IT
Life and the anticipation of death, the search for one’s origins, a special friendship, and emotions experienced scene after scene in a mix of laughter and tears in a fairy tale that becomes reality and vice versa. “Il più bel secolo della mia vita” has it all and the Giffoners in the +18-category experienced one of the “most beautiful days of their lives”.
Life and the anticipation of death, the search for one’s origins, a special friendship, and emotions experienced scene after scene in a mix of laughter and tears in a fairy tale that becomes reality and vice versa. “Il più bel secolo della mia vita” has it all and the Giffoners in the +18-category experienced one of the “most beautiful days of their lives”. The preview and then the anticipation, the moment of magic that was created in the auditorium in a Q&A meeting-debate that at the #GiffoniFilmFestival really does make the world a better place. Even when the criticism and probing questions from the jurors become subtle and permeate the beautiful atmosphere in the Sala Galileo. The screening ends amid the applause and ovation of those who experienced the privilege of being there together with the protagonists, the director, and the soundtrack creators (Sergio Castellitto, Valerio Lundini, Alessandro Bardani and Brunori Sas). The story highlights a law in the Italian Constitution that is obsolete and devoid of humanity and affects around 400,000 people across the country. As we read in the film’s official synopsis: an absurd law still in force in Italy prevents Giovanni, an illegitimate son abandoned at birth, from knowing the identity of his biological parents before his 100th birthday. In order to attract public awareness, his only hope is to secure the involvement of Gustavo, the only surviving centenarian abandoned at birth. The only one who could make use of this law but seems to have no interest in pursuing it. In the film everything revolves around two actors: Lundini and Castellitto: “It starts with the script and the writing and there I strived for a balance, emotionally unravelling a story through the characters. Then there is a leap,’ Bardani explained, ‘there is flesh, bones and personalities that start from what was written but then go even further, finding a balanced whole that is unique. The fortune of the film was meeting Sergio and Valerio who are not only great actors but also put so much of their personality into it; so directing them was easy because they had a very complex simplicity that was naturally born on the set and enhanced the characters as only they could do”. The director, Sergio Castellitto, Valerio Lundini, the musician Brunori Sas and the young actor Marzio answered the questions of the more adult Giffoners. The jurors wondered how much knowing the identity of one’s parent can differ depending on one’s age. Interesting was the director’s answer, according to whom, seeing the photo of his mother at 100 years of age does not satisfy his adult side, but rather the child’s. In the end, the adult side adapts, while the childish one carries his dream with him.
Among the most important moments of the debate that took place between the Generator +18 jurors and the talents of the film ‘Il più bel secolo della mia vita’, there were two pieces of advice that Sergio Castellitto wanted to give to young film enthusiasts. “I would like to give some advice to all of you: the best reaction in front of a film is silence. Never lose the emotion of a pure spectator.”