On 21 May, Il protagonista, the debut feature by Fabrizio Benvenuto, is released in cinemas following its competition screening at the Torino Film Festival. Cinematography is by Sebastian Bonolis.
Shot in black and white, the film follows an actor obsessed with the desire to land a leading role and consumed by the practice of acting, gradually and ironically breaking down the boundary between identity, performance and disorientation. The opportunity to audition for the lead role in Clochard, a biopic dedicated to a 1950s tap dancer, becomes the starting point for a layered exploration of the life of an aspiring actor entirely shaped by his passion for performance.
Written and directed by Fabrizio Benvenuto, Il protagonista stars Pierluigi Gigante, Alessio Lapice, Morena Gentile and Adriano Giannini. produced by MG Production with the support of the Italian Ministry of Culture, the film is produced by Morena Gentile. Running 95 minutes, the feature fits within the tradition of independent cinema. Distribution is handled by Emozioni Distribuzioni.
Sebastian Bonolis told us:
«‘When director Fabrizio Benvenuto first contacted me in 2023 and asked me to read his screenplay, the very first line I read was: “The film opens with a black-and-white Rome.” The decision to shoot in black and white had been made from the start, and I could only welcome it. I have always worked in this medium: I am convinced it is the purest way of communicating through light.
The film brings together a strong mix of genres — black comedy, drama, slapstick, the grotesque. It is a film about the all-consuming nature of making art, about the actor’s chameleonic ability to absorb the other and continuously reshape his own identity in response to whatever he experiences.
In terms of cinematography and film language, Fabrizio and I worked extensively to draw the viewer into a journey that kept shifting shape as Giancarlo, the protagonist, was pulled deeper into the vortex of his own experience. We are both great admirers of classical cinema — in my case, particularly American cinema from the 1940s through the 1960s. Given the project’s meta-cinematic nature, we began by studying a number of black-and-white films from that period before developing a visual approach that drew on that tradition while staying flexible and contemporary.
Throughout the film, the boundary between reality and dream — between the real and the fictional — is extremely thin, and the camera behaves like a character caught within that ambiguity. Giancarlo interacts with it directly: he hunts it down when he feels watched, calls it back, directs it, imposing the framing he wants. His mental gaze drives the camera, turning everyday events into cinema. This narrative element led us to approach different moments in the film through distinct visual languages and tonal registers.
The lighting follows the same logic: Giancarlo’s grey, monotonous world gradually sinks into the darkness and vulgarity of his fears, while white light — at times almost overexposed — becomes a character in its own right, dazzling and alienating during the film’s moments of greatest epiphany.
The film was shot primarily on the ARRI ALEXA Mini, paired with Cooke S4 Mini lenses and Angénieux Optimo DP zooms. The S4 lenses were chosen for the versatility of their look, while the Optimo DPs were selected for their edge distortion, which was key in conveying Giancarlo’s gradual descent into madness. We also used a custom lens supplied by Hubris Rental: a Zeiss Super Speed MkIII 18mm fitted with an additional double wide-angle attachment, bringing the focal length to approximately 11.8mm and introducing extremely pronounced distortions. We used it extensively during the most frantic and dreamlike passages of the film.’ ‘Some of the more “street-style” scenes were shot on a RED Komodo, used in a very lightweight setup to allow for greater agility and speed. In certain sequences, where it was necessary to convey Giancarlo’s perceptual vortex, we also mixed in older camcorders and used a Leica Q3 for photographic sequences that were later intercut during editing. The result is a frantic and obsessive gaze that observes the protagonist while simultaneously becoming an extension of his own point of view.’ .
