“I want a mad film” Rotella‚s words directed at Mimmo Calapresti during the shooting of the film “The day of the lizard”.The title stems from an old Calabrese tradition and of the south in general, and the mother‚s recommendation to the artist of not venturing out in the hot summer afternoons set in Catatanzaro, in the twenties.
The documentary is a long confession by the 85 year old master of decollage, told with irony and existentialism under a heavy clouded, grey, rainy and melancholic sky in Milan.
The director uses digital technology articulating a particular film language characterized by Paolo Ferrari‚pop photography. The body of work is enriched with certain documented historical facts on Rotella‚s long artistic travel and of his original existence which was the inspiration behind the film “An American in Rome”.