Sunday, June 6, 2010

Open Roads: a chat with Giorgio Diritti, director of THE MAN WHO WILL COME

Claudio Casadio, left, and Maya Sansa in The Man Who Will Come

In our nearly half hour talk last Friday afternoon, TrustMovies was able to learn quite a bit from Giorgio Diritti, the director of what is at this point -- I've still got two more films to see -- the best of this year's FSLC Open Roads festival: THE MAN WHO WILL COME.

We learned that the title might refer to several things: the birth of the baby (see photo above), a possible religious reference (remember John the Baptist's predicting of the coming of the Messiah?) and finally a buried reference to modern Italy -- the generations that have followed on the heels of this Italy-during-
World-War-II drama.

We also discussed the possibility of this remarkable movie finding its way to an Academy Award nomination.  Should Italy submit it as that country's choice as a contender for Best Foreign Language Film -- and why not, as it won the recent Donatello award (Italy's "Oscar" for Best Picture)?  I would consider it a shoo-in for the Academy's shortlist.  It's that special.  Could it win?  Again, why not?  It certainly has a better chance than Italy's nomination of two years back, Gomorrah -- which proved too dark for Academy members to even consider for the shortlist. Unusually riveting and moving (beautiful, too), The Man Who Will Come is also a work of art that speaks of events that happened more than a half century ago yet seems utterly timely in its just, if still-shocking, depiction of wartime behavior on both sides.

Greta Zuccheri Montanari as the film's protagonist, Martina

Diritti and I talked about a number of other things, and I'll transcribe the entire interview and post it, once the movie is released here in the U.S.  When will that be?  Soon, we hope, as negotiations are currently underway with two different distributors. 

You can find TM's short review of the film in his complete Open Roads coverage.  Click here, and scroll down....

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