'The actors were free ... to do what I wanted'
Clashes between the Fascist and Communist parties in 1960s Italy doesn't sound like the basis for one of the year's most tender dramas. However in Daniele Luchetti's capable hands, My Brother Is An Only Child is a charming, moving experience. Screenjabber's Neil Davey caught up with Daniele to discuss period politics — and sibling rivalry...
"The family is the key." Daniele Luchetti is analysing the appeal of his award-winning film, My Brother Is An Only Child. The surprisingly universal appeal as it happens. The film — and its source novel — focuses on two brothers, the older, charismatic Manrico, played by Riccardo Scamarcio, and the younger, impetuous Accio, played by Elio Germano. With Manrico casting an extremely long shadow, Accio struggles to feel noticed. A contrary character anyway, Accio reacts against his older brother's popularity and position in the local Communist party by joining the Fascists. It was, as Daniele explains, an interesting time - and one that the Italians are still coming to terms with.
"The 1960s was this fight between the Fascists and the Communists. And at the start of the 70s, the movements got involved in terrorism, and the target was the Government and the public. We didn't resolve the mourning of these days." Daniele shrugs. "We still haven't.
"It's incredible. We do not have any more the fear of the communists, we don't have a strong neo-fascist movement, but this is the first time this story has reached the screen."
And, as Daniele accurately points out, the real story here is the family. "The politics play their part but we can hide something of the political contents and try to see the characters through Accio's life, his feelings, his calling, his tragedy."
Not to mention a very well observed sibling rivalry. It's so well observed, in fact, that I have to ask if Daniele is a younger brother. He grins. "No. I am the older brother...
"I think this is the real centre of the movie," he continues. "We talk a lot about the politics, but the real point is the subtext, feeling excluded from the family and living in the shadow of the older brother, feeling he's more successful, more popular, just because he's bigger: everything he is, he's done before you.
"And," he explains, "feeling excluded is one of the feelings of both the younger brother and the Fascist movement."
Another key to the film's success is the casting of Germano and Scamarcio. Remarkably, while both are familiar faces in Italian movies, Daniele hadn't considered them at first.
"I wanted to find actual people," he reveals. "We searched in gyms, for boxers, for people with stupid faces but I wasn't happy. Because the story seemed to me too precise. When I met Elio, he was the opposite of the character, because he's intelligent. But I was aware his intelligence could give me more depth to the character, the person, because it is more interesting to see an intelligent man doing stupid things, than seeing a stupid man doing stupid things."
As for the realistic nature of their relationship, Daniele explains that was the result of their hard word during the film's lengthy rehearsal process.
"I told the actors to drop the actors tricks. The rehearsal was to get rid of those cliches. They had no marks to hit, I wanted a more natural performance, I wanted to give them more freedom." He laughs. "The actors were free... free to do what I wanted!
"We talked a lot about the subtext and every time we shot a fight scene, for example, I told them to do it as a love scene. The brothers fight but it's the way they express their love, because they don't have the words.
"In the 1960s, in Italy, families did not express their love. The first time I saw an American movie, when a mother and her son said 'I love you' it felt almost pornographic! In Italy it was so difficult to express those feelings. To change it into a fight was easier..."
• My Brother Is An Only Child is now showing across the UK. Read our review HERE