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#16 EXPERIMENTALLY PICARESQUE
09/09/2005
The beauty of Davide Marengo's documentary goes beyond its content. It completely avoid the usual pitfall for any director whose intention is to present true stories, that is, its interest is not totally absorbed by the interest of the subject. Craj ('tomorrow' in local dialect) was conceived as a real experimental work of art, using several kind of visual arts and uniting them in a single picaresque tribute to traditions.
Indeed, the films uses interviews (the originality of which is that they are filmed in a tenderly subjective way, the camera zooming on small endearing details, as Jonathan Nossiter's did recently in Mondovino), images of the concerts and of the fiction initially presented as a live show by Teresa De Sio. The fiction itself, which relates to Don Quixote (hence to the picaresque genre, which was the dawn of the novel), alternates between scenes in which the two travellers are seen together, and scenes in which only one of them speak. Bimbascione (the pretty Sancho Panza) addresses directly the spectator, as the chorus would do in Greek tragedy, while her master is an addressee-less narrator, speaking in an inspired manner similar to Peter Greenaway's Prospero.
Yet, however composite it is, Craj is not a patchwork but a vibrant polyphonic tribute to the oral tradition, presented as something powerful which, far from being cancelled by written literature, can be reconciled with it and will keep on living...'tomorrow'.
Interview of Davide Marengo (direction and script) and Paolo Papa (script)
Why did you choose to stage this musical journey through the Region of Puglia?
Davide: I clearly thought of Don Quixote but my influences were mostly emotional. I am a Napolitan who fell in love with Puglia. The idea to make a film came very spontaneously a year ago; we had to hurry anyway, for the concerts were already scheduled. We started adapting Teresa De Sio's live show and filming last Summer.
Did you divide up the work or did you do everything together?
Davide and Paola (in a single voice): All together!
Paola: We really wrote the whole thing together, sitting around the table in our bathing suits, in a house in Basilicata (province of Potenza).
What is really striking here is the fact that even young people really stick to this musical tradition. There are plenty of young people dancing during the concert.
Davide:This is typical of this province. Anywhere in Puglia, children and teenagers love traditional music. And it is so communicative that the public loved it everywhere during the Italian tour (the concert we filmed took place in Abbruzzo). This tradition is beautiful because it really unites all generations, which the character Froridippo expresses in a lyrical way, for he leaves the dark and goes towards the light of traditions.
Paola: Of course, within the tradition, there are some differences. In Carpino, the lyrics are cheerful and hedonistic; it is all about women, wine, etc. In Foggia, the songs deal with poverty. Same in Cutrufiano, in a more romantic way.
What's next?
Paola: A documentary about a Columbian dancer who teaches favella kids.
Davide: A thriller (I got funding from the Ministry), but I am also interested in Paola's project.
Bénédicte Prot
www.cineuropa.org
In the photogallery, pictures by Michele Lamanna
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davide marengo |
davide marengo |
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