Nanni Moretti

Giovanni Moretti, better known as Nanni Moretti, was born in Brunico, Bolzano, Italy, on August 19, 1953. Accidental place of origin, his parents, Luigi Moretti and Agata Apicella, spent their summer vacations there when he wanted to come into the world. The family is revealed to be important in Moretti’s life, and in fact his father Luigi worked as an actor inBianca andPalombella rossa , while the mother Agata, in addition to playing herself inAbril , lends his surname to Moretti’s ‘alter ego’ character in his earlier films, Michele Apicella.

Truly his city is and will always be Rome, and in fact the eternal city will be the place where he will place most of his cinema, in the same way that Woody Allen has the New York ‘Big Apple’ as the epicenter of his filmography. And obviously quoting Allen here is not trivial, there are many points of connection between the cinema of one and the other: both write, direct, produce and star in their films, and in the acting chapter they share their personal sense of humor, the autobiographical traits of his characters, and an interpretive capacity not cultivated in drama schools.

If one wants to force the Allenian reference with Moretti, it is worth saying that if the New Yorker is in love with jazz, the Roman also has a refreshing hobby, water polo, where he came to play with SS Lazio and be part of the Italian youth team. Water sport that would incorporate, either tangentially – the swimming present inThe mass is over , the scuba divingThe son’s room – or with absolute prominence – the amnesiac player ofPalombella rossa -, is part of his cinema and his life.

Moretti saw a lot of movies in his youth, he responds to the prototype of the movie buff, perhaps the most obvious quotes in his filmography are that ofDoctor Zhivago , suggested in Bianca , and fully explicit in Palombella rosa ; and that of the scooterExpensive newspaper that refers toHolidays in Rome . However, and despite the fact that he tried to study at the Centro Experimental de Cinematografia, the lack of higher education prevented him from following this path. So he set out on his own, armed with a Super 8 camera, purchased after parting with his stamp collection. Shooting family movies will give him a job to undertake three more ambitious short films, where he is supported by his schoolmate Fabio Traversa.

From the beginning the themes of his films are those of his own life, shaped by his interests and concerns. For this reason, his usual leading role is logical, immediately criticized from the outside as egocentrism, also because of Nanni’s inclination to speak loud and clear in his public statements, often with a controversial tone bordering on arrogance. Oh these artists…

His leftist ideology -Moretti defines himself as an atheist and a communist- is present in La sconfitta (1973), but a rare honesty is already coming to light that has no problem questioning his own, pointing out party issues that do not work or that They don’t match the theory. That same year, in Pâté de bourgeois , he tackled communication problems, playing with the words ‘pâté’ and ‘épater’, that is, pate and frighten, applied to the bourgeoisie. In Como parle frate? (1976), he has the audacity to tackle the classic literary work “Los novios” by Alessandro Manzoni in a very personal and parodic way.

Moretti is ready to undertake his first feature, although he must do so under the precariousness of Super 8. Be that as it may, the Roman filmmaker is going to surprise with I am an anarchist (1976), where he introduces his character Michele Apicella, in the manner in which that François Truffaut also had his other self in his films, Antoine Doinel, only in his case the identification includes his own face, he interprets it. The plot of the daily tribulations of a father of a family, who works in a theater company, is made up of a series of more or less related vignettes, a way of uniting his stories that would become commonplace in Moretti’s cinema. Ecce hype(1978), already shot on 16 mm, confirms the high expectations created around the director. The way in which he follows a group of friends trying to get out of the impasse in which they find themselves plunged, captivated critics and an audience that was beginning to have a hard core of unconditional fans. That’s probably why his work three years later, Sogni d’oro , a love song for cinephilia, “morettinian American night”, with a movie within a movie, the one shot by Apicella’s character, was disconcerting. The film turned out to be too closed and pretentious for many, despite its undoubted interest, recognized with a Jury Prize in Venice.

That is why Moretti will take a three-year break to deliver almost immediately, in 1984 and 1985, two different but not different views of loneliness and emotional paralysis. In Bianca , beyond a murder plot, we have Michele Apicella as a teacher incapable of loving commitment, while he does not forgive others for failing in matters of love. And inThe Mass Has Ended , Don Giulio shows a priest forced to face a social and family reality that attacks the principles he considers most sacred, and that perhaps he has not been able to digest with all its consequences. This second film would give him a Silver Bear in Berlin.

In 1987 Moretti created his own production company, Sacher Film, with Angelo Barbagallo . The name is taken from a cake that he particularly likes, and that he expressly mentions in films like Bianca . In addition to his films, he will produce titles such as Notte italiana , Domani accadrà andHis Master’s Voice (1991) . His villainous role in the latter film would earn him a David de Donatello award for acting. And in 1995 he produced and acted in The Second Time , by Mimmo Calopresti. His interest in supporting other people’s cinema also led him in 1991 to open an art-house cinema in Roman Trastevere, under the name of Nuovo Sacher.

Palombella rossa (1989) shoots it at a time when the Berlin wall is crumbling, and communist ideology is in crisis. The resort to the amnesia of a water polo player serves Moretti to show the unconnected memories in which her character defends her leftist ideals. It is a beautiful film, very well linked around a water polo match, where Moretti is perfect as a somewhat ‘high-profile’ character, out of place. The following year he signs the documentary The Thing (1990) , where he follows Achille Occhetto’s redefinition of the communist party.

Moretti’s consecration came in 1993 at Cannes, when he was recognized as best director for the memorable Caro diario , where he brought his way of narrating on film to the top, through three episodes, ranging from Roman motorcycle rides to the fear of the illness. Five years later, Abril would follow a similar structure, in what almost resembles a sequel. Although, of course, the crowning glory in Cannes would come in 2001 with The Son’s Room , a look at unexpected death and the difficulty of accepting it, even more so when the horizon is closed to transcendence. Moretti faced a ghost that is there for any father, because in 1996 he had a son, Pietro, with his wife Silvia Nono from him .

Despite how easily he attracts the media spotlight, Moretti mixes an apparent extrovert character, fraught with iconoclastic statements, with a certain shyness. He sometimes seems compelled to play a part, like when he directsThe alligator (2006), an undisguised attack on the figure of Silvio Berlusconi, and presented in the middle of the electoral campaign. But of course, Moretti is not, to understand us, Michael Moore . After starringCalm chaos (2008), his new film is eagerly awaitedHabemus papam , where he will describe the relationship of a recently elected Pope, overwhelmed by the responsibility of pastoring the Church, with his psychiatrist. Michel Piccoli and Moretti himself will be the stars. Although the filmmaker has sometimes made explosive statements about the Church, and specifically about Benedict XVI, it is worth giving a vote of confidence to the rigor of the person in charge ofThe mass has ended , who accepted the invitation of the aforementioned Pope to attend a meeting with artists in the Sistine Chapel on November 21, 2009.