Statoquotidiano.it, 29 June 2024. Ethereal voice and seraphic, elegant manner, Angélique Cavallari, actress, musician and poet born in Turin, and also involved on the social and civic front with themes that speak of peace and non-violence, between 2022 and 2023 established, almost by chance, a bond, a call, with the land of Capitanata.
This year, Cavallari has won the Vespertilio Awards 2024 statuette as best leading actress for the film “Dark Matter”by director Stefano Odoardi, with the extraordinary participation of actress Daniela Poggi, distributed by Superotto Film Production), in theaters starting from 4 May 2023, and presented in the province of Foggia, in Lucera, immediately afterwards.
The Vespertilio, incidentally, is the most important first prize in Italy, in the thriller, mystery, horror, fantasy and science fiction (sci-fi) genres, national and international, and for Cavallari it therefore represented an important result for her career, for her life and for the film “Dark Matter”, because, as she herself declared “The truth is that cinema is always a team effort”.
Angelique Cavallari, again for the film Dark Matter, is also officially returned to the David di Donatello 2024 competition in the Female Leading Actress category.
Already the October 28, 2022, Angélique Cavallari she had personally been to the Farina Cinema Theatre in Foggia for the projection of “The night”, an award-winning medium-length film by the same Stefano Odoardiin which she plays the role of Lelé, who we see at the beginning of the story busy with a concert and at the end reciting some poems. In that case, both the music that the poetic compositions they bore the signature of the actress who had collected them in “Collection A”a poetic collection created in collaboration with Alexis Bret.
On that occasion, Angélique had made a readingan engaging reading moment, with his poems, both published and unpublished.
We looked for her and interviewed her. To ask her to tell her story. To talk about her experience as a versatile artist and as a woman who looks with attention and sensitivity at society through the eyes of literature, sounds, the magic of the word “which can manage to say the unspeakable” she told us “and which reaches the heart and moves consciences”.
We invite you to follow her, to follow us in our meeting with her, between our questions and her answers.
To begin with, we would like you to introduce yourself to our readers. Who is Angélique Cavallari?“A free woman who loves all of humanity and who, through different forms of art, tries in all humility to make a contribution to improving the world in which we all live”.
The news of her award for best leading actress, given to her on May 24th at the Vespertilio Awards, for the film “Dark Matter”, is recent. What did it mean to you to act in this film and receive the award?
“I would like to say first of all that this film has marked the soul of people to such an extent that many continue to follow it and, even a year after its release, it is still achieving important recognition today, as if it had a life of its own. As far as I’m concerned, “Dark Matter” gave me the opportunity to express myself in a very demanding and complex role, to interpret which I had to take a certain distance from the person I am. For example, during the filming period I taken up to 10-12 kg more than my weight to be different also physically. In addition, I have deliberately delved into the knowledge of a very dark world, because the character I play lives in the environments of organized crime, and probably in the prostitution circuit. However, this is a condition that she lives in, of which she is a victim, as we gradually discover as the story unfolds.
Elena, in fact, although responsible for the kidnapping of a child, in reality would not have wanted to commit such an act. Indeed, she in turn is a victim of incest by her rude and infamous father.
I had to do a lot of deep work to get into his experience.
During the official presentation tour of the film in cinemas, I realized that this character touched many people.
Many women in the room, in particular, came to hug me, thanking me and the rest of the cast, saying that no one talks about the themes covered in the film and instead we should do it even more.
Certainly the award that was given to me has provoked a great emotion in me, I cannot deny it, even ifhere, they gave me satisfactiontion above all the feedback from people, knowing that I have touched on such important issues and that I worked on a film that tried to highlight them”.
In short, let’s remember it at this point, Dark Matter tells the story of Antonio (Alessandro Demcenko), an accomplished physicist who studies dark matter, i.e. the particles we know nothing about, but which make up 95% of our universe. One day, however, Antonio’s eleven-year-old son, Thomas (Giulio Cecchettini), is kidnapped by a mysterious woman named Elena (Angelique Cavallari). The main theme treated is scabrous and unusual in Italian cinema: the disappearance of children. But to this, as already said, other strong themes will be added, through the character of Elena, such as incest, murder, prostitution.
What would you personally say about these issues?“Simply that they should be highlighted, because unfortunately they exist, they occur and instead they are contrastedtAnd. We don’t talk much about incest, for example, but we must become aware of the fact that it is a widespread problem.
I would also say that very often those who suffer feel ashamed and this should not happen. In the sense that, rather, those who are responsible for this and other forms of abuse and violence should feel ashamed..
Victims often feel uncomfortable talking about what they have suffered and, instead, they should be helped to understand that speech is free.
Talking about certain topics through art, cinema, writing, can help foster this freedom. The more people talk about it, the more people will be freed.
When you go through experiences as strong and heavy as abuse, a tear is created in the victim’s soul that will never go away. Unfortunately, that’s the way it is. But at least you can bring comfort to that soul. And talking about what happened can be a form of help.
My message to young people is therefore to speak out, denounce, free themselves.”
You were in Foggia some time ago, between 2022 and 2023. On more than one occasion. A bond has almost been created between her and the Captaincy. Do you want to talk to us about it? “I took part in a film, a medium-length film entitled La Nuit, by Stefano Odoardi, a cinematographic work filmed entirely between Foggia and Lucera (with a few scenes in Pescara)That tells the story of the poet and singer Lèlè and the artist Effe, and I therefore participated in its presentation which took place in Capitanata in October 2022.
In the movie are sung dwritten poems and set to music by me and which I then declaimed that evening in a reading entitled “Naked and raw poetry” with unpublished poems from the second poetry collection, which is part of my first collection “Universo A. Nutriti di notfly and land”.
I really felt welcomed in a very warm way on this occasion in Foggia and, moreover, the fact that poetry has touched people’s hearts is no small thing, also because my compositions are challenging and not simple”.
What does art represent for you?
“I think that art does not necessarily have to touch on political themes, however through it reality and the problems that characterise it can be sublimated, making them take on a new and alternative dimension and vision.
I, for example, worked on a collection of poems written by authors of the past and of various nationalities through which I wanted to highlight their commitment to peace with the instrument of the word.
From these texts emerges the gaze of women capable of sublimating things otherwise unspeakable. And it was nice for me to enhance the fact that the poetic sensitivity of women, without taking anything away from that of men, has often been a comfort to many people. Nourishing the soul is important and art and poetry are of great help in this.”.
What are your next goals in this regard?
“I have several projects.
I’m writing my second collection of poems.
I’m working on a French-produced feature film and another by co-production.
I’m finishing an EP album with my musical group “Nine Velvet”. And soon the poetic reading will be on stage “Trench of flowers” developed with the musician Riccardo Bertini.
