Tribute to Marcello Baldi
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With the films: Narciso. Dietro i cannoni, davanti ai muli Narciso. Behind the Cannons, in Front of the Mules by Marcello Baldi, Dario Baldi - 93', Italy, 2998 Non solo K2... Parte seconda: da Pupille agli Arameni Not Just K2... Part Two: From Pupille to Arameis by Renato Morelli - 25', Italy, 2004 |
Like a Testament
In 2004, in Cerro Veronese (during the 10th edition of the Film Festival della Lessinia), Marcello Baldi arrived. The occasion was the presentation of the documentary by Renato Morelli, Non solo K2… le pupille di Marcello, dedicated to the director from the Trentino region known by all as the producer and author of the film, Italia K2, about the Italian conquest of the K2 peak in 1955. Morelli had devoted a long, enthusiastic video interview to Baldi, that included extraordinary archival research on the multifarious cinematographic output of the director who had celebrated his 80th birthday in 2004. Marcello Baldi won us over. The evening spent with him, after the screening of the documentary, remains one of the finest memories of the Festival. He recounted, amused, the difficulties of making his film, along with a series of anecdotes about his long experience as assistant director and documentary film maker.
On that occasion, seated at the table of a restaurant, Marcello talked to us about a project – or better said – a dream. He wanted to make a film in the Trentino, in his Valsugana. It was the story of a mountain dweller and his son. It seemed clear that he considered that story a testament and an act of love for the mountains and for his homeland in particular. When the news broke that at 84 years of age Marcello Baldi was beginning to shoot Ciso (later titled Narciso) we knew that he was fulfilling his desire. “The protagonist of Narciso”, he said, “is a man who is 84, like me. Same birthdate, August 1, 1923. This date does not hide an autobiography, but it gathers my memories, my experiences”. To make the film, Marcello relied on the help of his son, Dario. With him, and the producer Paolo Ghezzi, they sought out the locations, largely in the Lagorai range and the town of Telve, and the actors: Amida Syed, Roberto Herlitzka, Alessandro Di Natale and the little Ayase, a 5 1/2-year-old Indian child whom they found in Trento. The filming, that was to last six weeks, the first two in a mountain hut at 2000 meters, lasted much longer, with more than a few audacious moments. Father and son worked together: “We are separated by fifty years,” declared Dario. “For the first time, we worked together; we separated when I was very small and now we have reunited to share this adventure” and this too contributes to the autobiographical nature of the film. Narciso is neither a nostalgic recollection of mountain life, nor an oleographic painting. The film provokes and interrogates. The diffidence towards the foreigner, the fear of what is different, and the closure in the face of the unknown assume, within the dimension of a small mountain town, even harder edges. Lucid and courageous, Marcello Baldi tells us that hope is in the hearts of individuals, more than in society. His Ciso is the first to overcome the mountain dwellers’ diffidence and to denounce the mentality of a society that has made of its closure an egocentric refuge. For this we are thankful to this smiling, optimistic man, so full of contagious vitality. With great emotion, the Film Festival della Lessinia pays him warranted homage.
Alessandro Anderloni
NEWS
Portraits
Directors, actors, producers: here are the protagonists of the 16th Film Festival della Lessinia. Take a look.
Viewing of prize-winning films
Sunday, August 29, 2010, at 2 p.m., 4 p.m., 6 p.m. and 9 p.m., screenings of the prize-winning films of the 16th Film Festival della Lessinia. Take a look.