27/06/2008

Don’t Waste Your Time, Johnny! marks the debut feature of Fabrizio Bentivoglio, one of Italy’s most beloved theatre and film actors.

Cineuropa: The project arose from your experiences and friendship with the Avion Travel band and the stories of guitar player Fausto Mesolella. Was it difficult for you as an actor and virtually a debut director to write the screenplay?
Fabrizio Bentivoglio: Writing the film was a very important and wonderful experience. All I needed were the true stories, which I’d known for years, but we started from scratch with the screenwriters. I asked to be retold those stories, and there are many of them, and tried to obtain their essence in the choice of characters and emotions. There is the dream of the young musicians who take measure of their talent and face the crucial moment in which this talent needs to be recognized.

The film was shot very spontaneously and with many long shots.
That’s how I shot my short film, it was an objective and fortuitous choice. This type of shot, if used well, allows the actors more space within which to move, and they feel freer to move, and it guarantees everyone will have more fun. It’s the shooting method closest to working in the theatre.

Will you continue directing along with acting?
The conception phase, when you’re creating the story, is the most beautiful phase of a film. I began listening to the stories of Don’t Waste Your Time, Johnny! in 1992. Which means it will take me some time to write a new film because you need to be motivated to embark on a new adventure, you have four years before you during which you have to remain focused on the project. You have to deal with a lot of people at the same time, you have to understand and make yourself by every one of them. It’s a complex operation. The sense of familiarity was the secret behind Don’t Waste Your Time, Johnny!, that’s it’s key.

What do you expect from being at Karlovy Vary? There is an exchange of ideas – the atmosphere of the East, which is so very rich creatively if not economically, is also freer for this reason.
For a film being recognised by a such a pure point of view is a compliment. Representing Italy at the festival is no small thing, we’re very happy.

In this moment in Italy, the film industry is protesting against the government’s reneging on the introduction of a tax credit.
I definitely express my solidarity. Since I started acting this tax measure is waved around like a flag and then hidden in a drawer with a skilful slight of hand. Boycotting festivals like they announced they would do is an extreme decision and gesture and I hope things won’t get to the point where they have to go through with it.