July has been a complicated month, a prelude to a complex second semester, with many hopes and perplexities.
The Collettivo Chiaroscuro was born to talk about images that express with strength and extraordinary expressiveness stories of men and women, which we all hope will remain in our minds long after having seen them. This desire to narrate the images that have struck us and to understand how they have been realised by the talent of the directors of photography remains intact, however, in front of us, today appears a basic question: what cinema will we find ourselves realising in the next years in Italy?
For example: I have seen at the cinema Non riattaccare, the second creation of Manfredi Lucibello, with the photography of our young colleague Emilio Maria Costa CCS. The film is intense, tense, complicated, and directed with attention and courage, with a very talented actress: Barbara Ronchi. The film takes place almost in its entirety in a car during the night. Like the surprising Locke of Steven Night. Locke has been a winning tough bet. The power of Non riattaccare is based a lot on the skill of Emilio M. Costa, who knew how to transform a camera car nearly as long as the whole film into a stunning landscape, visually rich and thrilling. Each one of us knows how hard camera cars are, how much only after having shot that ciak, that sequence, you know whether you have succeeded or failed, how few the possible shots are, and how complex and slow it is to realise. Emilio was marvelously able to move us, in a film which would have shaken up even the most experienced among us.
However, I utilise Non riattaccare and the experience of Emilio Costa to wonder if next year, or in the next years it will be possible to do small courageous films like this one or like, talking about last year, Palazzina Laf directed Michele Riondino, with the photography of Claudio Cofrancesco, Gli oceani sono i veri continenti directed by Tommaso Santambrogio, with the photography of Lorenzo Casadio CCS, Patagonia directed by Simone Bozzelli and with the photography of Leonardo Mirabilia CCS, Una sterminata domenica directed by Alain Parroni, with the photography of Andrea Benjamin Manenti CCS or Gloria! Directed by Margherita Vicario, with the photography of Gianluca Palma. Films that could allow young talented cinematographers to challenge themselves.
It appears as if the answer is no. It appears that in Italy it is being decided to follow a cultural policy to only assist the secure commercial cinema (as if the formula to commercial success in an industry that only produces prototypes, unique pieces, was ever found) and production houses more financially stable, to this day mostly taken by big international groups.
And so I believe that we were born to talk about visual research, to attempt to valorise talent, wherever it manifests (between us in Collettivo or outside). If it will be prevented to young directors and young colleagues to realise their projects, then we should raise our voice to defend the freedom to represent with lacerating, moving, surprising images, stories which make us think and which will help us to understand reality.
My mentor, Carlo Di Palma, used to tell me: “If you have done stunning photography in a weak film, you will not win anything, you win when you have done stunning photography in a stunning film”. He was the cinematographer in the films of Antonioni, Bertolucci, and Woody Allen. This for me has always meant that we need to first of all fight to the side of directors to do beautiful films, making them powerful with our visual interpretation, but that we also need to be aware of our responsibilities. We, the narrators for images.
Today I believe that we need to keep watch and if necessary fight united, together with our colleagues from other categories, so that in Italy it will always be possible to do wonderful films, even hard ones, and with touching photography. The CCS was also born for this: to seek to understand with attention and without factionalism or protectionism where our cinema is going or we want it to go. Keeping in mind that the Italian cinema has been and is still very big the knife plunges, with the capability of telling very realistic and painful, sweet and sour, surprising and fascinating stories of our society.
P.C.
