Italian-American mafia to which, not surprisingly, the Sicilian mafia looked with annoyance, especially because of their habits, behaviors, the ostentation of wealth. It was — in a certain sense — considered a sort of imi- tation of the real mafia. Somehow we have all been fascinated by characters from Il Padrino or Scorsese's movies. But with this movie that does not happen, because you don't want to be a mafioso, there is nothing glam- orous about it." How do you think interna- tional audiences will perceive the movie? Do you think some context is missing from the story? According to Mr Bellocchio, "The focus had to stay on the character, on real elements that bring him together with his envi- ronment. Although we used a bit of repertoire scenes, we avoided any romanticism and we went ahead to film a movie that talks about the past." Mr Favino adds: "From an his- torical point of view, mafia was discovered thanks to Buscetta therefore, in order to contextual- ize it, we would have had to show crimes upon crimes and quick trials. We can say that the contex- tualization for this story comes through the information we all already know about the mafia, but, it is only because of Buscetta that we know what it really was." Before we wrapped up our interview with a good luck wish for what comes next in 2020, we asked which scene makes them most proud or, at least, what's their favorite. "For me, the most difficult part, the one where I felt I could easily fall into rhetorics, was the Buscetta-Falcone dialogue. We knew it was not impossible to achieve what we wanted, but it was challenging and I was afraid of getting on to a rhetorical path." Favino, instead, favors the scene of Buscetta's interrogatory during Andreotti's trial. "It was a complicated scene — he explains —that culminates in fatigue, fail- ure, in the end of a path, and it was necessary to keep intact the dignity of a man who ultimately needs to accept defeat. When I watched it on screen, I found a nice balance, where there was no risk the actor could feel compas- sion for Buscetta, not even in those circumstances." Actor Pierfrancesco Favino plays mafia boss Tommaso Buscetta in The Traitor (Copyright: Dreamstime) Director Marco Bellocchio and actor Pierfrancesco Favino tell us all about their latest movie, The Traitor SERENA PERFETTO LOS ANGELES ITALIAN COMMUNITY

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