The filmaker

Stefano Tummolini

When I first started shooting this film, I had around a € 1000 budget and a week to complete it. I had to make many cuts, some of them very painful. The scene which I valued the most was the first conversation between Salvatore and Daniela, but I could not afford a sound engineer and consequently I was the one to hold the microphone for the actors.

Nevertheless I believe I have kept the overall idea of the project which echoes a famous statement by Cesare Zavattini:
“Our cinema is aiming - as a supreme act of faith - to make ninety consecutive minutes of a man’s life into a strong statement of entertainment. Each of these frames will be equally intense and revelatory, not only as a bridge to the following frames, but they will resonate all by themselves, like a microcosm. Thus our attention will become a continuum, a never ending flow, as it should be when it comes to human interactions. Will we ever be able to do it?”

Like never before in our history, the thought of undivided attention from one person to another seems like a utopian ideal. The tragedy of contemporary society isman’s inability to pay attention to the lives, feelings and predicaments of his fellow men. Modern film, especially American film, has made the average moviegoer crave the spectacular in everyday reality, thus turning all that is quiet, calm and ordinary into something dull. However, the life of man goes at a different pace which is out of step with what we see on the big screen. This film, however, would like to pay homage to the ordinary – because it is often in the ordinary and the little things that the greatest truths are revealed. There will be lots of dialogue, because through conversation people get to know one another. There will be many silent moments, including very long ones, and innumerable little sounds and noises will accompany the action. The actors’ faces and bodies will stand out clearly, and will always be at the center of the action. The story unfolds in a single day, frommorning to sunset, on a public beach which is themeeting point of naturists and people looking for sex. A wooden fence separates the beach from the dunes, where an almost unreal silence reigns supreme. That is where people meet, like Salvatore and Daniela. Through their eyes I have tried to capture the beauty of a summer day and the emotional discovery of another human being.

Stefano Tummolini

Biography

A graduate in film history and criticism at the University “La Sapienza” of Rome, he works as a writer, translator and independent filmmaker. He has collaborated on the screenplays for several TV series (Distretto di polizia, Il bello delle donne, Questo è amore) and films for the big screen, including Ferzan Ozpetek’s Il bagno turco, Maurizio Ponzi’s Besame mucho and A luci spente. He has made several short films and is the author of a monography on Neil Jordan (Dino Audino Editore, 1996) and of an essay on melodrama in motion pictures (Lo specchio della vita, Lindau 1999). He has translated the works of classic and contemporary authors (including Thomas Hardy, Miguel de Unamuno, Gore Vidal, Guillermo Arriaga) from English and Spanish into Italian for the publishing house Fazi. He has also collaborated as a critic and essayst with a number of on-line film magazines (Close-up, Lo sciacallo, Il maleppeggio). Since 2004 he has been teaching motion picture writing at the Holden School in Turin. In 2005, two of his stories were published in the collection Men on Men 4 (Oscar Mondadori) and in 2008 he released his first novel, La guerra dei sessi (Liberamente Editore). Un altro pianeta is his first feature film.

Short films

L’orizzonte (2001) 10’
Presented at the 2001 Torino International Feature Film Festival, section Spazio Italia, and at the Pesaro International Film Festival of New Cinema (2001).
Testing the actress (1999) 7’
Presented at the Rome Film Festival (1999) and at the Pesaro International Film Festival of New Cinema (2000).
Tuffatore (1997) 6’
Presented in competition at the XV Torino International Youth Film Festival (1997) and at the Annecy Italian Film Festival (1998). Honorable mention for Best Screenplay at the Short Film Festival in Rome (1998).
Mammine Care (1994) 20’
Produced by AIACE (Roma), presented at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome, for the occasion of the short film review (1994) and at the Festival Anteprima of Bellaria (1995).
Everest (1993) 10’
Presented at the Bellaria Film Festival - Anteprimadoc ( 1993).