Schopenhauer
Italy, 2006, 75’, color
Format 35mm, 1:33, Mono
Producer Invisibile Film and Giovanni Maderna
Director Giovanni Maderna
Storyboard and dialogues Giovanni Maderna
Set Photography Massimo Schiavon
Film Editor Paola Freddi
Sound Editor Daniela Bassani
Cast Rudy Galoppini, Michela Noé, Filippo Ticozzi, Filippo Usellini, Silvano Cavatorta, Giovanni Maderna
Awards and invitations Locarno International Film Festival
Author’s Statement
After my last feature film was made with a substantial budget and big production company, but was considerably abandoned in terms of distribution, I noticed that in Italy, and maybe not just in Italy, it is almost impossible to reach any type of compromise with the actual production establishment, and under these terms go forward with one’s own approach.
So I looked for other routes. I experimented. I taught to survive and tried to set up very independent low-budget productions. Meanwhile, the cultural situation in our country as well as the economical one, was in decline.
As a result of all this, Schopenhauer was made, thanks to private funding and a meeting with young producer Gabriella Manfré. A film costing less than 100.000 euro but which was just as I had conceived it. I went back to working my way, using what I consider the basic materials in movies, and from which my love for this art was born. I am not interested in their functional use or in manipulating them, I believe in respecting their true nature. It is like selecting a block of marble or a piece of wood, once the choice has been made it is only a matter of maintaining their true essence. A filmmaker’s basic materials are the locations, objects, physical and character traits of the actors themselves, as well as the sound and visual recordings. Using these elements, it is then possible to create the structure of the story , and not vice versa.
I am happy to have found this approach to movies again, because I missed it a great deal.
Giovanni Davide Maderna (Milan, 1973)
Director, producer
After completing his studies in Literature, he moves to Lyon where in 1995 he buys a 16mm movie camera and directs the short La Place, dedicated to the square in which he lives, and its regular dwellers. The film receives the “Sacher d’oro” prize at the Nanni Moretti’s Festival. After a period of several months at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia and a new short: Jahilia (Occidente), the story of a Maghrebin immigrant on the hills of the Oltrepò pavese inspired by the characters and situations in a novel by Flannery O’Connor. In 1997 he takes part in the collective film Com’è bella la città, coordinated by Goffredo Fofi. In 1998, he makes Dolce Stil Novo, story of adolescents living in the suburbs of Milan traced on a novel by Checov; presented at the Locarno Film Festival, Biennial of Young Artists from Europe and the Mediterranean (Rome 1999), and winner of numerous international awards.
With Questo è il giardino, written with Carolina Freschi, the film’s main actress, he makes his debut in feature film. The film tells the story of two young Conservatoire musicians and is subdivided into four phases (falling in love, passion, separation e reunion), with reference to the four gardens in the Bible (Genesis, Canticle of Canticles, Gospel and Apocalipse).
Best First Film Award at the Venice Film Festival in 1999.
In 2001, he makes L’amore imperfetto, a film in competition in Venice, inspired by true facts and tells the story of the parents of a child who suffers from a severe deformity.
Bologna, 16-2-05, Giovanni Maderna and Antonio Moresco meet Alberto Grifi, it is a documentary-interview dedicated to the works of the great Italian experimental filmmaker.
In 2006 feature film Schopenhauer is in competition in Locarno (Cineasti del Presente) and in many festivals all around the world.
As a producer he founds in 2007 “Quarto Film”, a company which is now producing the feature film “Cielo senza terra” (Heaven without Earth) by Giovanni Maderna.
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