Le Città di Pianura, as seen by Francesco Sossai
One night on the Venetian plain, Giulio, a shy architecture student, crosses paths with Carlobianchi and Doriano, two disillusioned fifty-somethings in search of a nightcap : in Le Città di Pianura, his new film in the form of an introspective road movie, Italian director Francesco Sossai evokes intergenerational transmission and the quest for meaning.
What inspired you to begin work on this film?
The film was inspired by a colossal bender with a friend of mine in Venice and a myriad of notes I have collected over the years wandering the plains of my region.
Can you describe your working method and the atmosphere on set ?
My method is to be free in staging and not to prepare any kind of storyboards or shotlists so that I can tell the places as if I were seeing them for the first time. For example, I remember when we shot the graduation scene, it took us hours to decide how to shoot and then the shooting process was very fast, almost impressionistic. I like it when I feel an energy in what I’m shooting, and I think that’s what fascinates me most about working on the set. I look for that energy, and when I see it, I can shoot very fast.
Please share a few words about your actors…
A really intense bond was created with the three main characters : with Filippo Scotti I feel I shared all the hopes and expectations of our generation, creating a deep relationship. Filippo immediately understood that for me the frailties and mistakes are what make a performance come alive and he was able to let go in this process. Sergio Romano became the character by going to live in my hometown for a while : once he returned he was unrecognizable, he had become exactly the kind of man I meet at the bar in my hometown. It was impressive to watch his process. Pierpaolo Capovilla gave me this acting debut of his by putting all his poetic energy, his fury and his tremendous sweetness, and I think he made an outstanding debut.
What did you learn during the course of making this film ?
I have learned that I hate fiction and increasingly want to create a kind of cinema that tells the story of life in its miseries, trivialities and rare moments of enlightenment. And I want the shots I take to look like they are part of an ecosystem or a landscape.
What would you like people to remember from your film ?
I would like people to remember first of all my fantastic actors and then to take with them a certain air that is in the film, of joy in the little adventures, the little odysseys that define our life experience.
What made you want to become a director ?
I remember seeing 2001 A Space Odyssey when I was very young and thinking that I wanted to do that for the rest of my life. For me, the influences are varied, from Bela Tarr to Marco Ferreri, from Elio Petri to Masaki Kobayashi, from Jean-Pierre Melville to Robert Bresson, from John Ford to Jia Zhangke.
Which movie would you recommend and why ?
I would like to recommend to those who have not seen it a great classic, Marco Ferreri’s La grande abbuffata (La Grand Bouffe) to experience again the pleasure of being scandalized.
Can you tell us about your next project ?
I am doing research for a documentary on UFO sightings in my region.