Carnera The Walking Mountain

F. MURRAY ABRAHAM'S INVITATION TO THE WORLD PREMIERE

AN INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR RENZO MARTINELLI

In his career as a director, Renzo Martinelli has gone from music video clips, to television fiction, to successful movies for the big screen.

Mr. Martinelli, what is your true passion?
My true passion is telling stories with a strong ethical content, because I firmly believe that an artist’s duty, at all times but especially today, is to evoke and communicate truth. For example, in “Il Caso Moro” (about the shocking kidnapping and murder of the Italian prime minister by terrorists), or in “Vajont” (about the collapse of a dam in Northern Italy), or in “Carnera” itself, I’ve tried to understand the deep ethical content of those stories, to extract it and to present it for the viewers to reflect on it. My passion is telling stories that entertain the viewer, of course, but at the same time force him to think and reflect. My passion is transmitting poetic messages linked to the true values in today’s world using a modern medium such as cinema is.

What is the part of your work that you enjoy the most?
Definitely, it’s the preparatory work, which includes gathering and studying documentation, analyzing the character, and reconstructing the historical reality. This preliminary phase usually takes three years, the first one devoted to documentation work, and the next two to go from the written movie to the actual film. This is a work that requires great passion, dedication, total immersion, constant interaction with collaborators, and it’s the occasion for a lot of personal and professional growth.

Why did you choose Primo Carnera?
Carnera was already there, since my previous movies, because I did a lot of work in the past in Carnera’s home region, Friuli. Every time the small seed of the Carnera idea reappeared, then slowly it has bloomed, it has grown, and has finally become a movie. And then, everybody knows that it’s never the director to choose a movie, it’s the movie that chooses its director. The director just needs to allow himself be guided and chosen… and then one day the movie knocks at your door and tells you “I’m here, what about if…”.

How would you describe your relationship with your actors?
It’s extraordinary. It’s always extraordinary because I am not a “classical” director. I’m a director who also shoots, so I always have a camera with me and I’m always one foot away from the actor. This is a very important psychological factor, because the actor feels my presence, he feels that I’m following him and that I’m shooting him from a very, very close distance. He feels my presence on the back of his neck, he listens to me talk to him between scenes, I put my camera down and I talk to him, and then I shoot him. The complicity between the director and the actor that is born this way is simply wonderful.

What is the message you want to send to Italians who will receive your movie in the United States, and to the American public?
My goal with this movie was to have the chance to tell the story of Primo Carnera not only as a boxing champion, but more importantly as a man who strongly believed in his values: his love for his family, that was immense, as well as for his own land and his own roots. His determination to always go forward, to give all he had, to sacrifice himself so that his sons could have a better life, these are all qualities that are typical of the people from Friuli, and of Italians in general, as is demonstrated by the stories of countless immigrants who came to this country in the past century. Because a defeat is a defeat only if you remain on the ground, if you give up. But if you get back on your feet and walk out with your honor intact, then you are not a loser, you are a winner. This is the message that I wanted to communicate to my viewers, and in particular to the younger generations, both in Italy and in the US, who so often and so easily yield to depression: life is full of difficulties, always and for everybody, but they can be fought and overcome, even in defeat.

Is there anybody in particular you would like to acknowledge?
First of all, Giovanna, Primo Carnera’s daughter, who gave us an incredible help during the writing of the screenplay and with the historical reconstruction. Italian boxer Nino Benvenuti also gave us a very big hand. And then Alessandro Spinelli, Andrea Iaia’s trainer, who was next to me when shooting the fight scenes, he choreographed them with me watching the original, black and white images of the real Carnera while we were shooting, to make them historically correct.