Speaking with Ferdinando De Laurentis means opening a space-time portal to the Polesine region. With its customs, its landscapes, its works of art and architecture, and above all, its most illustrious figures. Ferdinando's knowledge of the region seems infinite, fascinating, and captivating. So it's no surprise that "The Distracted Mother" (La madre distratta) has attracted attention and received positive reviews. This 2016 film, like Ferdinando's other features, features Polesine. It all began at the TPO (Teatro Polivalente di Occhiobello), where he was the founder and, to this day, artistic director.
His career began in private radio in 1976, and continued, from 1988, with his collaboration with RAI, with which he created "Pausa Caffè" in 1990. The highly innovative format featured prominent figures, from Alberto Moravia to Pupi Avati, from Nino Manfredi to Carlo Delle Piane, to name a few.
The beginnings on the radio
I ask him to tell me about this experience.
"It was actually very easy to deal with people of this caliber; they were always kind and helpful. Furthermore, I had excellent support from an excellent secretariat, and I had already spoken to them myself through previous interviews with RAI. There were ten episodes on ten different topics, chosen by the Modena CGIL union, which produced the program, with the idea of having people not connected to the union speak on issues that were actually their main focus."
Ferdinando is eclectic, his background is musical; he studied classical guitar at the Venezze University and has musical experience in various bands, including as a composer. Trying to harness his myriad experiences is, perhaps, the most challenging and fascinating part of his journey.
I ask him to explain his first contact with directing.
"Directing was actually a necessity for me, born from the evolution of my work as a radio host at RAI. Later, when I changed my contract to programmer/director, I began to understand what directing meant and began to study it."
Directing in the theatre
His first contact behind the “camera” occurred in 1991, when he was asked to direct The Barber of Seville on a tour of Spain.
"It's a job I accepted just a few days before rehearsals began, having very little time to study it. My musical training came to my aid. It wasn't difficult to read the score and give the opera a directorial feel. I brought all my previous experiences, which were undoubtedly less theatrical and more radio and musical, to bear on this direction."
He tells me he imagined this opera with a rock feel, personalising the arias with his own interpretations. Fourteen more productions of operas ranging from Verdi to Mozart followed, and his directorial flair increasingly took over. At this point, my thoughts turned to the TPO, its birth, its creation, because there are so many rock elements in there.
I'll start by saying that it wasn't really my idea. I was asked by the culture councilor at the time, given what I was doing, if it was possible to create something that would be long-lasting and of high quality. I immediately thought of a laboratory school, which is what actually came about. We did a trial year, which worked very well, and I also realized it could yield great results, both for the students and for the local area. I wasn't interested in creating a school that would only be used for the final exam. In fact, we wrote local history books, filmed documentaries, and, with the first few funds, made some films.
The Polesine
Here, local history, the territory, the most important thing for Ferdinando, to tell it, enhance it, bring it to life.
We conducted extensive research on the cinema of the Polesine area, and as a result, in 2007 I was contacted by the "Schermi d'amore" Film Festival, which commissioned us to write the first book on the cinema of the Polesine area. It was part of a series called "Luci sulla Città" (Lights on the City), published by Marsilio, which promoted the city and its cinema. I edited the Rovigo edition with a book entitled "Rovigo. Dream of a Landscape between Sky and Water."
It's clear that with Ferdinando's many experiences, far from the provinces and indeed touching on large realities, I ask him what kind of passion drives him to explore the province, the Polesine area in particular.
"Love for my land, first and foremost, and then love for my work. I found Polesani everywhere, aware of how difficult it is for this land to spread its beauty and skills beyond its borders. I grew up in a family that, first and foremost, instilled in me a love for the river."
Neorealism and its places
From the cinematographic side, a very important and much-loved period emerges.
Neorealism was born in Polesine, with Visconti, De Sica, and Rossellini. From Ossessione to Paisan, the first films were made here. And if you think about it, this land is a perfect setting to tell those moments. A land destroyed by the Second World War that must be reborn.
It is from this land that the inspiration for his films comes, from the desire to tell its story, to explore it.
I always start with a book about the Polesine area. I receive a lot of them, and unfortunately, I can't respond to them all. I choose a story, turn it into a screenplay, and direct it. Then I "use" the Polesine people. I choose whoever wants to collaborate with me, starting with my school, and I bring them on board this cruise ship I call cinema. I open a closed channel, involving people in every phase of the film. Furthermore, I always try to find places that are meaningful to me.
Polesine in Ferdinando's films
It comes naturally to me to ask him for an indication of the various locations he has chosen for his feature films.
For my first feature film, titled "The Last Day of the Scorpion," I chose a Cagnoni Boniotti villa in Villamarzana. Then there's the Delta, which I try to always include in my films. For "The Distracted Mother," Rovigo dominates, with some lesser-known locations, such as the first shot, shot in front of a Garofalo canvas in a very few-known church in Crespino. We shot "Tanto non ti amarò" in Lendinara, where I was fascinated by a little church near the crossroads for Costa, which I find fabulous. "L'Isola" was filmed in Albarella, which I wanted to capture in the right light, given that many mistakenly consider it the Island of VIPs.
We then move on to talk about his latest work, what he's doing now: "Sensazioni".
The screenplay is based on a book by Sergio Gnudi of the same title. It's the story of a wife who, before dying, makes her husband experience ten last sensations through ten small stacks of photographs, and every time you show one, it triggers a memory. Needless to say, this allowed me to discover some very special things in the Polesine area. The Romanesque parish church near Ariano Polesine, the lone bell tower on the embankment in Rivà, and some very rare areas of the Sacca di Scardovari. I like to highlight the area not so much for the things we know, but for the little-known.
It's a journey of memory with Ferdinando. And above all, with his boundless knowledge of the territory and the Polesani who inhabit it, often little-known but deserving of every possible attention. He recounts names, places, and achievements, like a sort of boundless talking encyclopedia of this region. We talk about memories, and memory, in a context like that of Polesani, deserves a day each day.
“Sensazioni” will be released in the fall, Ferdinando is one more reason not to miss it.
