BARBARA BOUCHET

BY SUSANNA CASUBOLO

What can you tell us about Marcello Mastroianni and your collaboration with him?

My moment with Marcello I must say that he was very beautiful, he was a great actor, but also a great gentleman. I remember that he stayed until the end of the day to give the lines to an actress who had been waiting all day and this thing was not at all obvious, most of the actors once finished their scene go away, and instead Marcello remained until the end of the day, always present, sweet, cute. It was a great joy to work with him.

What are your professional projects right now?

What are my plans? Good question ... just today I received a script for a horror film, to be done in FebruaryMarch in Calabria. But now everything is at a standstill, I hope that everything resumes and that we can continue to do our beautiful job, making films, which gives so much joy and pleasure. So I hope I can make this movie. It is a difficult moment, do creativity and creative work still manage to have space despite the difficulties. We are all a bit busy, I am taking care of family photographs, thousands because dad was a photographer, box by box, I have fun right now I arrange them in albums, I write where we were, who we were, I try to occupy my brain with something constructive.

Adriano Pintaldi is President of the Rome film festival, Director of Fanta festival and Member of the David di Donatello as well as artistic director of the award that he presented to actress Barbara Bouchet in the event broadcast in live streaming due to the pandemic caused by covid19. Two contributions by him were screened during the event: a video dedicated to Mastroianni and Ennio Morricone and a video contribution on Mastroianni and Federico Fellini.

What is your relationship with Marcello Mastroianni?

The relationship with Marcello began a long time ago, a few years ago I dedicated an edition of the Rome film festival to him, titling it “dear Marcello”. It was a memorable event for which I produced a documentary focusing on his incredible career, a monographic volume and a review with his most important films. The event brought together many characters who had accompanied him in his varied career such as Claudia Cardinale, Sandra Milo, Ursula Andress, Giancarlo Giannini, Stefania Sandrelli, Lina Wertmuller, Ettore Scola. I also inaugurated the space in front of the Rome cinema house with the mayor of that time, giving it his name “Largo Marcello Mastroianni.” Two years ago I was invited to Fontana Liri to attend a conference dedicated to him and on that occasion they asked me to take care of the artistic direction of the award, I accepted with great enthusiasm for the love and esteem I have always had towards Marcello.

During the event we were able to see two of your very interesting documentaries, how difficult was it to enclose in a few minutes and choose from the images linked to these immense talents?

The docufilms I made this year are the result of a research I did in Marcello’s complex filmography. I discovered that seven films starring Marcello had the soundtrack written by Ennio Morricone. Since I wanted to pay homage to the recently deceased maestro for “Mastroianni & Morricone”, I selected some unforgettable clips from the films

“ Così come sei” by Lattuada, “Todo modo” by Petri, “La donna della domenica” by Comencini, “Allonsanfan” by Taviani , “Sostiene Pereerà” from Faenza, “Stanno tutti bene” by Tornatore, “Per le antiche scale” by Bolognini with a magnificent Barbara Bouchet to whom we awarded the prize. “Mastroianni & Fellini” is a light-hearted declaration by Marcello for his friend-accomplice Federico with whom he has worked all his life, who also has the memorable ceremony of the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in Venice delivered to Marcello by Fellini. .

To further enhance the combination of Fontana Liri - Mastroianni, during the event a reportage was also projected on the installation in the central square of two works dedicated to him: a mural by Umberto Cufrini, created with the “word work” technique, which makes monochrome the bas-relief, with the dark parts defining the features of the actor’s face; and an artistic installation, which is an assembled structure that evokes the Nouveau Rèalism and also the interior lighting design revisited on an urban scale entitled “Come Here”; this is a “new experiment” of Franco Bianchi Poteca who curated it.