Among the most expected events of the Dogliani TV Festival, «The Renaissance of Italian fiction » took place yesterday; a long and impassionate conversation moderated by Aldo Grasso and attended also by Lorenzo Mieli, CEO of Fremantle Media Italia, Pietro Valsecchi, producer and CEO of Taodue Film, actors Ricky Tognazzi and Marco Bocci, and the President of Piemonte Film Commission Paolo Damiano.
For Valsecchi ideas come first, and Italian fiction should tell about our history, its best examples, since the more you keep local, the more you’ll be appreciated at an international level. This is the reason why he has announced, among the next projects produced by Taodue, various biopics of lay heroes such as Libero Grassi, the Sicilian entrepreneur killed by Cosa Nostra for his opposition to protection money; Renata Fonte, the Apulia politician who opposed property speculation and defended her territory at the cost of her life; Emanuela Loi, the escort agent of Borsellino killed in via D’Amelio, and finally Mario Francese, a journalist killed by the mafia.
Lorenzo Mieli agreed with Valsecchi on the high value of local stories, as in the case of Gomorra, played in Neapolitan dialect and exported all over the world. According to Fremantle Ceo the renaissance of Italian fiction depends in particular on the new clients, who are now asking for international level products and inviting producers to dare, as in the case of Rai Director General Campo Dall’Orto, who has received in these days some “indecorous attacks”.
Marco Bocci underlined that for a long time Italian fiction has been considered by many actors as a cinema product of TV series, whereas he started indeed with an excellent quality product such as Romanzo criminale. However, to be competitive we should invest on training, following the example of Taodue who will launch its school for directors and screenwriters next September, and that of Ricky Tognazzi, who’s working in Turin to transform “some studios of Mirafiori in a young talents’ workshop”
Some disagreements though arose on dubbing. According to Tognazzi this is an outmoded habit, which prevents viewers from fully enjoy the original work, whereas Valsecchi, who has just got back from Madrid where he presented Quo Vado with Checco Zalone, affirmed the film with subtitles was less amusing than the dubbed version. In any case there is hunger for Italian stories, so much that Taodue is working on a “series on Italian fashion, that had been envisaged at the time with Franca Sozzani, and which has aroused a great interest”
