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INTERVIEW – On the occasion of the release of his new feature film on Wednesday, the Italian director tells the story of how this black fable was born around an antihero dog groomer. A role that earned Marcello Fonte an interpretation prize at the last Cannes Film Festival.
After Gomorra (Grand Prix at Cannes and 2008), Reality (Grand Jury Prize, 2011 ) and in 2017 on the Croisette the disappointing Tale of the tales Matteo Garrone, 49, returns in majesty with Dogman . He starred Marcello (Marcello Fonte, interpretation prize in Cannes), a nice and discreet groomer for dogs but also a drug salesman confronted with the violence of Simoncino (mbadive Edoardo Pesce), a drug addict, a former boxer just out of prison.
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Before resuming filming of his next film, Pinocchio the Italian director living in Rome explains how Dogman was born.
LE FIGARO – Is competing in Cannes still a recognition?
MATTEO GARRONE – Yes, but the greatest recognition , it is the report that Dogman created with the public when it was presented at the Festival. It is a film that directly touches the heart of the viewer.
It's a violent incident in a suburb of Rome in the 1980s that is at the origin of this film?
Yes, it was a starting point that was released to reinvent completely the story. This scenario has had a very long history. I started working there more than twelve years ago, even before turning Gomorra . Over time, it has often changed because I changed too, I deepened themes that interested me. Dostoyevsky's Dostoyevsky's and The Violence and the Sacred notebooks were also references for me.
Can we compare history to a Greek tragedy?
Yes, there is always a tragic component in my films, that of storytelling too, with archetypes. I try to work on human psychology, its contradictions and its dark sides. I deal with universal themes such as the opposition of the weak and the strong, like David against Goliath, characters who are not stereotypes, but who have their own identity. For Marcello, we worked more on the gaze, its physical transformation. For Simoncino, on the contrary, things have been suppressed. My job, if I had to give a definition, is almost humanistic.
Can we talk about a role reversal, from the executioner to the victim?
Marcello is the victim, but without anticipating nor revealing the film, the evolution of this relationship goes in a direction that is not as unpredictable as one might imagine. It can not be summed up in a story of revenge. Marcello's choices are often contradictory, he is a character who has great humanity, a desire to badert himself and his own personality. His sense of justice drives him to make choices, he is also guided by a childish, naive attitude. For me, it's a kind of modern Keaton Buster that has a link to silent cinema.
Have you ever seen Marcello Cast on screen?
No, I saw it during a casting in a social center. I soon realized that the gentleness and humanity of his antique face that reflects a disappearing Italy would be perfect for this story. Marcello plays with the look. If I had to define this story, I would define it as the loss of innocence. He has a little girl, it was important to have a pure figure. I am happy to have made this film today and not twelve years ago, I am today a father of a ten year old son. I can better relate this warm relationship between a father and his child.
»READ ALSO – Marcello Fonte, the palm of sensation
You never judge your characters …
No, I must understand them, love them, even if I do not share their choices. I'm close to them, Marcello is close to me. I identify more with him than with Simoncino, who represents evil, but he too has a humanity. He just has a limited vision of life and wants to get the drug he wants right away. He is not aware of it. Marcello hopes to free himself, but he finds himself caught in a mechanism of violence that is foreign to him, like an insect in a spider's web.
There is a lot of psychological and physical violence in your film …
Violence is not free for me. I use it to tell some aspects of the character's psychology. It is difficult today to be optimistic. I tell the story of an anti-hero, how bad choices can lead to unexpected consequences and lead to acts of violence. She is present around us and dangerous. We know that at any time, another's nightmare can enter our lives and destroy it. It does not mean there is no love and light in the world.
Where did you go?
The place is not important, we chose to shoot in familiar places for me. I had already realized Gomorra it is a village in the south of Italy where the community of Marcello lives. A place of border reminiscent of certain aspects of the western, suspended, out of time, almost metaphysical, ideal to tell this story.
Do you have a degree in art, does pbadion for painting influence your staging?
Yes, Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Goya, Velasquez probably influenced me unconsciously for Dogman . It was more so in Storytelling especially for Goya. Dramatic art influences me too. My father was a theater critic.
And the "masters" of cinema like Nanni Moretti?
I like his films a lot, but he has his own style. He was the first director to value my work. In 1996, he organized a short film festival where I received an award.
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