Ammazzare stanca. Autobiografia di un assassino by Daniele Vicari, cinematographer Gherardo Gossi CCSIt is still showing in Rome at the Cinema delle Province on Friday 16 January at 5.10 p.m., Saturday 17 January at 8.00 p.m., and Sunday 18 January at 6.00 p.m. On Sunday 18 January, director Daniele Vicari and lead actors Gabriel Montesi, Selene Caramazza and Andrea Fuorto will be present in the auditorium.
The film premiered last September at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival in the Venice Spotlight section. Based on the book of the same name by Antonio Zagari, it tells his true story after leaving the clan in the 1970s, at a time when the Calabrian ‘ndrangheta was spreading from southern to northern Italy. Produced by Mompracem (Pier Giorgio Bellocchio, Antonio and Marco Manetti), Beta Film and Rai Cinema, with the support of MiC, Emilia-Romagna Film Commission and Calabria Film Commission, the screenplay was written by Daniele Vicari with Andrea Cedrola. Distributed in Italy by 01 Distribution; international sales by Beta Cinema.
Here is an interview with Gherardo Gossi by Silvia Tarquini.
Ammazzare stanca is set in the 1970s. How did you approach this period?
In the 1970s, life and culture were shaped by objects and physicality: records, books, photographs, and so on, in a period of intense political and creative ferment. ‘Creativity to power’, the slogan of those years, accompanied me throughout secondary school and led me to discover and fall in love with my profession. That was one more reason to take on this stimulating project.
For the film’s cinematography, therefore, I worked with textured images, colour and warmth, to convey the vibrancy of those years. Together with the director, Daniele Vicari, we revisited the genre films of the period. The early works of American ‘New Hollywood’ (Scorsese, Coppola, De Palma), as well as the films of Petri and Bertolucci, guided me in shaping the photographic approach. I rediscovered the original colours of the lighting of that era: the warmth of incandescent light, the harsh glow of neon, and the yellow-orange hue of sodium lamps that lit our streets with strong contrasts.
Can you tell us something about your technical choices?
We shot anamorphic, using the beautiful HAWK V-Lite lens series, which filled the images with their characteristic aberrations. We mainly used very wide-angle lenses in the long moving sequences of the main camera, alternating them with strong telephoto lenses on the second camera. Some scenes in the film—the jewellery shop robbery and the final shoot-out—were conceived differently, with frenetic editing (editor Benni Atria), heavily fragmenting the narrative through a large number of shots.
We used two ARRI ALEXA Minis, shooting in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio. The Ronin operator was the excellent Alberto Marchiori, CCS, assisted by the impeccable focus puller Walter Magri, while I operated the second camera. The contribution of the lighting crew, led by Paolo Bolognini, and the grip department, led by Gianluca Grassellini, was fundamental, as was that of our trusted DIT, Roberto Asturaro: a solid, close-knit team that supported me in realising a complex film with many locations (115!), involving constant moves and careful planning.
The technical rental was provided by R.E.C. The film was shot between Calabria (Camigliatello Silano and Lamezia Terme prison) and Emilia-Romagna (Bologna and the surrounding area), where we found locations that were still sparsely urbanised and architecturally consistent with the period. I personally oversaw the foundry opening title sequence—something I have always been passionate about—as I believe a strong visual introduction is always an excellent way to set a film on its journey.
There are several night scenes in the film. What photographic choices did you make?
I wanted to respect the colours of the era as much as possible, with white incandescent street lamps in the first half of the film, then changing radically to sodium lighting in the second part, when our protagonist, released from prison, begins a new life. The final grade of the film was done at ReelOne with colourist Paolo Verrucci. I am pleased to have involved some students from the Volonté Film School in the production as well.
