presents THE BLACK SHEEP (LA PECORA NERA) A film by Ascanio Celestini Produced by Madeleine ALESSANDRA ACCIAI, CARLO MACCHITELLA, GIORGIO MAGLIULO In collaboration with Rai Cinema and BIM DISTRIBUZIONE Starring ASCANIO CELESTINI, GIORGIO TIRABASSI, MAYA SANSA, LUISA DE SANTIS, NICOLA RIGNANESE, BARBARA VALMORIN For the first time on the screen LUIGI FEDELE And featuring TERESA SAPONANGELO 2 For further information: Beta Cinema Press, Dorothee Stoewahse, Tel: + 49 89 67 34 69 15, [email protected] , www.betacinema.com Pictures and filmclips available on ftp.betafilm.com , username: ftppress01, password: betapress Acknowledgement of national and cultural interest by Direzione Generale per il Cinema del Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali Story and screenplay by Ascanio Celestini, Ugo Chiti and Wilma Labate Based on the book “La pecora nera” by Ascanio Celestini (Ed. Einaudi) CREW Director of photography DANIELE CIPRI’ Film editor GIOGIO’ FRANCHINI Sound designer MAURIZIO ARGENTIERI Production design TOMMASO BORDONE Set decorator STEFANIA MAGGIO Costume design GRAZIA COLOMBINI Make up MARCO ALTIERI Hair Stylist DANIELA ALTIERI Assistant director VALIA SANTELLA General organization ANTONELLA VISCARDI a.p.a.i. Director ASCANIO CELESTINI CAST (in order of apparition) Professor ADRIANO PALLOTTA Alberto ALBERTO PAOLINI African nun IGIABA SCEGO Teacher ROBERTA SFERZI Marinella child WALLY GALDIERI Maurizio Pancotti FLAVIO SANTINI Robertino Casoria ANDREA FANTOZZI Patient VERONICA CRUCIANI Priest GAETANO VENTRIGLIA Thin ALESSANDRO MARVERTI Fat MAURO MARCHETTI Young Prostitute ALESSIA BERARDI Supermarket General Manager ROBERTO LATINI Supermarket cashier ANNAMARIA SPALLONI Medical Director MASSIMO BARONE Hospital attendant OLEK MINCER Marshal MAURILIO LETO Carabiniere FABIO BIAGGI And with the friendly featuring of PEPPE SERVILLO, DANIELA BENDONI OTELLO ANGELI 3 For further information: Beta Cinema Press, Dorothee Stoewahse, Tel: + 49 89 67 34 69 15, [email protected] , www.betacinema.com Pictures and filmclips available on ftp.betafilm.com , username: ftppress01, password: betapress SYNOPSIS Nicola is a young boy who was born in the country during the Sixties, with his mother sent to an asylum, his father and his two brothers that are shepherds and his grandma rearing chickens that takes care of him. At school he’s banished to the last desk, he’s absent-minded, he doesn’t do his homework and the teacher calls him “the black sheep”, but he loves Marinella, the most beautiful girl of his class and when he’s not lost in her eyes or blonde hair, Nicola tells about extraterrestrials and women licking naked men; to show everybody he’s brave, he eats spiders still alive. A crime committed by his brothers, falls on the dangerous kid that talks about aliens; Nicola becomes a troublesome witness and his reckless family sends him to the asylum where his mother died and where nobody will listen to him when he talks. A guest, not a patient, in a place that feeds him and puts him up. Following a second tragic event of which the responsibility falls on him again and after having suffered brutal treatments, Nicola develops another identity by inventing a friend, a technician, that keeps him company. There will be two different actors to play Nicola’s split personality, generating a slight touch of humour. Then Nicola meets Marinella, the beloved of his childhood, at the supermarket where he often goes accompanied by the old nun that has known him since then. In a sweet love atmosphere, Nicola pluck up courage to declare his love still there after 35 years, while the other one, ignored by the surrounding world, comments with risqué talks. The joy of finding her again and the deep sorrow after her clear refusal, give Nicola the possibility of recovering himself, getting rid of the imaginary friend. PRODUCTION NOTES Monday, 15th of March - first day of filming Between the Palmiro Togliatti, the Collatina, the bypass and the beltway, there are some Roms and vegetable gardens of many elderly people. One of them is coming to talk. He used to act as a bit in the sixties and seventies. He played a part in a western movie in his birthplace The Abruzzo. He was asked to act as an Indian with his horse, he took wine with him and fell asleep up in the mountains… Actually grandma’s house is called ‘little dump’ as she says, “My little dump”. She arrived here 25 years ago with her boyfriend. Wednesday, 17th of March - scene of Nicola eating the spiders The animal man arrives with two spiders, one is big, the other one is enormous. Tropical spiders, that need to work immediately otherwise they freeze to death. The small one is as big as a kid’s hand. It’s a black spider that weaves by digging in the sand. Luigi must get close to the beast, he should at least be near it and maybe tingle it with a small stick. But as soon as he sees it, he wants to touch it, so we put the spider on a fake web and Luigi really plays with it. Thursday, 28th of March - Luigi is dressed up as a rabbit The last night I thought that kids must do something practical, just playing it’s not enough for them, so I make a list of possible games. The wheelbarrow, puss in the corner, silent alphabet, beautiful little statues, one, two, three freeze! Hide and seek, tossing coins against a wall…I let Rocco, Peppe Servillo’s son going behind Luigi and saying “ I come from Jerusalem without laughing and without crying” it’s child’s play but it consists in passing between two rows of children that try to make him 4 For further information: Beta Cinema Press, Dorothee Stoewahse, Tel: + 49 89 67 34 69 15, [email protected] , www.betacinema.com Pictures and filmclips available on ftp.betafilm.com , username: ftppress01, password: betapress laugh while he’s waving his arms as a flagellant striving to be serious. It really seems a ceremony of flagellants or a jail corporal punishment. Friday, 19th of March - today we shot the school As for the parish youth club, I took note of some actions that children can act. Rocco writes on his hand the Roma football team formation of 1974-1975, he writes while he’s whispering it. I like when characters, especially kids, speak in a low voice, they do reveal something… What? It’s ok. A child with glasses sticks a chewing gum under his desk and then he eats a slice of pizza secretly, another one pops gums, Robertino Casoria plays the game of the pen pretending it’s melted down with Pancotti Maurizio who replies with the trick of the magic hankies that change their colour; then paper bags with pens and written notes among girls. No airplanes. The last day of school a child writes who’s going to the seaside and who’s going to the mountains, as the Nazi list of the good and the wicked, the school that it’s choosy on holidays too, that it’s bad also when it tries to be good. Wednesday, 24th of March - scene of the queer dog The animal man has brought a dog that is a real swindle. Mrs Viscardi says that dogs should not eat before shooting, the trainer must feed them as a reward for what they have done, afterwards. This dog has already been fed and doesn’t want to work at all. We try three, four times but he always runs away from his trainer. Useless. So we change the scene. Rignanese arrives, he lit his cigarette and says “Too much of a silence here” and then he whispers as if he was talking to someone “Lucky you” and goes up again sounding the horn. Light is perfect. In these days a little dog was strolling about, a crossbreed. His name is Max but Luigi calls him Fusillo. Luigi and the other boys insist that he must play the part of the dog but Mrs Viscardi says that it’s better to take the trained one, but he turned out to be a blunder. Strangely enough Fusillo did not show up today. Giulia and the others go and look for him. His owner shut him up somewhere for fear that he could be bitten by the shepherd dogs. He says that once a Sheperd dog nearly cut his head off and he was doubtful about going to the vet or putting him down. He went to the vet and he had forty stitches. He put him in the boiler room to make him feel warm and it seems that two cats licked his wounds so they did not become infected. The story says that Fusillo goes around looking for food to share with the cats. In the end, they find Fusillo who arrives running and plays the part perfectly. Monday, 29th of March - the first day at the mental hospital We shot two standard scenes but they give us a lot of troubles. In the 80 the light is changing constantly and we did not get much done. The 81 it’s a passage to the gate where Pancotti Maurizio will die. I ask the set designer to paint a piece of different colour and write with the paintbrush “PAD. 18” with a full stop after pad and the d in lower letter as if it was a slapdash, temporary sign. The gate must be recognizable at the second glance. It should represent the place of the ritual death of Pancotti, the child’s death, but also Nicola’s identity and social death. It must remind a sort of sacrificial and memorial altar, sacred and institutional violence. But some Roms go to and and fro, they make noise, we can hear them arguing in the microphones, talking about police and robberies… Tuesday, 30th of March In the morning we are in the bundle room for the scene 16.