Pierfrancesco Favino Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Spike Lee's films have always been fraught with the potential for greatness and disaster, shuddering with a nervy wire-walking energy that makes them superb when they stay on the narrow space between ambition and execution and gives you a long time to watch the fall when they don't. But that, of course, is what makes them worth watching; for but one example, the only thing more shocking than the realization that there was a musical number in Malcolm X was the realization of how superbly it worked; Lee's films are rarely undeniably perfect, but they are always undeniably his.

So it is with Miracle at St. Anna, a bold, sprawling, messy epic of war and faith set behind enemy lines in 1944, as a group of four African-American soldiers are trapped far from their fellow troops in German-occupied Italy. There are moments here where the film does not work, where you can feel the sharp needle of disbelief or dislocation puncture the film mercilessly, and there are other moments that are not only willing but indeed eager to look at big, challenging, relevant issues of race and power, war and justice, faith and failure. These moments -- and there are many of them -- not only speak to Lee's unwavering skill and commitment as a filmmaker, but also to the singular nature of his talent and will. When Miracle at St. Anna falters, it's in the moments that seem like they could have been crafted by any other film maker; when Miracle at St. Anna succeeds, it's in the moments that could only have been crafted by Lee.

Please see installment one for the first part of this interview. Part two starts where yesterday's segment left off, and features Crime Novel costar Pierfrancesco Favino speaking more generally about acting, Italian culture, and his career.

Again, please remember: Favino's English is fantastic for communicating, but transfered to the page, it can be bit a bit difficult to sort out if you've not heard him speaking. To that end, I've done more editing than usual -- all changes to his words (noted, of course, by ellipses or brackets) were done only for the sake of clarity; his meaning and intent are never adjusted.

In the US, when films come out that revolve around real-life historical figures -- like Oliver Stone's films -- there's always people saying "You shouldn't be portraying these people sympathetically," or calling the work dishonest because it doesn't fit into their perceptions of history. Did anyone respond that way to Crime Novel?

Well, let's look at how they end up -- I mean, they all die. And, at the end, those who survive are the ones that now lead the country; the policeman got a [promotion], and he becomes the chief of police ... [by] following the rules and being dishonest with himself. ...But what about Once Upon a Time in America? I mean, we know that they are gangsters, and [we still sympathize with them].

In general, I think you can watch a movie in two different ways. One is the ethical point of view, one is the point of view of the story. And to me as actor, what is important is to reveal -- excuse my pretensions -- reveal that a human being might be everything. I mean .... you're talking to me, and you don't know anything about me. I could go in the elevator and, I don't know ...

Shoot the elevator guy, or something --

Yeah, yeah!

Crime Novel, an Italian film that had its North American premiere recently at the Tribeca Film Festival, is an epic, in-depth look at the rise and fall of a real-life Roman crime syndicate. Taking just a few central figures as its focus, the movie covers nearly 20 years of the group's history, and, along with Nanni Moretti's Cannes-bound The Caiman, was the big winner at this year's Italian Oscars (properly called the David di Donatello Awards). Though the film's eight awards were primarily for things like design and cinematography, Pierfrancesco Favino, who plays Lebanese -- the gang's driving force, and easily the best thing in the film -- was named the year's best supporting actor.

Favino sat down with Cinematical on the morning before Crime Novel's premiere, and proved to have a tremendous passion for film, acting, and European culture. In Part One of the interview, he addresses the film and its historical and culture contexts (beware of spoilers!), as well as the effect it's had on his life. In Part Two, coming soon, he'll talk in more general terms about acting, as well as his career and Italian cinema as a whole.

Finally, a note: Favino's English is fantastic for communicating, but transfered to the page, it can be bit a bit difficult to sort out if you've not heard him speaking. To that end, I've done more editing than usual -- all changes to his words (noted, of course, by ellipses or brackets) were done only for the sake of clarity; his meaning and intent are never adjusted.

Recently honored with 14 nominations and eight wins at the Italian film awards, Crime Novel is a gangster film with something of an epic feel, despite a seemingly narrow focus on a small group of friends. Beginning in the late 1960s, when all of its subjects are still bored, invincible teens, the film traces their rise from bumbling obscurity to one of the most feared criminal gangs in Italy, as well as their inevitable decline. Michele Placido’s film is based on a novel of the same name which, in turn, grew out of the story of a real-life Roman gang that was active from 1977-1992. Because of the film’s roots in reality, one assumes that it has a special power and immediacy to Italian audiences; this may well explain that country’s enthusiastic response a film that, while sporadically engaging, is also over-long (a punishing 150 minutes) and poorly-paced.

After completing their first stints in jail, a group of friends are brought together by the one known as Lebanese (as a teen, he named himself after the source of the hash he liked to smoke) to kidnap a wealthy man for ransom. Though the group is a fairly large one, a small core quickly emerges, and it is on those three men -- Lebanese (Pierfrancesco Favino), Ice (Kim Rossi Stuart), and Dandy (Claudio Santamaria) -- that Crime Novel keeps its focus. The kidnapping doesn’t go quite as planned, but the group nevertheless ends up with a substantial ransom, the majority of which Lebanese persuades them to invest in drugs. Instead of steering clear of the crime gangs that dominate Rome, under Lebanese's leadership, they make brutal, unexpected war on those in power, gleefully killing anyone who stands in their way.