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Home , Diva Universal (Italy), KidsCo, Lucio Gregoretti, Piero Tosi, Studio Universal

Under the padronage of Leonardo Recalcati Valerio Ruiz present

A by Valerio Ruiz

Lina Wertmuller BEHIND THE

WHITEwww.behindthewhiteglasses.it GLASSES

Production In Association With Thanks Media Partner

PressKit_LinaWertmuller_eng.indd 1 25/08/15 16.54 present Lina Wertmuller BEHIND THE WHITE GLASSES Written and directed by Valerio Ruiz Cast Giancarlo Giannini Rutger Hauer Harvey Keitel Nastassja Kinski Martin Scorsese John Simon

Produced by RECALCATI MULTIMEDIA with WHITE GLASSES FILM Length 104’ Coming out in September 2015 The documentary will be broadcast on a TV premiere soon on ( Premium – DTT)

NBC Universal Press Office Press office and Communication Global Networks Italia Francesca Romana Massaro Francesca Ginocchi E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] mob. +39 3395824040 ph. +39 06 852091 – mob. +39 3356116803 Simona Pedroli E-mail: [email protected] Press kit avaiable also on: ph. +39 06 852091 – mob. +39 3336076773 http://www.behindthewhiteglasses.it/

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CAST Lina Wertmüller

Whit interviews by Marina Cicogna Caterina D’Amico Masolino D’Amico Isa Danieli Domenico De Masi Piera Degli Esposti Laura Delli Colli Giancarlo Giannini Rutger Hauer Roberto Herlitzka Harvey Keitel Nastassja Kinski Raffaele La Capria Pierluigi Leonardi Muzzi Loffredo Sophia Loren Rita Pavone Martin Scorsese John Simon Piero Tosi Massimo Wertmüller

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TECHNICAL

Director Valerio Ruiz Scriptwriter Valerio Ruiz Director of Photography Giuseppe Pignone Editing Pierluigi Leonardi Art Director Virginia Vianello Musical score Lucio Gregoretti Line Producer Valentina Negri Executive producer Leonardo Recalcati for Recalcati Multimedia Sound designer Stefano Di Fiore Live recording Michele Antonio Parisi Assistant cameraman Lorenzo Catenacci Data Manager Elisabetta Giri Grip David Lisi Gaffer Diego Lombroni Script supervisor Cecilia Triestino Color correction and finishing Andrea Bonanni Graphic Design Sergio Pappalettera Studio Prodesign Transportation Claudio Vinci Produced by Leonardo Recalcati Una produzione Valerio Ruiz Recalcati Multimedia S.r.l. White Glasses Film S.r.l Distributers for Recalcati Multimedia with Nbc Universal Global Networks Italia Srl Canale Studio Universal Sales agent world wide House Of Film, Llc

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SYNOPSIS

Behind the White Glasses is the story about Lina Wertmüller’s life and career. First woman in the world to receive a nomination for the Academy Award as best director for her masterpiece Seven beauty (Pasqualino Settebellezze, 1975).

From the unpublished pictures taken in Cinecittà when she was ’s assistant director for in 8 ½ , the documentary takes us to the places were her most famous were set , revealing theartistic and human universe of a woman who with her unfailing irony and taste for the grotesque, has left her mark in all fields entertainment in which she worked: cinema, drama, television, music. The journey is accompanied by many exclusive interviews with the artists who witnessed her intense and constantly evolving career.

Among them Giancarlo Giannini, Marina Cicogna, Sophia Loren and many foreign talents like Martin Scorsese, Harvey Keitel, Nastassja Kinski and film criticJohn Simon. The film features a long series of unreleased videos, images and songs written by Lina Wertmüller. “Behind the white glasses” is a personal poetic portrait by Valerio Ruiz, who was her assistant director and very close collaborator.

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FACT SHEET OF THE DOCU-FILM

Valerio Ruiz and Leonardo Recalcati present: Behind the white glasses, a docu-film. A portrait on film of the icon of Italian cinema in the world: Lina Wertmüller. The author of the film isLina Wertmüller’s assistant director and right-hand man, Valerio Ruiz who, with this work, pays tribute to quality film-making.

Lina Wertmüller started out in the film industry as assistant director working with great film-makers. For instance she worked on the set ofFederico Fellini ‘s 8 ½. The film focuses not only on the director’s career but it also presents the actors and artists who bore witness to a dream life. Among them are Giancarlo Giannini, Marina Cicogna, Sophia Loren and several foreign talents like Martin Scorsese, Harvey Keithel, Nastassja Kinski and John Simon. The producers are Valerio Ruiz, the head of White Glasses Film, and Leonardo Recalcati on behalf of Recalcati Multimedia, as well as NBC Universal Global Networks Italia – editor of the Studio network ( DT). The docu-film received the patronage of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

Cinecittà Studios became partner in the production of “Behind the white glasses”. The film is available in two formats, 52’ and 104’, and holds a long series of unpublished materials including videos, images and songs, some of which written by Lina Wertmüller herself, as well as famous interviews. The film includes backstage pictures that belong to the private and hitherto unpublished archive of the artist (e.g. 7’ of Lina Wertmüller filming Fellini on the set as he directs 8 ½) accompanied by her comments. An exclusive TV premiere of the documentary will be shown soon on Studio Universal. In the United States the House of Film will be in charge of distributing the film and it will also take care of international sales that will be promoted at the 2016 Film Festival.

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VALERIO RUIZ (Director and coproducer form)

Valerio Ruiz, scriptwriter and director of the film about Lina Wertmüller’s life and career, Behind the White Glasses, he is also the producer of the film through his company White Glasses Film together with Recalcati Multimedia. Born in in 1986, Valerio Ruiz has been working with director Lina Wertmüller for some years . He is scriptwriter and assistant director of the documentary directed by Lina Wertmüller Roma, Napoli, Venezia ... in un crescendo rossiniano (2014), first film in 4k produced by RAI, Technological Strategies Department. He started working with Lina Wertmüller almost ten years ago as assistant in organizing the film section of the 2006 and then went on to cooperate in the staging of two plays: Il Giornalino di Gianburrasca (2010) and Un’allegra fin de siècle (2013) and has continued through to the present day as assistant director of the TV-movie Mannaggia alla miseria (2009)

In 2012 he contributed to the drafting of Lina Wertmüller’s autobiography Tutto a posto e niente in ordine (Mondadori) he contributed also in several master classes of acting such as the one held at Taormina Arte (2009) dedicated to the writer Vitaliano Brancati. In 2011 Valerio wrote, produced and directed his first short film Piazza Fellini, a tribute to Federico Fellini interpreted by Sandra Milo who was both actress and muse for some of the masterpieces of the maestro. The short won the 2011 Capri Short Cut Award at the Capri Hollywood International Film Festival and third prize at the XI Villammare Film Festival. The short was then presented at the Los Angeles Italian Film Fashion and Art Fest and in other Italian festivals. In 2012, Ruiz enriched his experience in the theatre by working with other directors. He was Assistant Director for the Transiti di Venere play, written and directed by Raffaele Curi, produced by the Alda Fendi- Esperimenti Foundation. In that same year he was assistant director for As you Like it, by W. Shakespeare, directed by Marco Carniti and produced by the Silvano Toti Globe Theatre of Rome.

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After studying in Rome and Paris, Valerio graduated in Communication Sciences from the University of Roma La Sapienza with a theses entitled Lo schermo lirico. Percorso nel genere cinematografico del filmopera (The lyric filter: a review of the film- genre) discussed with Prof Roberto Faenza. To further his studies the subject , he directors with maestro Rosi the Francesco Rosi documentary-interview: A Carmen in real life. In 2010 for the 20th anniversary of the Italy-Albania development cooperation he was art director of the film festival Italian eyes, promoted by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

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Recalcati Multimedia is an independent film production and distribution company based in Milan and run by Leonardo Recalcati. Since 2014 it has been dealing with the acquisition of rights of original contents developed by leading authors and directors among whom Fabio & Fabio, Angelo Licata and Luca Elmi. Recalcati Multimedia is engaged in the production of works of international standing that are to be distributed around the world. Among these is Behind the white glasses by Valerio Ruiz, namely the portrait of an icon of Italian filmmaking in the world: Lina Wertmüller.

The work, selected for the “Venice classics” section of the 72nd edition of the Venice International Film Festival marks the debut of this production company. Made in association with Credito Valtellinese and filmed in only 24 days in Rome, New York and Geneva, the film received the patronage of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs as tribute to a work that offers a portrait of an outstanding Italian personality. The film is distributed in Italy by Recalcati Multimedia with NBC Universal Global Networks, while at the international level it is distributed by House of Film (USA – Los Angeles).

Leonardo Recalcati declares that: “Behind the white glasses is my way of concluding a journey I started many years ago with Enrico Job, when for the first time I approached the filmmaking world. Lina was a great personality on the Italian scene in the 20th century and it is exciting to give lasting life to her thoughts, memories and intuitions. My heartfelt thanks go to Lina and Valerio for all I received from them, for the extraordinary opportunity of a mind opening experience, for their expressions of confidence, support and for their unfailing personal affection”.

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Studio Universal, cinema in TV by filmmakers, is the TV channel created in 1998 by Universal Studios, the US colossal filmmaker backed by over 100 years of activity experience part of the NBCUniversal group. The channel has been available since 8 May 2009 on the Mediaset Premium digital platform. An international trademark for a l totally Italian channel: programming, creativity and marketing are entirely provided by Italian professionals who have thorough knowledge and expertise of the national market. Studio Universal is the channel of great American classics covering all genres. 11 different films are broadcasted every day and 150 different films every month without reruns on the same day. The channel offers the best of films produced by NBCUniversal and by the other great American Majors with a single common denominator: “only great films”. From thrillers action movies , to comedy and romance, from horror to science fiction, all genres find a place that is often set and coded in the schedule. From one film to the next, the film world is thoroughly explored with interviews, games, behind the scenes, specials, shorts and documentaries.

Universal International Networks Studio Universal brings new life into the big screen, creating more than one reason to watch a film or watch it again within the framework of themes, seasons, celebrations, anniversaries and special guests who present the programmes with constantly different and unexpected approaches. Studio Universal is also an internet website of Universal International Networks: www.studiouniversal.it.

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Universal International Networks, the international division of NBC Universal’s television channels, is one of the major entertainment networks in the world thanks to high quality contents and appealing brands that reach out to over 176 countries in , the Middle East, Latin America and Asia. The portfolio of Universal International Networks includes the following channels: Universal Channel, , 13th Street Universal, Studio Universal, E! Entertainment Television, The Style Network, and . These channels offer a full range of entertainment experiences to worldwide viewers. Universal International Networks manages also and holds a majority share in the KidsCo joint venture. NBCUniversal News Group is one of the most influential and highly esteemed on-air and digital news groups in the world. It owns CNBC and NBC News. Universal International Networks is part of NBCUniversal, one of the leading media and entertainment companies in the world for the development and production of entertainment products, for news and information addressed to a global viewership. NBCUniversal holds and manages a precious network of news and entertainment television channels, a filmmaking major, prominent television productions and theme parks all around the world. NBCUniversal is owned by Corporation.

For further information: Press Office NBC Universal Global Networks Italia

Francesca Ginocchi ph. 06 852091 – mob. 335 6116803 e-mail: [email protected]

Simona Pedroli ph. 06 852091 – mob. 333 6076773 e-mail: [email protected]

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LINA WERTMÜLLER Biography of a versatile artist

Lina Wertmüller started her artistic journey by attending the Accademia Teatrale run by Pietro Scharoff. After completing her education at the Academy she started working with directors in the theaters among whom Salvini, De Lullo and Garinei & Giovannini. She worked both for radio and television as author and director of the first edition of the TV show Canzonissima and as author for Studio Uno. In 1963 Lina Wertmüller started her career in the filmmaking world as assistant director and co-scriptwriter for Fellini on the set of Otto e mezzo. That same year marked her debut with I basilischi, a film that she conceived and directed and for which she wrote the script; and she also dubbed eight secondary characters. This was a delicate analysis of the youth of small towns in the South of Italy that she portrayed with an ironic and grotesque spirit. The film was immediately appreciated abroad and it received the Silver Sail award at the Locarno International Film Festival and other awards at the Vienna, London and Taormina film festivals. In 1964 works together with RAI for Il Giornalino di Gianburrasca, the first Italian musical-comedy. This was the first time that a television production uses great theatre actors like Tofano, Valeri, Valori and high quality collaborators like Piero Tosi as set design and costumes and Nino Rota for music orchestrated by Bacalov, the winner of 3 Academy Awards. In 1965 she filmed Questa volta parliamo di uomini, her second movie which stared Nino Manfredi and who was awarded the Maschera d’Argento. Then, using the pseudonym George H. Brown, she directed two musical commedies produced by Titanus, Rita la zanzara and Non stuzzicate la zanzara with Rita Pavone and Giancarlo Giannini as debut - Giulietta Masina, Turi Ferro, Paolo Panelli and Bice Valori. She also directed a Western: The Bell Star Story – il mio corpo per un poker (1967) featuring Elsa Martinelli. After working as scriptwriter for some time for Cayatte, Sollima and Festa Campanile, Lina Wertmüller returned to film directing: Mimì

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metallurgico ferito nell’onore (1972) starting the golden age of her carreer. With this film she brought a new couple to the attention of Italian audiences: Giancarlo Giannini – Mariangela Melato, a perfect match for portraying Italian stereotypes. Lina Wertmüller used extremely original settings with painstaking attention to detail, especially once she started to work with Enrico Job brilliant set designer and costumes designer .They become couple both at work and in private that lasted more than forty years. There is a somewhat elaborate style in the ironic and typically lengthy titles of Lina Wertmüller’s films. Examples are Film d’amore e d’anarchia, ovvero stamattina in Via dei Fiori nella nota casa di tolleranza (1973) featuring the Giannini-Melato couple; Tutto a posto e niente in ordine (1974); Travolti da un insolito destino nell’azzurro mare di agosto (1974), this too featuring Giannini and Melato. With Travolti da un insolito destino nell’azzurro mare di agosto and Seven beauty (Pasqualino Settebellezze) she attained international recognition . She become known to the American market and was the very first woman to obtain four nominations for the Academy Award. In the 80’s she directs several movies with international cast: in 1985 she directs Harvey Keitel and Angela Molina in Un complicato intrigo di donne, vicoli e delitti, then with her film In una notte di chiaro di luna (1989) featuring Peter O’Toole, Faye Dunaway, Rutger Hauer and Nastassja Kinski, she proved to be a forerunner in dealing with the AIDS issue. For the theatre she wrote Due più due non fa più quattro (1968), directed by her friend . Then she directed La cucina by A. Wesker (1969), Amore e magia nella cucina di mamma (1979), L’esibizionista (1994), Gianni, Ginetta e gli altri (1995), Storia d’amore e d’anarchia (2002), Lasciami andare madre (2004) and Molto rumore (senza) rispetto per nulla (2005), La vedova scaltra (2007),more recent productions Il giornalino di Gianburrasca

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(2010) featuring Elio and Un’allegra fin de siècle (2013). In 1986, she made her debut in the opera world at the San Carlo Theatre of Naples and at the Stat Opera of Munich with Bizet’s Carmen and then at the Opera House in Athens with La Boheme. In 2007 Le nozze di Figaro for Tuscia Opera Festival. With Raffaele La Capria she adapted for the tv the show Sabato, domenica e lunedì featuring Luca De Filippo, Pupella Maggio, Luciano De Crescenzo and Sophia Loren whom she had directed in Fatto di sangue fra due uomini per causa di una vedova... si sospettano moventi politici (1978). Then came Io speriamo che me la cavo, in 1992, with Paolo Villaggio. She made a comeback to the cinema with Ninfa Plebea, a film based on the novel by Domenico Rea and Metalmeccanico e parrucchiera in un turbine di sesso e di politica (1996), a film in which Lina Wertmüller flaunts her unmsitakeable grotesque spirit in dealing with class struggle issues. In Fernando e Carolina (1999) she tells the story of King Ferdinand of Bourbon and his marriage with Caroline, daughter of Marie Therese of Austria. During her carreer she directed several documentaries, also for RAI, among which Una domenica sera di novembre (1982). For l’Enciclopedie Visuelle francaise, Vivaldi (1992). For 90, The Russian Soul (1993). For television she directed Il decimo clandestino (1989), based on a story by Guareschi, with Piera degli Esposti and Dominique Sandà. Francesca e Nunziata (2001) based on the novel by Maria Orsini Natale starring Sophia Loren, Giancarlo Giannini, Raoul Bova and Claudia Gerini, and Mannaggia alla miseria (2009). Her most recent work is a documentary entitled: Roma, Napoli, Venezia... in un crescendo rossiniano (2014) first 4k project produced by RAI, Dept. Tech Strategies.

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DIRECTOR’S NOTES Valerio Ruiz

Behind the white glasses came about in a special circumstance that personally touched me: As a result of working together with Lina for these past ten years in different fields of entertainment, I have been able to get a deep insight into her artistic and human universe. The film is a journey in search of the places in Italy that Lina Wertmüller portrays with so much passion, emphasizing the differences, contradictions, dialects, beauty, in her films.

Behind the white glasses is conceived as a narrative film and not exclusively as a documentary film both from the standpoint of the story that is narrated and that of the production structure. In several points there is a “set” , which however does not diminish the spontaneity of the memories and recollections of the protagonist. The idea behind this choice is the will of bringing Lina Wertmüller’s story as close as possible to the story told through a film so as to suggest the idea that the cinema and filmmaking are life itself for a director like the passionate and relentless Lina Wertmüller and that it is impossible to separate one from the other. Therefore it is not only a document, but a narrative that goes beyond the concreteness of the albeit rich and unparalleled facts that are presented and that speaks to people’s emotions and introduces then to the human aspects of this artist.

Together with my personal knowledge of the director, the witnesses have the task of capturing the many facets of the world of Lina Wertmüller. The people interviewed are enshrouded in darkness, lit only by the colours of the Tiffany lamps that decorate Lina Wertmüller’s house and that provide the backdrop to the figures. The witnesses therefore come from an abstract places that at the same time evoke an intimate place of the protagonist. The interviews reveal the most precious aspects of Lina Wertmüller’s artistic world: her way of working, her personal use of filmmaking and editing techniques, her writing, the direction of the actors.

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By providing many different points of view, the interviews capture Lina Wertmüller’s talent in its entirety. After an in-depth and lengthy exploration of her work as director, I think it would be impossible – and perhaps even misguiding – to portray her brilliance by looking for a definition and for logical explanations about the reasons of her artistic choices. The genius of an artist is ultimately his or her greatest mystery. Seeking to reveal it would be diminishing and belittling of the artist.The film therefore seeks to build inroads into the universe of the Roman director to gain knowledge about her with the aim of displaying her multifarious talent: watching Lina as she interprets a song is perhaps the most untainted way of transmitting her artistic genius to the audience without the need for academic critiques or explainations.

There were moments in the career of this acclaimed and acknowledged director - unmistakably characterized by her inseparable white glasses - in which she experienced failure, harsh criticism and even an unsuccessful film. The documentary also reflects these moments. The wisdom displayed by Lina Wertmüller as she recalls these difficult moments in her career is uplifting and moving. The intention of this film, therefore, is to portray Lina Wertmüller. Not only t the grotesque spirit that informs her films and plays, that nevertheless are given ample space in the documentarty, but also her humane side, and disclose aspects of her personality that at times are hidden behind the image-mask of her white glasses. The narrative device is that of the portrait that offers a personal, poetic and unfettered point of view.

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Out of the many virtues that have contributed to Lina Wertmüller’s unconditional success in the United States, her love for Italy and for the Italian spirit were a determining factor. Indeed her films and the entirety of her artistic production are the result of an authentic passion for all the typical things that make up the soul of her Country; with her imagination she transfigured the values and defects of an entire emotional epic poem. Endowed with all forms of creativity she exercised them equally with tenacity and with phenomenal success: from music to theatre, to television and filmmaking, with human character being a perpetual and endless stage on which everything could be enhanced or dampened in accordance with her creative streak and her lyrical feelings.

Within the great tradition of “Italian theatre”, musicals and plays are likewise pervaded by her words, Lina Wertmuller depicted characters with essential strokes that perfectly match the literary universe shaped by her great classical educational background. Recognizable, as is true of all great authors, Lina Wertmuller is among the very few who have depicted us with joy and enthusiasm and not at all with a pitiable eye and she does not dwell on wretchedness. Heroic in mockery and in making jests because she is in love with each one of her characters. She is a master in offering quintessential images. Through her white-framed glasses frame she has looked at a world that is perhaps the world she carried in her heart and whose inhabitants have been admired and recognized by the whole world as being the authentic, true and perfect representations of the Italian people. For this reason she deserves to be acknowledged as an outstanding Italian woman. An unfailingly loyal friend who has always been capable of showing true affection.

Carla Fendi

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Press office NBC Universal Global Networks Italia

Francesca Ginocchi E-mail: [email protected] ph. 06 852091 – mob. 3356116803

Simona Pedroli E-mail: [email protected] ph. 06 852091 – mob. 3336076773

Film Press Office and Communication

Francesca Romana Massaro E-mail: [email protected] mob. +39 339 5824040

http://www.behindthewhiteglasses.it/

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