Love sometimes plays tricks, you know. We think we know someone and then we discover we are dealing with a “perfect stranger”. What if it was a cell phone that revealed the truth about who we have next to us? «I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing, but the contents of a cell phone tell us much more about a person than spending entire days on it», says director Paolo Genovese. On Friday evening at 9.15pm, with performances until 20 April, he will bring the adaptation of “Perfetti Svenireti”, a cult comedy from 2016 which won two David di Donatello and two Nastri d’argento, with the record of remakes in the history of cinema, 24 around the world. During a dinner, a group of friends decide to play a game of truth, placing their cell phones on the table and sharing messages and phone calls.
Are you aware that you have put many couples who have seen the film into crisis?
«Over the years I have received many messages on Instagram. People who told me how her life had changed after “Perfect Strangers”: couples failed, lives turned upside down, truths revealed. It’s a positive factor that a film doesn’t end in two hours, but manages to plant a seed, instill curiosity, induce reflection, make decisions.”
Tell the truth, have you ever spied on your wife’s cell phone?
«I would never do it, I don’t think it’s right to spy on someone: I respect privacy very much. I made such a devastating film that I would never ask anyone to play a game like the one I’m talking about.”
What are our cell phones hiding that is so hot? She says it.
«Our secret life. As we read in the film poster, “each of us has three lives: one public, one private and one secret. Once upon a time that secret was well protected in the archive of our memory, today in our SIM cards.” Cell phones are like a black box: we put our entire existence inside.”
But is it really bad to have secrets?
«Secrets are not always something to be demonized. Not all of them are pathological: sometimes they are physiological, others concern the private and confidential sphere that we can choose not to share. The concept of secret is very multifaceted and does not necessarily have a negative meaning.”
One word to describe “Perfect Strangers”.
«Identification».
Was it a challenge to adapt a film that was so successful for the stage?
«It certainly was a challenge because theater has a different approach to cinema: there is no possibility of detaching oneself from the frame. I imagined the story as a continuous flow, without interruptions on stage. At the theater it’s like sitting at the table with the protagonists.”
Will we have any surprises regarding the film?
«The final scene will be shot at home and we have added some lines over the months. The messages on the mobile phone will sometimes be understood, other times they will be read by the person receiving them or by others. They will not be projected on screens. The actors gave their soul to the show, without however betraying the original one: the story is the same”
In the theatrical cast Anna Ferzetti, Astrid Meloni, Alice Bertini, Dino Abbrescia, Marco Bonini, Paolo Calabresi, Massimo De Lorenzo. How did you choose the protagonists?
«I wanted to recreate a credible group of friends and I was looking for actors capable of interpreting many emotional nuances, both comical and dramatic. This cast managed to get into the characters and the story perfectly.”
How did you come up with the idea of the film first and the theater show afterwards?
«The film was born almost ten years ago by observing society: cell phones and social media were becoming increasingly popular in our lives. I wanted to tell how a new object that hadn’t existed until a few years earlier was changing the relationship between people. The show, however, was born by chance: I saw it in Buenos Aires, Argentina, invited by the producer for the thousandth staging. I was struck by the incredible interaction with the audience and I also decided to do my first theater direction.”
He was in Palermo for six months filming “I Leoni di Sicilia”. Impressions?
«I experienced it fully, not as a tourist. I lived near the cathedral. I had a bike, my own butcher shop. I did my shopping at Capo, Kalsa or Ballarò. The feeling is of a very quiet city, not at all dangerous, even when I returned home at 3 in the morning. I have Sicilian origins: my father, my grandmother and my cousins are from Messina. The call of my origins is strong for me”
Will he return to shoot the second season of “I Leoni di Sicilia”?
«Nothing yet. There is certainly a cinematic rediscovery of the island which doesn’t surprise me, given the charm of the cities and the historical and naturalistic beauties.”
