original title:
Suite in amore, alto/basso/sotto
directed by:
production:
country:
Italy
year:
2007
film run:
68'
format:
colour
status:
Ready (02/12/2007)
festivals & awards:
We are warned from the outset, quoting Marc Aurèle ’The best way to defend oneself is to not be assimilated.’ What answer can be suggested to fill this program? What other cinema can be invented? This is the aim of the tetralogy which is in progress, which is keen to take up with new costs the idea of an amateur and militant cinema, a collective corpus initiated by Le variazioni del signor Quodlibet in 2006, followed by Suite in amore. The film is set out in three periods. The initial section, the theory: alto. A long reflection about what needs to be built, about the theory of gravity and the need for verticality, voice over during a fixed shot of scaffolding surrounding a rooftop bell which is being restored. Followed by fiction, basso: horizontal movement. The main character, representing manual labour, is on the run, in road movie style, after a brawl with his foreman following his workmate’s fall at the building site. Finally, following this escapade: sotto. The horizon needs to be scanned and linked to the character’s intentions. Scenery to be constructed then. From the heart of the town to the countryside, a series of chunks of time and sensations. Sequences made rich by the background noise from the places being filmed, in rhythm with pieces of music, sudden appearances as brief as unexpected, driving with a hint of optimism, towards a calm universe. Coming under engaged cinema, what Fabrizzio Ferraro calls an ’action documentary,’ is really a political tool, used to reveal social reality. From reflection to action, the filmmaker links his prejudice into the title: the spiritual dimension, real- life conditions and the idea of a possible future utopia.