«And now a TV series on Enzo Tortora» Bellocchio the innovator – Corriere.it

REYKJAVIK At the Efa, the European Oscars taking place in Iceland this year, it is full of very young actors and directors. For the actors ran Pierfrancesco Favino in
“Nostalgia” by Martone: Zlatko Buric of «Triangle of Sadness» wins, a grotesque metaphor of capitalism made by the Swedish Ruben Östlund, which triumphs with three other awards, including as best European film, after the Golden Palm at Cannes. Laura Samani is the “revelation” for
“Small body». Who wins the award for best innovative director? Mark Bellocchiowho is 83 years old, for the TV series «Outside night»
on Aldo Moro. The only one who doesn’t speak English, which is «like Latin in ancient Rome. Reward me who am very old… Usually those who are old are better off retiring». After the assassination, “the parties fell apart, it was perceived as something truly tragic for politics, it was allowed to be would kill and this tragedy was hidden behind the fact that he was crazy: we are the state and this is a sacrifice that must be made. But what a madman, said his wife.’

Being 83 years old and not feeling them. «It seems that Sophocles wrote until he was 80, and then other greats, Michelangelo… Not that I want to compare myself to them. I have no presumption of give messagesI can say that compromises are made but there is a limit that if you cross it it will damage yours imagination. It’s often said that Italian cinema looks at its navel, but it’s our life we’re talking about, the problem is how you transform it, overturn it, represent it. There are great directors who have suddenly stopped, maybe I like it look around me».

It’s finishing «The conversion“, on Edgardo Mortara (Spielberg gave it up), the Jewish child 7-year-old who in 1858 was removed from his family of origin, kidnapped by the Papal States, made to convert. He first became a priest and then a missionary: «He died at the age of 90 in Belgium, marked by neurasthenia, in 1940, the day the Nazis invaded the country». Bellocchio then plans to shoot another TV seriesthis time up Enzo Tortora. And it is in Reykjavik that he talks about it for the first time. The two projects have in common that they are not meant to be indictments against the Church of the time or against the whole category of judges; then there were those of the sensational blunder, condemning the TV presenter “to jail, against all the evidence”.

His views are as usual uncomfortable and multiple. “I don’t want to do a saint of Tortora on the wave of the injustice suffered. I want to dig inside him, his success, with “Portobello” he nailed 25 million Italians and overnight it was carried in handcuffs in Regina Coeli. I want to name it “The infamous column”, like the book he wished was in his coffin. On appeal he was acquitted but after that tragedy something broke in him forever. He’ll go back to “Portobello”, but he won’t be able to, he won’t be able to take it anymore, not that it seemed like a joke to him, but talking to the parrot after what he had experienced… I’ve seen a couple of films about his case, but having to condense yes risk the superficiality. Tortora was a fighter, his determination will put his physical health in crisis. I won’t be lapidary with the judges, but certainly after their mistake they didn’t resign, they didn’t they sprinkled their heads with ashesindeed they have made a great career».

For «The conversion», the protagonist child is called Aeneas, the parents are Barbara Ronchi and Fausto Russo Alesi (he is Cossiga in the Moro series), Pope Pius IX is Paolo Pierobon and Fabrizio Gifuni the Grand Inquisitor. «When the Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed, he went to trial for having ordered the kidnapping. He was acquitted for having acted according to the dictates of the Canon law». Edgardo, son of Jewish traders who tried in every way to get it back, was baptized on the initiative of the housekeeper, who thought he would die after an illness.

«It is not a controversial filmbut it is a fact that Pius IX behaved violently towards a child who lived with his family in Bologna, due to that clandestine baptism. He happened in an Italy that was resurgent, and the Papal State was collapsing ». There is the historical background: «It was like saying: with baptism there we oppose progress. I hope this exciting story will speak in the present tense.” Was it a genuine conversion? “Try telling that to the Jews… It seems that he was unable to convert anyone to the Catholic Church.”