The next instalment of the CHE SGUARDO VOGLIAMO series, promoted and curated by Collettivo Chiaroscuro at The Cineclub Roma, Via Lidia 46, continues with EUROPA CENTRALE, DP Carlo Rinaldi CCS. The screening will be preceded by the short film La talpa (2025), directed by Marco Santoro, cinematography by Emilio Costa CCS. The directors and DPs will be present for a talk moderated by Paolo Carnera CCS.
Presented at the Torino Film Festival in 2024, the film Europa Centrale features direction by Gianluca Minucci, screenplay by Gianluca Minucci and Patrick Karlsen, cinematography by Carlo Rinaldi CCS, editing by Ian Degrassi, production design by Csenge Jovari, and costumes by Stefano Ciammitti. The music is by Zbigniew Preisner, the sound by Emanuela Cotellessa. Cast: Paolo Pierobon, Tommaso Ragno, Catherine Bertoni de Laet, Matilde Vigna, Angelica Kazankova, Levente Molnár. Produced by: Aldo Minucci, Monica Galantucci, Gianluca Minucci, Romano Reggiani, Mario Gianani, Lorenzo Gangarossa for Wildside, Danubio Film, m74.
«For me and Gianluca, the 4:3 format fitted perfectly with that sense of claustrophobia we wanted to convey, as well as being a classic format that helped us recreate the atmosphere of the historical period. But more than anything, it’s a format that frames faces very well, and they’re a central element in the film. The story takes place almost entirely inside a train, and we needed a format that would enclose the characters in a kind of “box”, to heighten the tension and anxiety. We had no doubts about the choice, which was made right from the film’s conception. [… Furthermore,] I didn’t want to make the classic 1940s-style film, with colours typical of that period. I wanted something different, also because the train in which the night-time scene between Paris and Ljubljana takes place has an almost metaphysical dimension. I wanted to distance myself a little from reality, and my initial inspiration was three-strip Technicolor, with its strong contrasts of red and cyan. I wanted the primary colours to come through very strongly, but during the process of defining the look, I realised that red interfered too much with faces and with materials like wood and velvet. So I decided to reduce the red, and, as often happens in these cases, by taking away one component, the other colours became more pronounced. In particular, the cyan, which was already present in the LUT and in the lighting, became even more intense. I began to see a harmony between the blue of the moonlight and the yellow of the train, which is made of wood and warm materials. The blue moonlight thus became a central element, a visual constant that accompanies the journey. The choice of 4:3 and this combination of colours helped create a unique and coherent atmosphere, which evolves over the course of the film, like a kind of visual symphony, with changes in rhythm and colour, but always maintaining that blue moonlight
». (Carlo Rinaldi CCS)
Read our interview with Carlo Rinaldi CCS about the film here, edited by Corrado Serri and Mirko Sgarzi.The Dark Ideals of Central Europe. Conversation with Carlo Rinaldi CCS on CENTRAL EUROPE by Gianluca Minucci
