Eleven years after the death of Marcello Mastroianni, the
Shanghai International Film Festival salutes a giant of the Italian
cinema with a tribute aptly entitled The Stuff Dreams Are Made
Of, Xu Wei looks back over his life.
It's hard to find another Italian actor or director with a
prouder name, richer filmography and more brilliant accolades than
the late Italian film artist Marcello Mastroianni.
During his 50 years acting career, Mastroianni starred in more
than 120 movies and earned numerous awards including two Oscars for
Best Actor in a Leading Role and the Best Actor and an Honorary
Award from the Venice International Film Festival.
Although most of his movies never hit Chinese cinemas on their
first release, an ongoing retrospective of his works in Shanghai,
entitled The Stuff That Dreams Are Made of, will help fill
this void.
The movies are part of the 10th Shanghai International Film
Festival. Four representative works - Divorce Italian
Style, 8 1/2, The Sweet Life and Big
Deal on Madonna Street will be shown.
Remarkably, Anna Tato, Mastroianni's long-time lover and
companion for the last 22 years of his life, also brings her
210-minute award-winning documentary Marcello Mastroianni: I
Remember, Yes I Remember to local audiences.
"What impresses me deeply was Mastroianni's modesty," says Tato.
"Famous as he was, he kept comfortable relationship with the film
crew. For him, each shooting experience was an exciting adventure.
He believed a good relationship must be based on exchange and
communication."
Tato shot the film while Mastroianni, then 72, was making
Voyages to the Beginning of the World for Portuguese
director Manoel Oliveira. Alone before the camera, Mastroianni
recollects and reflects on his career and life with irony and a
gentle wonder.
The master didn't conceal his aspiration for new experiences and
new journeys in this autobiographical monologue, saying: "I like
people; I love life; perhaps that is why life has loved me in
return."
In 1998, two years after Mastroianni's death, the Marcello
Mastroianni Foundation was founded. As an initiator of the
foundation, Tato has endeavored to preserve valuable film clips of
the artist.
The foundation is now located in the city of Bologna, hosted by
Cineteca di Bologna. It offers audiences a large collection of
audio-visual documents about the famous Italian actor and other
masters in the film industry like Charles Chaplin.
The 92-year-old Italian director Mario Monicelli, a friend of
Mastroianni, is also at the film festival in Shanghai. In 1958 they
collaborated on Big Deal on Madonna Street, a comedy
taking a hilarious look at the plight of a sad-sack group of
bumbling burglars and their desperate attempts to pull off the
perfect heist.
"The Italian cinema has a long tradition of focusing on reality
and our lives," says Monicelli, who has garnered a Golden Lion
Award and three Silver Bear Awards for Best Director at the Venice
International Film Festival and Berlin International Film
Festival.
"For Hollywood, perhaps film is a business, but for us, we can't
find a better medium to express our emotions and showcase the
connections among different people," he adds.
Nowadays, like many other film markets around the world, Italian
filmmakers are facing fierce competition from Hollywood
blockbusters.
However, Monicelli believes that in the future Italian
filmmakers will keep their unique realism tradition of portraying
the essence of life with universal themes and rich imagination.
His suggestion for the younger generation of directors is simply
"Do not miss any chance to make a film, no matter if it is a big
eye-catching production or not."
In addition to the retrospective screenings which pay tribute to
Mastroianni, 17 recent Italian movies will also be shown at the
Focus Italy special Italian film exhibition, such as
Alessandro D'Alatri's Commediasexy, Crime Novel,
Ballroom Dancing and The White Ballad.
These works, covering genres from thrillers to comedy to romance
will provide an insight into the culture and modern social life of
Italy.
(Shanghai Daily June 20, 2007)