Is titled Winter lemons and sees Cristian De Sica, known for his comedic roles, in a dramatic interpretation, the second of his career. Here he is a retired professor, widowed and ill, who will establish a very tender friendship with a neighbor on the terrace. “I have never played a good, respectable man like this and as I believe myself to be”, explained De Sica during the press conference for the film, as reported by Agi in these hours. The film, directed by Caterina Carone, stars together to Christian De Sica the actress Teresa Saponangelo, the one who plays the terrace neighbor of the retired professor.
The film is scheduled for Friday 27 October at 6pm at the Rome Film Festival, in the Grand Public section.
“I had the desire to make a film that talks about respect between men and women, about goodness, about love, about friendship because we can’t stand negative characters and violent films anymore,” explains De Sica. “I think that today in the cinema they always tell the ugly, the black, the horrendous things, but people need love, goodness, beauty. If an elegant comedy like the ones with William Holden and Audrey Hepburn were made today, people would run into the theater,” adds the actor.
The film sees Cristian De Sica playing for the first time not so much a dramatic leading role, given that he had already played one in Pupi Avati’s feature film The youngest child, but if anything a good character. In Avati’s film, in fact, De Sica gave up his comic clothes to put on dramatic ones full of great malice: he was a cynical man, while in the film Winter lemons for the first time he is a good man in a non-comedy film. His character is realistic, convincing, and manages to be very moving.
At the bottom of this article you will find the official trailer of the film Winter lemons.
Pietro and Eleonora, played by Christian De Sica and Teresa Saponangelo
He is Pietro, an exceptional male protagonist in this unprecedented guise of a good man who must not at all costs make people laugh, but his supporting actress, the actress Teresa Saponangelo who plays Eleonora, is also very good.
The two characters do not know each other but, thanks to the proximity of each other’s terraces, they begin to weave a dialogue, at first a very bland and casual conversation which will gradually transform into a deep two-voice chorus, which helps them alleviate the pain that everyone carries in their heart, a pain for something serious. Both have a secret that they try to hide from themselves and others. The man and the woman will get to know each other thanks to the gardening activity on the terrace to which they both dedicate themselves with great passion.
The character of Pietro is losing his memory, in a dramatic and painful way. But the poetry, sweetness and sincerity of this film manage to soothe every wound like a balm, both of those inside and outside the screen. Cast and audience, together, find themselves amazed by noticing how goodness manages to infect, more than that algorithm of indignation and hatred that now dominates the world, at the basis of social networks that trap us in a bitten by hater.
To put down real roots like those of the plants that Pietro and Eleonora take care of on their terrace, there’s no need for Facebook: the only way to establish a true friendship is to look each other in the eyes, touch each other’s hands, be next to each other and show without filters what you are feeling, without an emoticon having to say it for you.
Winter lemons will arrive in theaters on November 30th distributed by Europictures.
A film that talks about good feelings
Winter lemons it is a film that talks about goodness, friendship, beautiful souls and good feelings. And what Christian De Sica says he appreciates most about this film. The Roman actor said during a press conference to present the film that he is very happy that this work talks about goodness.
“I would like to see optimistic comedies like those of the 1950s still made today, when Aldo Fabrizi said: ‘Today is Sunday, there’s chicken!’ I hope that this film also gives the go-ahead to other directors to tell the beauty, the good and the good that there is in our country.” The story that Caterina Carone’s film tells acts a bit like a Proustian madeleine, making the Roman actor take a leap back in time. “My father was good at putting compassion into a story, dad put the camera on and worked on feelings, he put goodness into a story. Umberto D, the old man who asks for alms and is ashamed. I think there’s a need for this, I can’t stand American films anymore where there are always explosions and noise. Even when the actress shows up in the foreground. Everything is a bang, it’s unbearable,” says Christian De Sica.
Christian De Sica: “For a comedian to play a character like this, a dramatic role, is a celebration”
The actor Christian De Sica admits that for him the role of Pietro is a real gift, a godsend.
“For a comedian to play a character like this, a dramatic role, is a celebration. I have done many comic, misogynist, chauvinistic characters, they were negative characters because you laugh with the Devil and not with Saint Francis. In this film however I tried not to acting, to be myself. I’m a bit like Pietro, with my shyness, my fragility. I went to subtract, to take away from the character, not to add”, confesses De Sica.
“Then I tried to look Teresa in the eyes and we immediately became friends, we liked each other straight away and it shows. I followed my father’s advice: don’t try to say the joke well, for effect, but look at the woman in front of you and answer and you will see that the answers will always be true. Trying to put a bit of goodness into the character is not an easy thing”, adds the star.
De Sica: “This is a country that easily forgets”
“Ours is a country that easily forgets. Years ago we went with my brother Manuel to a bar and we heard some kids say: did you know that Christian’s father was also an actor? And then we went to Rai and we did a series about dad called tell me about love. Sometimes I go to give lessons to young people and they don’t know Anna Magnani”, explains Christian De Sica with great regret.
“In England or France it is not like that. In France an old actor is an idol, just think of Marlene Dietrich. However in Italy it is not like that. I live by memory: if I hadn’t had this fervent admiration for Alberto Sordi, for Dino I laughed, for Monicelli, for Age and Scarpelli, I couldn’t have done anything. Once we went with Alberto Sordi to Vespa to give him a symbolic Oscar. He took me aside and told me: ‘Christian, everything’s fine, but every time you see my photo you have to put your nose under it because you copied everything from me. And of course – I replied – and that I copied from Pippo Franco? I copied from you…”.
Below you will find the official trailer of the film Winter lemons.
Source-tg24.sky.it