ITALY

RUDY VALENTINO

2017 – DCP – colore – 100’

Direction: Nico Cirasola

Screenplay: Nico Cirasola, Lucia Diroma, Luigi Sardiello

Cinematography: Rocco Marra

Editing: Andrea Facchini

Set design: Carmelo Patrono

Original music: Enrica Sciandrone

Costumes: Consuelo Tarantino

Cast: Pietro Masotti (Rudy Valentino), Tatiana Luter (Natacha Rambova), Claudia Cardinale (zia Rosa), Nicola Nocella (capocomico), Luca M. Cirasola (Alberto), Rosaria Russo (Norma), Alessandro Haber (Gabriele D’Annunzio), Mauro Leuce, Giorgio Consoli, Lucio Montanaro, Dino Paradiso, Antonella Bavaro, Gino Cesaria, Rosa Palasciano

Producers: Alessandro Contessa

Production: Bunker Lab, Mediterranea Film, with the contribution of MiBACT, with the support of Apulia Film Commission, with the participation of BCC San Marzano di San Giuseppe

synopsis

Rudy Valentino tells the half real, half imaginary story of Rudolph Valentino’s return to Castellaneta, his hometown, in the summer of 1923. The story begins in the present day. In a small theatre of the Apulian town, an amateur company is rehearsing for a play on the triumphal return of the Star of Stars, Rudy Valentino, to his native town. The play is directed by the company’s leader, who is a little clumsy but really worships the Star. The rehearsal, though, is interrupted by the appearance of two characters dressed in 1920s style. They claim to be Rudolph Valentino and his wife Natacha Rambova, and to have come back to visit their family and homeland. Is he an impostor or is he really Rudy who’s magically arrived from the past? As the director awkwardly tries to make everyone stick to his script, the show comes to life. Reality blends with fiction, or maybe it’s the opposite.

festival 

2017 Shanghai IFF – Focus Italy

2018 Festival del Cinema Europeo – Eventi speciali