Article by Michela Greco, Cinecittà News
"This is above all a marvelous love story, because love is what’s driving all the characters, whether it’s love for one’s child or for a woman," says Claudio Amendola, on his second time around behind the camera after his comedy The Move of the Penguin. In the process he’s changed genres and moved into noir with Il permesso. 48 ore fuori, which he presented at Noir in Festival at Milan’s IULM University, with his producer Claudio Bonivento and young star Giacomo Ferrara on hand for the screening.
"Edoardo Leo had me read the script that would become my directorial debut," the actor/director recalls, "at a time when comedies seemed to be the only thing Italy was turning out. The Move of the Penguin was about four characters trying to make a fresh start, a very human, stirring tale. With Il permesso I tried my hand at something I’ve always loved, genre films, starting with a story for a movie by Giancarlo De Cataldo, which once again gave me strong characters and feelings."
Il permesso takes place over two days: the two-day release that four inmates have obtained from the prison in Civitavecchia. Fifty-year-old Luigi (Claudio Amendola) goes home to his wife and son, but learns his son has landed in serious trouble; thirty-five-year-old Donato (Luca Argentero) reunites with the woman he loves. Then there’s twenty-five-year-old Rossana (Valentina Bellè), a spoiled rich kid arrested for international drug trafficking, and Angelo Giacomo Ferrara), her same age, from the other side of the tracks, in jail for a robbery. "I’d already made two films with Luca Argentero," Amendola explains, "so I knew how talented and professional he was. I wanted to give him a fresh opportunity to show what he could do with a role that was different from what he’s usually offered, and he was enthusiastic." The prisoner Donato, in fact, is a physically intimidating character who plays dirty, says little but lashes out without notice.
Giacomo Ferrara, the young actor playing Angelo, attracted Amendola’s attention on the set of Suburra, and in Il permesso he lives up to the expectations with a fine performance as a rough kid, right out of a Claudio Caligari movie: "Caligari is definitely a director I look up to," Amendola admits. "Don’t Be Bad was a wonderful film, and I liked his previous pictures as well."
