AGATA AND THE STORM A swirl of pop-art colour, madcap magic, and bittersweet flavours make Agatha and the Storm the most delicious film of the summer. As the proprietor of a popular bookshop in Genoa, the ravishing Agatha has a wonderful life, dispensing literary wisdom to her adoring customers. But things start to change when she is wooed by a much younger man. When Agatha denies her reciprocal feelings for this man, her emotional energy develops a life of its own, shattering light bulbs and short circuiting electrical systems. Agatha's brother Gustavo, a self-satisfied, pampered architect, isn't sheltered from the brewing storm of life either. His comfortable world is turned upside down by the sudden discovery that he is adopted. The winds of change soon rage at gale force as Gustavo faces up to his loveless marriage and mediocre life. Gustavo's new brother Romeo turns out to be an incorrigible travelling salesman with a roving eye. Romeo is an excessive character in every way, from his exuberant, over the top fashion sense to his propensity for one night stands. Agatha and the Storm is an ensemble romantic comedy full of suspense, laughter and tenderness. As the destinies of Agatha, Gustavo and Romeo converge with a host of other endearing and outrageous characters, the world becomes a lighter place.
DIRECTOR'S NOTES After having shot my last two films, both based on a classic narrative structure, following the main character and his adventures, I felt the need to work on a more choral story, like I partly did with my first full-length film, L'aria serena dell'ovest, but in a more ironic and light way. Agata e la tempesta is a comedy. Its tunes and atmospheres are surely very close to Pane e Tulipani, but its choral nature makes it talk about life in a more complex and contradictory way. And Agata is not a naïf and simple woman like Rosalba: she has got a certain culture, her past life is emotionally troubled, marked by choices, sudden breaks, continuous beginnings. She's a woman who's already over forty, whose life is in her hands - a job she likes, a twenty year old daughter who's leaving her - portrayed in a particularly stormy moment of her life. Agata brings to the film an almost surreal element (the lamps she breaks with her emotions) that she does not understand… that she is not able to handle until… two years later, when finally her life seems to be a little more quiet and she seems to have learnt something. The idea of the film is to show characters' weakness, contradictions, sweetness, imperfections, dark sides, they're being funny and deep at the same time, their humanity. Romeo, the sales agent whose bizarre dream would be to open a trout farm… a 35-year-old man who really loves his wife but who's often unfaithful, because he cannot do otherwise. He knows he's like that and seems to accept it without feeling guilty… Gustavo, the third main character, first Agata's then Romeo's brother, is the one who learns most about himself, maybe because he suddenly feels he's… living a life he really did not believe in, and accepting it without asking questions. The town where the story takes place is Genoa, a town by the sea, built on a steep rock, full of views where our eye, and Agata's as well, can be free towards the blue. On the other hand, representing almost another world, the plain where Romeo lives, the Po valley where the eye can sweep over without finding obstacles, with its straight roads, the Po river… where traditional culture still exists, together with the new one. If Genoa seems to be the town we all know (even if its representation is not realistic), the plain is depicted as a suspended place, where other things can happen… where it is possible to forget everything and try to find new meanings. Concerning "realism": with Agata I would like to go on with my search towards anti-naturalism, started with Pane e Tulipani then followed by Brucio nel vento, in a very different manner. The work on colours, settings, costumes and photography goes towards a mismatched reality, creating a world close to the one we live in but more released, ruled by the same laws but more generous, more extreme, lighter though sometimes not less painful. Rehearsals and improvisation with actors before starting to shoot are something I believe in more and more… a fundamental aspect in order to focus on the characters and dialogues of my films. I decided to work with Licia Maglietta and Giuseppe Battiston again, both of them already in Pane e Tulipani (Licia worked in the previous Le Acrobate as well): they helped me shape Agata and Romeo, two very emotional characters. Around them, a team of actors that are already used to work deeply, with enthusiasm, on every single detail, in order to create that world, full of humanity and emotion…
VARIETY "The bipolar Silvio Soldini follows up… with a live-wire comedy painted in eye-popping colours." "A dazzling bookstore proprietor who blows out light bulbs with her emotional electricity." "AGATA AND THE STORM is much in the vein of 'Bread and Tulips' (2000) that became one of Italy's top-grossing films." "After a strong opening weekend, AGATA AND THE STORM looks set to turn into a high-voltage hit in Italy… its witty modernity… to strike lightning in neighbouring markets too." "Pic adds good doses of Almodóvareccentricity and Jeunet whimsy to its portrait of a thoroughly emancipated woman." "Holding together the many centrifugal plots… Agata (Licia Maglietta, the runaway housewife in 'Bread and Tulips' and a top stage performer)." "Agata (Licia Maglietta)… has such a charge of feeling inside her she blows out street lamps and car batteries… she's is such a ray of sunshine, it's no surprise." "Underneath… the film has a Buddha-like calm in pointing to love and freedom as life's true values." "Heading the cast, Maglietta rewrites the cinematic rules of sex, age and beauty with her magnetism." "Volodi and Nappo are off-beat but attention-getting in supporting roles." "A feast for the senses. Every scene, carefully lit by DOP Arnaldo Catinari, is maliciously underlined by the garish colours and pattern madness of the sets and costumes."
SOLDINI STRUCK BY THE SURREAL:
"Two hours of sharp comedy" L'UNITA Silvio Soldini is back, after the dark and anguishing Swiss melodrama "Burning in the Wind", with bright and garish colours that he had begun using in the highly successful BREAD AND TULIPS. Only, this time, he has created more fiery tones and more obscure shadings… Agata is Licia Maglietta, Soldini's fetish actress, and the storm is an ensemble of multi-collared, surreal and freakish characters… Again a literary image in the figure of Agata, a bookseller from Genoa, a mature and determined woman who transforms life in Romanesque suggestions… Two hours of sharp comedy… In short Soldini seems to be showing us that he can handle comedy and drama with equal aplomb, road movies and auteur films… AGATA consists of many, many stories, yet each one with its own head and a different direction, all nevertheless, just as farfetched from a certain reality… And Soldini's approach in this film reminds us necessarily of another European director's method, Pedro Almodóvar. Not so much in exact references to his cinema, inasmuch as some of Soldini's atmospheres… - Dario Zonta, 24 February 2004 Soldini suggests there will be a surprise for viewers who will find themselves involved very passionately in a light and delicate story, outside the conventions seen on today's screens. For Licia Maglietta…"Agata is a very suggestive character… a complex woman adapted to a complex story which is the opportunity to confront themes such as the search for oneself and the difficulty of building a relationship that does not slip into banality…"
AFTER TULIPS…
SOLDINI GOES FOR THE STORM IL MESSAGGERO With three characters as madcap as they are profound, Silvio Soldini returns to comedy…"This film is an ensemble comedy and much more dynamic", the director explained, "not only because the camera constantly shifts from one character to another, but also because of the way it was written… The characters in AGATA aren't in crisis or in search of something that they don't have. In fact, they face the events with a certain pluck…" - Roberta Bottari, 24 February 2004
SOLDINI, LIGHT AND EPHEMERAL AVVENIRE The director of BURNING IN THE WIND returns with a delightful, rather surreal comedy… A world of extremely colourful oddball characters who surround the main trio of main characters… AGATA AND THE STORM is not a film about chance. Perhaps more than anything, it is a film about change: on the need to "take chance by the horns", and take advantage of it to change. And the storm in the title, what does that allude to? "To everything that happens around Agata. The film was born out of her view of the world that surrounds her". - Giacomo Vallati, 24 February 2004
HOW TO TURN REALITY UPSIDE DOWN LA STAMPA
Our problems and tragedies transformed into a light, colourful, elegant comedy that makes us laugh… Soldini's sixth film AGATA AND THE STORM… purposely turns ugly realty upside down… festive elements that at least make these bearable in a world that is different from the real world, but also the one on television… surreal and playful, multi-collared like a child's room and as happy as possible… it is an invitation to optimism, a desire to reject today's dominant disaster culture, an affirmation that life can also be beautiful… the film, with its excellent directing and acting is funny and pleasurable. Licia Maglietta, a magnificent presence, a natural and seductive, spontaneous and refined actress plays the role of a bookseller… She is a symbol of culture with her nourishing function and is also the emblem of love, with her follies, she is also a magic creature who, when she passes, mysteriously makes light bulbs blow, computers explode, street lights go out, hair dryers and toasters go on the blink… Set in a most splendid Genoa, and also the Po Valley, the three main characters live their adventures surrounded by many interesting, well depicted and crazy minor characters. The colourful sets by Paola Bizzarri really work; the costumes by Silvia Nebiolo are creative and perfect (particularly the men's costumes are original and right on the mark), and these are an important contribution to the film… The photography that evokes the past… also remembered with an ironic angle that never slips into sentimentality. - Lietta Tornabuoni February 2004
AGATA'S STORM…
"Something to leave in the minds and hearts of people" IL MANIFESTO The festive events in the lives of the three main characters… Just as our real lives are without a protagonist or an antagonist, or an underlying predominant genre (thank goodness), so Agata's life is an interweaving of many characters… Soldini hopes that the energy he manages to unleash in his film will help make life more liveable for all of us… "I made it in the form of a comedy," said the director, "it makes people laugh a lot also because the melodrama is constantly interrupted by everyday concerns, the telephone, work, situations that never take themselves seriously. In addition to the theme of brotherhood, something completely forgotten in modern life, the encounter with our roots might be one of the main themes of the film… and the end becomes a labyrinth..." The actors, speaking of Soldini on the set, are unanimous… Soldini gives extreme attention to the work of his actors, to its finest shadings. "In-depth rehearsals that help you get the most out of your role", said Battiston… and for Licia Maglietta, her main concern was to avoid any banalities and try to go as deep as she could into the mystery of her character. She added, "For a year and a half, Soldini puts together a film that he has in his mind, and then he comes on the set and works with his actors with the same complexity". "Agata is a sunny and smiling woman, but her smiles", explained Maglietta, "are not all equal". As in BREAD AND TULIPS, do Soldini's characters still look to the future despite everything? "Certainly it is my way of seeing things," said Soldini. "After my first two films, I realized that I was changing. I like making films that I would want to watch as a spectator myself, and I try to put something into them that I'd like to take home with me after the film is over… something to leave in the minds and hearts of people. This was what guided us in the writing and shooting of this film." There are many, many characters in this film; one in fact is even in search of his identity. How is it that Agata becomes the main character? "The film was born out of Agata's way of seeing things and the world. Through the energies and emotions of the other two main characters the dramaturgy is born. Someone discovers that he is someone else because he was not the child of the parents he thought were his real mother and father. The storm is what happens all around, the colours are the desire to enter a world different from reality, which is the true landscape of the film". - Silvana Silvestri, 24 February 2004
CATINARI:
"We were inspired by the colours of Almodóvar" IL GIORNALE Arnaldo Catinari, director of photography: "Yes, in AGATA AND THE STORM, the element that marks a new stylistic direction for Soldini is precisely the use of colour… already in the film's poster, a warm and sunny orange… Just as the Spanish director Almodóvar, Soldini wanted to help the unfolding the story with the creation of a world precisely made up of flashy costumes, sets and photography. The objective was to create a different world through a transfigured reality… Of course, Almodóvar and Soldini are two completely different directors whose comedies are also very different." - Perdro Armocida, 24 February 2004
CAST LICIA MAGLIETTA (PANE E TULIPANI)
GIUSEPPE BATTISTON (PANE E TULIPANI)
EMILIO SOLFRIZZI
MARINA MASSIRONI (PANE E TULIPANI)
CLAUDIO SANTAMARIA
ANN ELEONORA JORGENSEN
GISELDA VOLODI (PANE E TULIPANI)
MONICA NAPPO
REMO REMOTTI
ANDREA GUSSONI
CARLA ASTOLFI
CREW
Director
SILVIO SOLDINI
Story and Screenplay
DORIANA LEONDEFF
FRANCESCO PICCOLO
SILVIO SOLDINI
Music
GIOVANNI VENOSTA
Director of Photography
ARNALDO CATINARI
Art Director
PAOLA BIZZARRI
Costumes
SILVIA NEBIOLO
Editing
CARLOTTA CRISTIANI
Sound
FRANÇOIS MUSY
Production Coordinator
RICCARDO PINTUS
Make-up
ESME' SCIARONI
Production companies In association with
ALBACHIARA
AMKA FILM
MERCURY
LUMIERE & CO
Silvio Soldini
Director and Scriptwriter Silvio Soldini was born in Milan and moved to New York in 1979 to study film at New York University. In 1982 he returned to Milan, developing contacts with people who shared his enthusiasm for filmmaking (among whom Luca Bigazzi, director of photography for all his films). With this group, Soldini self-produced two low-budget medium length films: Paesaggio con figure and Giulia in ottobre, both award winners at a number of national and international festivals. With some of his closest collaborators in 1984 Soldini launched his own company, Monogatari, which began producing all his films Soldini started shooting documentaries as well in 1985 and made the video Voci celate, filmed in a day hospital for the mentally ill. The film won the Salsomaggiore Festival competition. The director's first feature for commercial distribution followed in 1989 with L'aria serena dell'ovest, particularly well received by the public. The film participated in competition at the Locarno Festival, won the Saint-Vincent Grolla d'Oro award for Best Screenplay, the Grand Prix at Annecy, and was selected for screening at many important festivals around the world including Montreal, Rotterdam, and New York's "New Directors" at the MOMA. In 1993 Soldini made his second feature Un'anima divisa in due. Presented in competition at Venice, the film was awarded the Volpi Cup for Best Actor for Fabrizio Bentivoglio's performance. He then made Le acrobate in 1996, a feature presented in competition at Locarno and at the San Francisco International Film Festival. The film received First Prize at the Rencontres Internationales de Cinéma de Paris, and the Saint Vincent Grolla d'Oro Award for Valeria Golino's performance as Best Actress. Tremendous success awaited Soldini in the year 2000 with the comedy BREAD AND TULIPS (Pane e Tulipani), enthusiastically acclaimed by both critics and the public. Soldini's success on the international scene was solidly confirmed with impressive worldwide sales - from Japan to Australia - and box office records notably in Switzerland ("Best Box Office 2000") and Germany (over 1,000,000 spectators). The film won 9 David di Donatello awards, 5 Nastri d'Argento, 9 Ciak d'oro, the Premio Flaiano, and received 3 European Academy Awards nominations. The year 2002 marked the release of his film, BURNING IN THE WIND (Brucio nel vento), based on the novel HIER (YESTERDAY) by Agota Kristof.
Silvio Soldini
Filmography
Features
2003 AGATA AND THE STORM (Agata e la tempesta)
2002 BURNING IN THE WIND (Brucio nel vento)
2000 BREAD AND TULIPS (Pane e Tulipani)
1997 LE ACROBATE
1993 UN'ANIMA DIVISA IN DUE
1990 L'ARIA SERENA DELL'OVEST Shorts
1997 DIMENTICARE BIASCA
1994 D'ESTATE ("Miracoli" series - stories for shorts)
FATE IN BLU DIESIS
1992 FEMMINE, FOLLE E POLVERE D'ARCHIVIO
1988 ANTONIO E CLEO (episode: "Provvisorio quasi d'amore")
1985 GIULIA IN OTTOBRE
1983 PAESAGGIO CON FIGURE
1982 DRIMAGE Documentaries
1999 ROM TOUR
1998 IL FUTURO ALLE SPALLE - Voci da un'età inquieta
1997 CASA COSE CITTA' (from the series "Alfabeto Italiano")
1996 MADE IN LOMBARDIA - video
1995 FRAMMENTI DI UNA STORIA TRA CINEMA E PERIFERIA
1991 MUSICHE BRUCIANO - video
1987 LA FABBRICA SOSPESA
1986 VOCI CELATE - video
Doriana Leondeff
Scriptwriter Doriana Leondeff was born in Bari in 1962, of an Italian mother and a Bulgarian father. Her first artistic experience in theatre came in 1978-80 at the youth theatre of the Bari Teatro Kismet. After receiving a maturità degree in Classics, she spent a year in London auditing courses at the London Film School in 1981. She moved to Rome in 1982, where she resides today. From 1982-84, Leondeff attended the scriptwriting workshop given by Age at the European Design Institute. She was production assistant on Peter Del Monte's Piccoli Fuochi (1985), and obtained a degree in screenwriting at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome in 1987. The following year she also graduated in Arts with a thesis on Film History and Criticism from La Sapienza University of Rome. During that same year she worked as production assistant on Emir Kusturica's film Il tempo dei gitani. From 1988-93 she collaborated with screenwriters Nicola Baddalucco and Rodolfo Sonego on several films and mini-series for television. It was in 1995 that Doriana Leondeff began collaborating with Silvio Soldini. Together they wrote Le Acrobate (award-winner at the Paris Rencontres Internationales de Cinéma and winner of the Sacher d'Oro award as Best Film of the Year) and subsequently, Mistero a Biasca (short subject) and, finally, Bread and Tulips (Pane e Tulipani) which was awarded, among others, 3 Premio Flaiano 2000 including Best Screenplay, and recently, 9 David di Donatello 2000 awards including Best Screenplay, and 5 Silver Ribbons 2000 including Best Screenplay. In 1997 Leondeff had collaborated on the screenplay of Mimmo Calopresti's La parola amore esiste (Cannes Film Festival Official Selection). Doriana Leondeff was awarded the Grolla d'Oro in 1998 at the Saint-Vincent Festival for the screenplay of Marco Turco's film Vita in sospesa, as well as the prize for Best First Work. Production Assistant
1985 PICCOLI FUOCHI dir. Peter del Monte
1988 IL TEMPO DEI GITANI dir. Emir Kusturica Screenwriter_and_Director_(shorts)'>Screenwriter and Director (shorts)
1987 RISVEGLIO screenplay and director (Milan Filmmakers 1987 Selection)
L'AMICO DI MATILDE screenplay and director
1988 SINTONIE NOTTURNE dir. Massimo Martella
PESCI FUOR D'ACQUA dir. Gianluca Greco
UGUALE PER TUTTI dir. Gianfranco Isernia
1997 MISTERO A BIASCA dir. Silvio Soldini Screenwriter (Features)
1988 IN NOME DEL PADRE co-writer Nicola Badalucco (mini-series)
1989 DIO CE NE SCAMPI E LIBERI dir. S Damiani
KIM (animation)
PAZIENTE PER AMORE (animation)
1990 NON SIAMO SOLI (mini-series) dir. Paolo Poeti, co-writer Nicola Badalucco
UNA FAMIGLIA IN GIALLO (TV) co-writer Rodolfo Sonego
1991 ANNA - UNA STORIA DEI NOSTRI GIORNI (TV) co-writer Rodolfo Sonego
L'INCHIESTA dir. Marco Leto
1993 VIENI VIA CON ME dir. Marco Turco
1994 TRAFITTI DA UN RAGGIO DI SOLE dir. Claudio Del Punta
1995 LE ACROBATE dir. Silvio Soldini
1996 LE VOCI BUIE (TV)
UNA FAMIGLIA PER DELLJA (TV)
1997 LA PAROLA AMORE ESISTE dir. Mimmo Calopresti, co-writer
UNA RELAZIONE with Carlo Mazzacurati and Claudio Piersanti, dir. Carlo Mazzacurati
Francesco Piccolo
Screenwriter
Screenwriter (Features)
PAZ dir. Renato De Maria
MY NAME IS TANINO dir. Paolo Virzì
NEMMENO IN UN SOGNO dir. Gianluca Greco
AMATEMO dir. Renato De Maria
LA VITA NUOVA dir. Michele Palcido Literature
1994 SCRIVERE È UN TIC. I METODI DEGLI SCRITTORI
1996 STORIE DI PRIMOGENITI E FIGLI UNICI, winner: Award Chiara and Award Berto, published in Germany by Alexander Fest Verlag
1998 E SE C'ERO, DORMIVO
2000 IL TEMPO IMPERFETTO
Francesco Piccolo's novels were published in France (NRF - Nouvelle Revue Française),
Germany, Austria, Cuba.
2003 ALLEGRO OCCIDENTALE Translations
1998 LA RAGAZZA CON I CAPELLI STRANI, David Foster Wallace, Einaudi Stile Libero
1998 UNA COSA DIVERTENTE CHE NON FARÒ MAI PIÙ, David Foster Wallace Theatre
1997 ROSENCRATZ E GUILDENSTERN SONO MORTI Tom Stoppard, dir. Andrea Renzi translation, adaptation
Licia Maglietta
as Agata Born in Naples, Licia Maglietta trained in theatre and dance. She also graduated with a degree in Architecture. In 1981 she joined the group Falso Movimento that later founded the Teatri Uniti. Cinema
as Ines Silvestri From Milan, Marina Massironi began studying acting in 1982. Two years later came her first writings for the stage, followed by activity in cabaret and dubbing, and finally television and film. In addition to her background in children's theatre, she also engaged in a three-year association with comedy partner with Giacomo Poretti, in the cabaret duo "Hansel e Strudel". She began working with Aldo Giovanni & Giacomo in 1994 and, since then, "la Marina" has appeared in all the Trio's shows, while also pursuing her solo career which was crowned in 2000 by numerous awards for her performance as a supporting actress in the film PANE E TULIPANI (BREAD AND TULIPS) directed by Silvio Soldini. Cinema
1997-98Performance with Aldo Giovanni & Giacomo in two box office smashes TRE UOMINI E UNA GAMBA/ THREE MEN AND A LEG and COSÌ È LA VITA / THAT'S LIFE, directed by the Trio and Massimo Venier. Massironi worked with Margherita Buy and Silvio Orlando in FUORI DAL MONDO directed by Giuseppe Piccioni, and appeared in the film of Gialappa's Band's TUTTI GLI UOMINI DEL DEFICIENTE, dir. Paolo Costella. She also appeared with Licia Maglietta and Bruno Ganz in Silvio Soldini's PANE E TULIPANI / BREAD AND TULIPS, for which she was awarded the David di Donatello and Nastro d'argento at the Taormina Festival as Best Supporting Actress. TI SPIACE SE BACIO MAMMA? ected Alessandro Benvenuti. QUASI QUASI directed by Gianluca Fumagalli. Theatre and Cabaret
1985-87 QUANDO LA COPPIA SCOPPIA
1992-93 RITORNO AL GERUNDIO
LAMPI D'ESTATE E ARIA DI TEMPESTA
1994 LEI
1995-97 I CORTI dir. Arturo Brachetti
1999 TEL CHI EL TELÙN dir. Arturo Brachetti
2000 ANDRÉ LE MAGNIFIQUE dir. Ruggero Cara
2002/2003 BULLI E PUPE dir. Fabrizio Angelini
Television
1993 ORPHEUS
SU LA TESTA
CIELITO LINDO
1994 DETECTIVE PER UNA NOTTE
1995 PEO
1996-97 MAI DIRE GOL
1998 MAI DIRE MUNDIAL
SCATAFASCIO
FACCIAMO CABARET
DIO VEDE E PROVVEDE
1999 ALDO GIOVANNI & GIACOMO SHOW
2001 OTTAVO NANO
Giselda Volodi
as Maria Libera
Cinema
2003 LA VITA DEI SANTI dir. Jerry Ciccoritti
2002 IL RONZIO DELLE MOSCHE dir. Dario d'Ambrosi
PONTORMO dir. Giovanni Fago
1999 ASPETTA UN PO' dir. Dario Ambrosi
PANE E TULIPANI dir. Silvio Soldini
1998 I DREAMED OF AFRICA dir. Hugh Hudson
LIBERO BURRO dir. Sergio Castellitto
I FOBICI dir. Giancarlo Scarchilli
VIOLA dir. Donatella Majorca
1997 MI FAI UN FAVORE dir. Giancarlo Scarchilli
1996 SOMETHING TO BELIEVE IN dir. John Hough
PADRONA DEL SUO DESTINO dir. Marcel Hoerskovitz
1993 MARIO IL MAGO dir. Klau Maria Brandeur
1992 VERSO SUD dir. Pasquale Pozzessere
1991 FROM TIME TO TIME dir. Jeef Blyth
1990 HUDSON HAWK dir. Michael Leamann
Monica Nappo
as Daria
Cinema
LEZIONI SICILIANE dir. Abbas Kiarostami
PIANESE NUNZIO 14 ANNI A MAGGIO dir. Antonio Capuano