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De Cataldo Pinketts

Writers in ‘Noir’

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- Two Italian writers spoke at the Festival in Courmayeur about the chances of creating a European noir genre able to head off competition from its American counterpart

Courmayeur’s Noir in Festival is not limited to cinema. The festival is also a perfect opportunity for meetings and discussions with some of the most interesting Italian and international authors of the “noir” genre. Usually these get-togethers are informal affairs where the latest publishing events are presented to the public. On more than one occasion, reference has been made to the often symbiotic relationship between this literary genre and cinema. This year’s first guest was John Grisham, a writer who excels in his ability to exploit the cross-pollination between books and films. Perhaps this is a good time to note that this year’s best film was Dark Blue by Ron Shelton. The screenplay was written by no less an illustrious writer as James Ellroy. Another highlight of the 2002 edition was the presentation of Gabriele Salvatores’ forthcoming film entitled Io non ho paura, based on the eponymous novel by Niccolò Ammaniti.

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We turned to Salvatores to open a discussion about the future of Italian, and more generally speaking European noir, in the face of stiff competition from its American counterpart, personified in Courmayeur by writers of the calibre of Grisham and Ellroy.
“Without a doubt, the new generation of writers has a good concept of film. I am convinced that a writer like Ammaniti, to give one example, may well direct a film of his own in the near future. As far as my latest film is concerned, I and the producer feel that it is competitive in the same way that Mediterraneo and Nirvana were. I think this film has the right ingredients to give it universal appeal.”
Io non ho paura (I’m Not Scared) cost Euros4.5m. A major production, in terms of European films, but cheap when compared to US productions. The financial issue found the writers and directors in total agreement about the problems associated with making ambitious films that are sufficiently strong to compete with “Made in the USA” noirs”.

Giancarlo De Cataldo is probably going to be one of those writers who will shortly see his book made into a film. Although his book about the Magliana Gang, entitled Romanzo criminale (A Criminal Romance), may initially come across as a sort of Italian take on American Tabloid or Underworld, and in the style made famous by Ellroy and DeLillo, De Cataldo brought together real life events with imaginary situations to tell the story of recent Italian history. His aim was to extract the metaphor from the history and in doing so, he detached himself from the events that initially inspired this story. Without a doubt, this book would make a perfect film adaptation and negotiations are already underway. At the moment, Cattleya has an option on De Cataldo’s book. They are the same people who produced Io Non Ho Paura.
”The advice I give writers who want to make inroads both in the literary and film markets,” reveals De Cataldo, “is to be extreme in their writing and to make an extra effort to understand the signs of the times. You have to read reality, and build on connections and insight. I don’t believe that you have to go to a school to learn how to write books. The financial aspect merits a discussion of its own. Unfortunately you cannot afford to ignore market forces and political decisions that affect the world of culture. For example, a few years ago in Rome Mario Martone was the artistic director of the Teatro Argentina. That was a courageous and important choice because it finally meant a break with the past. Over a short period of time, Martone was given his walking papers because of political pressure was brought to bear. The end result is that no headway is ever made. Let me say this again, we need people who are willing to dare and get a proper take on contemporary reality. The example of the Theatre of Rome also applies to cinema. If, on the one hand we are able to welcome films like Velocità Massima and The Embalmer in a satisfactory and optimistic way, we are still way behind as far as the “big picture” is concerned. We have talented authors. Our writers and directors are good. What we Italians lack are the producers of yesteryear, the ones who were courageous enough to dare and focus their attention on films that were very different from each other. Basically speaking, cinema is managed by a single production company, with all the consequences that situation implies. The same is true of television. In short, thoughts and ideas are no longer circulating despite the fact that we have plenty of talented people out there, with great screenplays that unfortunately almost always end up being shelved.”

A second guest at Courmayeur was writer Andrea Pinketts. He was not there to present a book, but made his "over-the-top" personality felt just the same. Pinketts’ take on the current state of affairs of Italian and European noir is not all that very different from De Cataldo's.
”First of all we need to underline a fact of a temporal nature: in the 70s there were producers who made films like Un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto and Sbatti il mostro in prima pagina. Today these producers no longer exist, or, at best, they’ve been replaced by companies whose sole aim is making a profit. I don’t believe that American films are better: they are entertaining but often, they are more like videoclips or videogames than proper films. When they get the chance to, Europeans are very skilled in the way they treat certain issues, and they do this with a great sense of reality. Violence is represented without resorting to special effects. In that sense, I think that we are not experiencing a dearth of talent. There are good screenplays out there. All the same, when it comes down to finding a publisher and a producer, the writer has to surrender his narrative power to market forces. And that's not all. In theory, it is possible to write great books and make great films on a small budget. In theory, that is. Unfortunately, on those occasions when financial issues are not touched upon, finding the lowest common cultural denominator becomes very much the issue at hand. As a result, a film like The Embalmer is considered to be an anomaly in our film panorama. Thirty years ago it would have been routine. Screenplays are aborted while still in the project or distribution phase. And all the author can do when faced with similar obstacles is to dumb down and "become more royal than royalty itself", i.e. write stories that not even the Americans, the country that colonized us, would ever dream of producing.”

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