original title:
Mexico! Un cinema alla riscossa
directed by:
cast:
Antonio Sancassani, Claudio Bisio, Paolo Mereghetti, Maurizio Porro, Moni Ovadia
screenplay:
cinematography:
Marco Rossi
editing:
music:
production:
distribution:
country:
Italy
year:
2017
film run:
73'
format:
colour
release date:
04/05/2017
festivals & awards:
Mexico movie-theatre is one of the last one-screen theaters still open in Milan. Its story is strongly connected to the figure of Antonio Sancassani, who has been running the theatre independently and freely for the last three decades, taking extreme care in every single detail. The uninterrupted 33 years of Rocky Horror Picture Show reruns and the two extraordinary years of Il Vento fa il suo Giro, are only two amongst the numerous achievements that have contributed in making Mexico a reference for experts and high quality movie lovers.
DIRECTOR’S NOTES:
As many of my colleagues, I met Antonio for necessity. I wanted him to give my mistreated movie Cavalli a second chance.
We met, he was very kind but told me to bear in mind that there were many other movies before mine, and that they were all waiting for an answer.
The release date was continuously delayed.
Every time I went back to Antonio asking for an exact date, we ended up talking about everything else, so I started meeting him for the simple pleasure of his company.
We talked about his passion for the job, the strong emotion he feels when the light of the theatre are about to turn off, the deep regret of not showing his father what he created and the efforts of handling a movie theatre in complete independence and freedom.
Without much thought, I started filming him with no money or production support and I started to follow him around during his working life trying to capture the beauty and the sacrifice behind the management of a movie theatre which is fighting every day to remain open.
This way, with this urgency, the project Mexico! came to life, with its very important exclamation point.