original title:
Appunti di un venditore di donne
directed by:
cast:
screenplay:
Fabio Resinaro, from the novel by Giorgio Faletti with the same title
cinematography:
editing:
set design:
costume design:
music:
producer:
production:
world sales:
country:
Italy
year:
2021
film run:
120'
format:
colour
release date:
25/06/2021
festivals & awards:
It is 1978. In Milan’s days of glamour parties, Vallanzasca commands the mob, and the social and political situation is dramatic. In the background loom the sad events of that time, the dark days of the kidnapping of the Honorable Aldo Moro, organized crime, the secret services and the Red Brigades. The general climate is that of an empire that does not want to come to terms with reality. The daytime world seems to ignore what happens at night. But history teaches us that the two spheres are permeable and penetrable and when they come in contact, the events are almost always devastating. It’s morning, six o’clock. Bravo and Daytona leave the Ascot Club. Bravo, played by Mario Sgueglia, lives his life among luxury clubs, discos and illegal gambling dens in the company of his friend Daytona, played by Paolo Rossi. Bravo defines himself as an entrepreneur. His business is women. Yes, because he sells them. But the life of a seller of women is not easy. And the arrival of Carla, played by Miriam Dalmazio, awakens in him feelings that had been dormant for a long time. An evening out in a gambling den changes everything. Identities and roles get confused. Friends become enemies, enemies become allies. Fathers, sons, companions, lovers; relationships are pulverized like the drugs on the tables at Ascot. And feelings return to threaten the cold routine of this skeptical professional. The meeting of the two worlds fragments into many small consequential explosions, sweeping away telephone booths, packs of cigarettes, banknotes, policemen, prostitutes and criminals. A burst of machine guns, the escape, the chase and a destiny marked by a mantra that echoes repeatedly “Only the stupid and the innocent do not have an alibi.” It is not, however, the beginning of a new life. It is the beginning of the end.