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      • Marco Bellocchio
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      • Mimmo Calopresti
      • Sergio Castellitto
      • Domenico Centamore
      • Valentina Cervi
      • Francesco Colella
      • Maria Grazia Cucinotta
      • Lucianna De Falco
      • Dom DeLuise
      • Christian De Sica
      • Andrea De Sica
      • Luigi Di Gianni
      • Pierfrancesco Diliberto
      • Luigi Diotaiuti
      • Vito Facciolla
      • Pierfrancesco Favino
      • Anna Ferruzzo
      • Ignazio Figus
      • Donatella Finocchiaro
      • Angela & Marianna Fontana
      • Mario Fratti
      • Mirko Frezza
      • Paolo Genovese
      • Claudia Gerini
      • Francesco Grillo
      • Sabrina Impacciatore
      • Enrique Irazoqui
      • Edoardo Leo
      • Enrico Lo Verso
      • Filippo Luna
      • Gabriele Mainetti
      • Pietro Marcello
      • Lucia Mascino
      • Valerio Mastandrea
      • Peter Miller
      • Francesco Munzi
      • Silvio Orlando
      • Ferzan Ozpetek
      • Andrea Pallaoro
      • Gianfranco Pannone
      • Francesco Patierno
      • Edgardo Pistone
      • Edoardo Ponti
      • Isabella Ragonese
      • Franco Rina, CinemadaMare
      • Raffaella Sacco
      • Maya Sansa
      • Talia Shire
      • Valeria Solarino
      • Paolo Sorrentino
      • Marco Tullio Giordana
      • Jasmine Trinca
      • Carlo Verdone
      • Fortunato Verduci
      • Burt Young
      • Gianni Zanasi
    • Streaming
    • Italy in Cinema
      • Calabrian Music in Film
      • Pasolini's Matera
      • Calabria As a Film Set
      • Explore Ancient Rome
      • Tour Pasolini's Rome
      • Pompeii revealed in Film
      • Carlo Levi's Lucania
      • Gaeta: City of Cinema
      • Calabrese Child Actor
      • Coppola Italian Hideaway
      • Destination Mount Vulture
      • Architecture of Matera
      • "Christ Stopped at Eboli"
      • "Return to Lucania"
      • Bollywood in Basilicata
      • Basilicata Goes High Tech
      • "My Country" Touts Molise
      • The Authentic Old Country
      • Documenting Naples
      • Sicilian Love
      • Frank Zappa in Sicily
      • The Sicilians
      • Palermo Pilgrimage
      • Basilicata in Cinema
      • Contemporary Matera
      • Seaside in Maratea
      • Basilicata Born and Bred
      • Dolce & Gabbana in Naples
      • In Rome with Mirko Frezza
      • Sardinian Set
      • Religious Rites in Italy
      • Mary Magdelene in Matera
      • Exorcisms in Palermo
      • Matera Stories
      • Inside a Milan Prison
      • Being Young In Basilicata
      • The Prince of Venusia
      • Inside Vatican City
      • On Location in Malta
      • Remembering Ustica
      • Indie Western in Matera
      • Racing Around Matera
      • Il Commissario Montalbano
      • "The Young Messiah"
      • "All Men Have a Price"
      • Filmmaking in Puglia
      • The Genius of Musmeci
      • "An Ideal Place"
      • The Carnevale of Satriano
      • Timeless Italy Series
      • Basilicata in 4K
      • Pasolini in Basilicata
      • Matera's Biblical Epic
      • Filmstudio, mon Amour
      • See Naples 100 Years Ago
      • Italy in Indian Cinema
      • Italy Offshore
      • A Beloved Dog in Sicily
      • Neapolitan Tenor on Films
      • "Flipo con La Basilicata"
      • Carlo Verdone's Rome Muse
      • A Sicily Rarely Seen
      • Puglia's Thriller
      • Dreaming Sardinia
      • An Italian in Space
      • Shadows of Garbatella
      • Matera in Reggae & Ska
      • An Actor's Sicilian Pride
      • On Location in Basilicata
      • Return to Aeolian Islands
      • Wenders' Palermo Shooting
      • A Lagoon in Tuscany
      • Cinecittà in Basilicata
      • A Neapolitan Legend
      • Winspeare's Apulia
      • Naples in New York
      • Rome's Island of Cinema
      • Rome's Sacro GRA
      • Rome's Eternal Legend
      • The Vatican in Cinema
      • "Habemus Papam"
      • Crialese's Sicily
      • Basilicata Post-Covid19
    • Trailblazers
      • Francesa Bertini
      • Laura Bispuri
      • Liliana Cavani
      • Francesca Comencini
      • Valentina Cortese
      • Veronica De Laurentiis
      • Karen Di Porto
      • Anna Magnani
      • Michela Occhipinti
      • Emanuela Ponzano
      • Alice Rohrwacher
      • Mo Scarpelli
      • Alessia Scarso
      • Maria Sole Tognazzi
      • Giovanna Taviani
      • Lina Wertmüller
      • Antonietta De Lillo
      • Taylor Taglianetti
      • Sophia Loren
    • Culinaria
      • L'eleganza del cibo
      • Chef Luigi Diotaiuti
      • The Art of Arrangiarsi
      • Italianamerican
      • I Maccheroni
      • La Vendemmia Notturna
      • Barilla Pasta Commercials
      • The Duel of Wine
      • The Knights of the Lagoon
      • Interview: Dom DeLuise
      • Lucia’s Vegan Lifestyle
      • Jordan Frosolone
    • Art
      • Castello di Rivara
      • Marco Strappato
      • Italian Futurism
      • Gagosian Gallery Rome
      • Ray Caesar, Italy Exhibit
      • Alfredo Valente
      • CIMA - NYC
      • La Chiesa di San Donato
      • Paintings of Carlo Levi
      • French Academy in Rome
      • Interview: Gino Berardi
      • Emanuela De Notariis
      • Sculptor Franco Anzelmo
      • Uffizi Galleries Online
      • Go Baroque in La Sapienza
    • Rochester Indie Film Fest
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Pietro Marcello Talks Martin Eden

"The Italian Martin Eden tells the story of Naples, of the south of Italy."

Adapted from the novel by Jack London, Martin Eden is the story of an unskilled laborer. When Martin meets Elena, the daughter of a wealthy industrial family, he falls in love. With his sights set on asking for her hand in marriage, he sets into motion his dreams of becoming a writer, hoping to rise above his humble origins. The steps he takes in achieving his goals end up changing his life and his perspective. He experiences a "political awakening" and questions Elena's bourgeois lifestyle.


The film made its world premiere at the 2019 Venice Film Festival and was also shown at the New York Film Festival. That's where our NYC correspondent Lucia Grillo caught up with the director, Pietro Marcello. They talked about his Italian adaption of an American novel and why he immediately had actor Luca Marinelli in mind to play the title role.


Tell us about the challenges of adapting a book for cinema..

It was a very free transposition of Martin Eden. The Italian Martin Eden tells the story of Naples, of the south of Italy. The European Martin Eden was like a free passage because we don't have the culture of the sea. We don't have an Atlantic Ocean or a Pacific Ocean. We have Pasolini and Carlo Levi. We have another kind of literature. We have the Mediterranean style. Our Martin Eden is more of a countryman, more of a peasant, more southern- Martin Eden of the South. 

A book is a book in the sense that it (the film) will never be able to rise as high as the novel. Together with the screenwriter Maurizio Braucci, we tell a story that is universal, that could be adapted anywhere. It’s a story of redemption, that of Martini Eden, an archetype like Hamlet or like Faust.


What would you like for the audience to take away after seeing this film?

I would like the film to be seen by young people who can understand the possibility of redemption, the redemption of all of those who have not had privileges and experiences that were formed in schools but through everyday life. This is a bit of a metaphor for Martin Eden.


Martin Eden suffers after having a political awaking. He suffers from anxiety.

Yes because it's a very contemporary story in the sense that it's a bit of Jack London's story- because Jack London becomes a victim of the cultural industry, modern mass literature. And Martin Eden himself represents this becoming a victim of himself who no longer relates to reality. We are with him while he breezes through life but when he becomes a writer, he becomes confused and falls victim to his own individualism, and his vision of the world.


What was it like working with your lead actor?

It was extraordinary. I thought of Luca Marinelli from the first moment because I needed a person capable of being able to transform himself into the film inside this parable of a sub-proletariat to become a writer. Luca Marinelli was the right person for this.


Click here to watch a clip of Lucia's interview with Pietro Marcello. Click here to watch the film in Lincoln Center's virtual cinema. 

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