All ready in the province of Reggio Calabria for an important event on dubbing: May 11th and 12th there will be “It can be done”, a two-day event dedicated to the art of the lectern promoted by the SRC, Acting School of Calabriafounded and directed by the actor Walter Cordopatri. The event will be held on the occasion of the inauguration of the dubbing room which will be named after Oreste Lionello, voice actor and actor born in Rhodes – Greece – but raised in Reggio Calabria. The inauguration will take place in the school premises, in the former prison Novigrad.
Today, Thursday 2 May, a press conference was held to present the event, mediated by the journalist Marco Bonardelli. Among those present also the daughter of Oreste Lionellothe voice actress Cristiana, as well as the Calabrian Pasquale Anselmo, voice of Nicolas Cage. The speech was opened by the Reggio Calabrian Councilor delegated for Culture Filippo Quartuccio. The latter complimented SRC and remembered the figure of Giacomo Battaglia, to whom the Mayor awarded the San Giorgio d’Oro this year in his memory. Before getting to the heart of the matter, a little greeting from Claudio Gubitosi, Director of the Giffoni Film Festival. “Calabria is a territory that teaches”. And about Lionello: “I knew Oreste very well, he was at Giffoni several times. I’m happy that you dedicate this dubbing school to him.”
Cordopatri: “this is how the idea of this event on dubbing was born”
He later introduced the event Walter Cordopatri: “one of the disciplines that was missing in acting school was dubbing. I have this passion and we ‘used’ Covid to work. We locked ourselves in this former prison and created this dubbing room. Once created, we asked ourselves which voice actor we could dedicate it to. I have always admired Oreste Lionello and his voice. We’ve wanted to do this event for two years and now here we are. I am very happy, because we will have the opportunity to have our daughter Cristiana. With Pasquale Anselmo, however, we have known each other for a few years, not only because he is a Calabrian artist, but also for his voice, which among others dubbed Nicolas Cage. We have over 130 students, obviously a small number will participate in the masterclass”.
Cristiana Lionello and her relationship with her father and with the city of Reggio
Cristiana Lionellodaughter of Orestes (and voice actress of Sharon Stone, Cate Blanchett, Romy Schneider, Annette Benning), said her father as follows, with a mention of his relationship with Reggio Calabria: “Nobody gave me anything as a gift. In reality I didn’t want to do dubbing, but theater. And so I harassed my father, where he went I went. I didn’t go to parties, to discos, but only to the theater with him, but he didn’t want to because he was jealous, knowing the environment, and therefore he was putting a spoke in my wheels. One day Anna Mazzamauro called me, I was 15 years old, and since I always talked to all the actors she worked with and broke their balls, she called me telling her that she needed very young actors for one of her jobs. I obviously said yes, I spoke to dad and he gave me permission, but I specified: ‘you go to school in the morning’. Oh sure, I went to school there, I slept but I went there.”
“Then came the Manhattan movie and my father started auditioning everyone. He clearly didn’t call me, he didn’t think about it himself. My mother pointed it out to him, he said no but then she made me do the audition. I had never done it, I was a child, I only watched films. In the end he numbered all the unnamed specimens and sent them to America. He said: ‘you choose’. And my number came back.”
“He – Cristiana continues – he addressed everyone as “lei”, even the children and me too, no one knew I was his daughter. It was her way of being. That’s how my career began, it was there that they realized that I wasn’t just ‘good morning’ and ‘good evening’. I went to shifts with him, in the car, and we talked normally. I asked him how he was going, he told me not to worry, then I went in and he didn’t tell me anything, he just screamed. At the end of the audition I asked him how it went, he said: ‘see you out for dinner’. At dinner he started crying and told me: ‘I had the same feeling as when you were born’. It was the first time I saw my father cry.” And about Reggio Calabria: “my father was a son of the world, but Reggio Calabria is his city. Even though we have many relatives in Rhodes.”
Pasquale Anselmo from Cosenza: “I say thanks to Calabria”
The last speech at the conference is that of the Cosenza native Pasquale Anselmo (voice of Nicolas Cage, John Turturro, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Woody Harrelson), who tells how it all began for him: “I was already doing theatre, then one day a friend of mine from Catanzaro called me and told me that there was a dubbing actor who was looking for an actor with a Calabrian accent for the film ‘A boy from Calabria’ with Volonté. We needed someone to be Abatantuono’s uncle, but I was 32 years old. I practically started right away by dubbing an old man. I say thanks to Calabria, I am happy to interact with my Region. Now I have reached a certain age. It’s right that we return to giving things to a land that has given me so much. Not as training, but as values. All my childhood, my adolescence. My parents died young, unfortunately, my father died and he never saw me be an actor. I’m happy to return to Calabria.”
The career of Oreste Lionello and his famous dubbings
Star performer of the stage, among the founders of the dubbing company CVD (Cine Video Doppiatori), as well as protagonist of the great television variety show and column of Bagaglino, Lionello gave his unmistakable voice to famous actors from overseas, including Woody Allenwho complimented his work by stating: “It made me a better and funnier actor than I am.”. His other famous dubbings: Gene Wilder in “Frankenstein Junior”, Michel Serrault in “The Vice” and Charlie Chaplin in the re-dubbing of “The Great Dictator” in 1972, of which the rendition of the famous Speech to Humanity remains memorable.
And it is precisely from the famous scream pronounced on Wilder in Mel Brooks’ masterpiece that the event takes its title, both to pay homage to Lionello and to launch a highly motivational message on the possibility of carrying out important training activities for actors also in the South, consistently with the spirit of the SRC, which since its foundation in 2017 has filled the void left by the historic Academy of Dramatic Arts of Palmi. The prestigious parterre of teachers – led by the teaching coordinator Giorgio Colangeli – numerous prestigious collaborations with professionals and national events (Giffoni Film Festival) and significant experiences for the school’s students, involved in Italian and international film and television projects. Recent cases of Federica Sottile, co-protagonist of “The Return Party” and in the casts of “Runner” and “Mascaria”, the latter with two other SRC students: Flavia Orecchio and little Giuseppe Barone. And also Nicole Sorace, in the cast of “The First Omen – L’Origine del Presagio”, prequel to the famous American horror saga, and Matteo Ferrara, among the performers of “We were Children”.
The protagonists of the event
Champions in the sector will put their experience at the service of the students and participants in the masterclasses, for a weekend dedicated to the great art of dubbing, the excellence of our country, starting with Cristiana Lionello, daughter of Orestes, and Italian voice of Sharon Stone, Cate Blanchett, Romy Schneider, Annette Benning. With her Renato Cortesi, who lent the voice to Gérard Depardieu, Andrè Dussolier, William Hurt, Derek Jacobi; all artists who shared moments of art and life with the great Oreste. And then, Carlo Valli, unmistakable Italian voice of Robin Williams, Kurt Russell, Jim Broadbent and Richard Jenkins. With them a Calabrian dubbing representative, from Cosenza Pasquale Anselmo, voice of Nicolas Cage, John Turturro, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Woody Harrelson. Also present was Marco Cortesi, son of Renato and dubbing director (“Lost Angels” by Won Kar Wai, “The Killer” by John Woo, the series “NCIS – Unità Anticrimine” and its spin-offs “NCIS Los Angeles” and NCIS Hawai’i”).
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