What is so fascinating about celebrities? When we see them in the movies, on the stage, or on the cover of magazines, they look like extraordinary human beings dealing with success and perfection in their lives. And perhaps this is the reason why many people are perversely intrigued by their misery when that plenitude is shattered. Nevertheless, watching things from the outside can be misleading sometimes, while a closer – and possibly unnoticed – point of observation may allow to catch different and interesting subtleties.
The arrival of the Italian artistic delegation to present Cinema Italian Style 2013 has rightfully drawn the attention of the media and the local community, also because of the Academy Award entry after eight long years.
Yet, the first thing to strike us is the approachable and easygoing attitude of good-looking and talented actresses and filmmakers, like Jasmine Trinca or Maria Sole Tognazzi. Some of them even reveal a gentle shyness that they must be able to turn off when working on set, and remarkably replace with concentration and discipline.
Director Paolo Sorrentino, for example, kind of eludes questions by the press regarding the Oscar nomination, maybe due to superstition, or maybe – as he says – to the fact that, although every filmmaker dreams of the prestigious Award, he is native of Naples and used to far more pragmatic dreams.
In the way he jokes, without taking himself too seriously, we seem to recognize traits of Jep Gambardella, the leading character of his movie The Great Beauty, who declines the umpteenth interview and makes a fool of artists incapable of explaining their art. As opposed to that, Sorrentino’s coy manner of lending himself to Q&As suggests that he definitely prefers to express himself through his movies, screenplays and framings, rather than verbally. Significantly, the advice he gets from Academy Award-winning director Bernando Bertolucci on how to deal with the Hollywood star system is to play along and enjoy it.
Another unexpected feeling that stands out is the camaraderie between these artists, the way they support each other’s work, even if some of them competed for the Oscar nomination. Sometimes they remind of a group of friends on a trip, and we can easily imagine them renting a minivan to explore the City of Angels as jokingly proposed by actress Claudia Gerini.
Being a nationally or internationally acknowledged artist implies responsibilities, first of all – as actress Kasia Smutniak underlines – in terms of the message conveyed to the public. By meeting these celebrities, we learned that what makes (at least some of) them extra-ordinary is their own personality, and the ability that we all long for to turn talent into passion, and passion into a job.
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