WORKING SLOWLY IN THE UK
The film we co-authored with Guido Chiesa last year,
set in 1977 during the Bologna student uprising, is going to be screened
in the UK (London 9 April, Glasgow 13 April, Edinburgh 15 april) in
the context of the Italian Film Festival.
Places, timetable, and bookings at: http://www.italianfilmfestival.org.uk/
Those who can't attend can order the DVD here:
http://www.internetbookshop.it/dvd/ser/serdsp.asp?shop=1&e=8010020030996
(no English subtitles though)
***
This is the blurb we found on the festival's website:
WORKING SLOWLY / RADIO ALICE
Dir: Guido Chiesa
2004 111mins
Revisiting the Italy of the radical Seventies and its obsessions with
class struggle, creative anarchy and macrame ponchos, Working Slowly
(Radio Alice) provides a fascinating glimpse of a time of protest.
In a working-class district on the outskirts of Bologna, Sgualo (Tommaso
Ramenghi) and Pelo (Marco Luisi) hang out at the local cafe, allergic
to gainful employment. They don’t mind the occasional shady
job for local hood Marangon (Valerio Binasco), but they’re convinced
there’s little future whichever way they turn.
***
This is the official website of the film. It's in
Italian but there's a lot of clips and audio files to check out, as
well as the trailer.
http://www.lavorareconlentezza.com
***
This is what we wrote about the film on Giap/digest#26
a few months ago:
Actually the international title is "Radio Alice",
but the movie is originally called "Lavorare con lentezza"
[Work Slowly], after a 1970's song by Italian folk-singer Enzo Del
Re: "Work slowly / And effortlessly / Work may hurt you /
And send you to the hospital / Where there's no bed left / And you
may even die. / Work slowly / And effortlessly / Health is priceless."
Guido had directed a very good documentary on Radio Alice in 2002,
the year that marked the 25th anniversary of the March 1977 riots
in Bologna, Rome, and other Italian cities. At the peak of the riots,
the Bologna-based independent far-leftist "mao-dadaist"
radio station called Radio Alice was shut down by the police.
Here you can find a blurb of the documentary and a biographical note
on Guido.
http://www.fandango.it/eng/documentari/alice/alice.htm
In 2001 Guido contacted us via e-mail, said that after the documentary
he was willing to make a feature film on the same subject, and asked
if we were interested in co-authoring the screenplay. We were.
We were already acquainted with the story and the memories of that
movement, but went back to studying all the same. The screenplay was
written in 2002 and 2003, and the movie was shot in October and November
2003. It was produced by Fandango [www.fandango.it], the most dynamic
production firm in Italy.
"Lavorare con lentezza" was among the competing films at
the 61st Venice International Film Festival. 21-year-old Tommaso Ramenghi
and Marco Luisi, both at their debut, jointly won the Marcello Mastroianni
Award for best upcoming actors. The premiere of the film at Italian
cinemas is scheduled for October 1st.
As yet, the movie's official website [www.lavorareconlentezza.com]
is only in Italian, but you don't need to know the language to grasp
some meaning: you may watch the trailer or take a look at the poster:
http://www.lavorareconlentezza.com/imgContent/manifesto-70x100.jpg
Here's the English translation of a long rant by Collective A/traverso,
which loosely "ran" the actual radio station in those days:
http://info.interactivist.net/article.pl?sid=03/03/05/2243231&mode=nested&tid=15
***
WHAT WAS RADIO ALICE?
11 March 1977, Bologna. During the violent clashes between police and
youths that end up with the intervention of armoured vehicles, a Carabiniere
kills the student Francesco Lo Russo. 12 March 1977. The brief history
of Radio Alice, accused of having directed the battle by radio, ends
with the Carabinieri breaking in. It is the first time in the history
of the Italian republic that a radio station was closed down by military
hands.
Radio Alice was one of the most singular and original
experiments on language and communication that ever took hold in Italy.
Lacking a proper newsroom and even less a programme schedule, the Bologna
broadcaster made spontaneity and linguistic contamination something
more than just a flag to wave. It was a project where political, artistic
and existential petitions blended in the common denominator of radio
space. Today, after more than a quarter of a century, maybe we can start
to talk about Alice again, to try to understand if there was something
in that voice that could be used again today.
WHO IS GUIDO CHIESA?
Guido is a film director and a rock critic. He was born in Turin in
1959. In the early Eighties, after taking a degree in the History
of Cinema, he moved to the United States, where he worked as an assistant
director with Jim Jarmusch, Amos Poe, and Michael Cimino. After returning
to Italy, Guido directed several shorts, documentaries, videoclips
and feature films. During the 1990's, the main subject of his works
was the heritage and memory of antifascist Resistance. Sonic Youth
named a song after him ("Guido", from the "Dirty"
album, Deluxe edition, cd 2, track #10).
***
The film was very successful in Italy and we hope
you'll like it too.
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