Interview with Luciano Onetti, Argentine director who last year directed Deep sleep (here is our review), a film that pays homage not only to the Italian giallo but also to our country. This time the questions will focus on Francesca, the new film that Luciano Onetti co-wrote with his brother Nicolas that will have its world premiere at the prestigious Sitges Film Festival. Luciano Onetti defines Francesca come un giallo "tradizionale", un film che si riallaccia al genere ridandogli vita e vigore e creando una sorta di continuità con esso.
We leave the link to our first interview made to Luciano Onetti last November and in which you will find information about his previous film. Here instead you will find the official trailer of Francesca.
L: Ciao Luciano, grazie per averci dedicato un po' del tuo tempo! Ti ho intervistato l'anno scorso e nell'intervista abbiamo parlato di "Sonno profondo", il tuo primo lungometraggio. Oggi invece mi piacerebbe sapere qualcosa in più su "Francesca", il tuo nuovo film che, come il primo, appartiene al genere giallo.
L.O.: Hi Barbara, it is my pleasure to answer your questions.
Francesca is the new film I wrote together with my brother and, in our opinion, it is a murder mystery in its own right. It is difficult to talk about influences or homages, because those are very broad words for such a special genre. Undoubtedly, the giallo is a genre thanks to which it is easy for critics to think that whatever film is made in this period pays homage to the films of the 1970s. It is curious about this fact, because it does not happen with other genres, probably because the giallo is very original in form and also because this genre seems to have been locked with a thousand locks in the 1980s, so it was not possible to continue despite several attempts made recently. Our idea was not to revive the detective story but to follow up on that now paralyzed timeline.
In fact, we can say that Francesca is a giallo-influenced film, although I consider it a giallo film in every sense of the word. It is not experimental and does not belong to the new giallo because, everything that is called new nowadays is a trend that tries to revive something traditional, under the influence of different genres, resulting in a product that is apparently new but is the result of a mixture. Nowadays, thanks to all the innovations, some small details of the genre are added and thus the new wave called "new yellow" (neo yellow in English) is consolidated. This genre includes the film The Strange Color of your Body's Tears. Thanks to this premise, one can cultivate the ability to approach the (seemingly lost) genre by taking some elements of the traditional detective story, such as for example the use of zoom, large close-ups, colors, among others, to remember that they belong to what was at one time the detective story but the differences are palpable. It is clear that the new yellow will never have the importance that the traditional genre has. Francesca Is a traditional detective story.
L: Come "Sonno profondo", "Francesca" è un altro omaggio all'Italia, vero? Perché il titolo "Francesca"?
L.O.: As I mentioned before, I agree that it is a tribute to Italy. Not only because of the film itself but also because of the setting and also because the dialogue is in Italian. I think we respected the genre to the fullest and also the place where it was born.
All’inizio credevamo che sarebbe stato meglio un titolo lungo, proprio come nello stile dei film dell’epoca. Infatti pensavamo a qualcosa del tipo: "The Black Coloured Veil of the Girl in Red" oppure "She kills in a Red Dress".
Then we thought about the fact that Francesca is a strong name and one that would represent the story of the film from beginning to end. In addition, it is a film in which the Divine Comedy and Francesca is the name of one of its songs, and at one moment in the film, music by Tchaikovsky is heard: Francesca di Rimini.
L: Molto interessante Luciano... Potresti fare un confronto fra Sonno profondo e Francesca?
L.O.: Francesca is the opposite of Deep sleep. Deep sleep presents the detective story in a different way that, in my opinion, has never been done, that is, it tells a story from the killer's perspective while leaving out the detective side. Instead, Francesca is a combination of both but it leverages the detective aspect, so the subject matter is much more elaborate, there are suspenseful, disturbing scenes, more crime, and then there are hypnotic scenes that I couldn't resist. In my opinion, detective stories somehow show a trauma from the past-I like to show the psychedelic mental side, the side that might belong to a criminal. I hope not to mine... ahahahahahah... We believe there has been growth in many senses and we hope to continue to grow.
L: Parlaci un po' delle riprese di "Francesca"... dal trailer sembra girato in Italia, proprio come Sonno Profondo.
L.O.: The filming of Francesca were all done in Argentina, in our city Azul. It is a small town that has a lot of art places. Many people who saw the trailer thought it was shot in Italy, and many people in Azul didn't realize it was made there. We're glad we did a good job since we were able to transform so many modern places and change the setting of a city into a 1970s paradigm.
We would have loved to shoot in Italy, it would have been much more real but right now we can't afford it. There are so many problems to deal with and we are aware that we still have to break down the walls that make you see how far your limits go as a director and as a producer. We experienced this as a test of our abilities.
L: Cosa ci puoi dire del cast e della musica? Quest'ultima ricorda la musica dei Goblin...
L.O.: La scelta del cast, degli attori, è stata un processo molto lungo. Abbiamo cercato persone che avessero l’aspetto fisico simile ai personaggi descritti nella storia. Volevamo trovare facce che si adattassero agli anni '70. Così come si vedono nel film, così sono nella vita reale, non c’è stato un lavoro di trucco durante le riprese per farli sembrare dell’epoca. Questo è stato un fatto molto positivo per il nostro film perché sembrava tutto molto più reale. Se a questo aggiungiamo i luoghi, ci siamo sentiti davvero negli anni ‘70 durante le riprese del film e proprio questo sarà quello che percepirà lo spettatore quando vedrà Francesca.
With reference to music, there are compositions that bring to mind Goblins. In Deep sleep, music played an important role, instead being Francesca a film with dialogue, the music takes a back seat. The music may recall Bruno Nicolai, Ennio Morricone, and at other moments precisely Goblin. In Francesca la musica si sente di più in certi momenti importanti e critici. Pensiamo che l'effetto sorpresa negli spettatori sarà suscitato dall’ambientazione. Il lavoro di produzione è impeccabile.
L: What would you call Francesca?
L.O.: Francesca is a traditional detective story and will appeal to fans of this genre. We believe it will also delight those who are not familiar with the detective story, because it has a strong story and because it has so many aspects that will surely steal their attention. We hope that viewers will help us with this film to open those locks with which the detective story has been locked up all these years.
L: What are your future plans? Do you plan to make more films belonging to the mystery genre?
L.O.: The future can sometimes be uncertain. We have many other projects besides having a new detective story in mind. First we would like to improve our technical side so that we can offer something better, for example from a quality point of view, by changing the film format. We would love to shoot on 35 mm but we know that is very far from our realities. You have to know that we do not have any outside financial help and it becomes very difficult. I would love to have a nice camera and other things to be able to work better in staging. I would like to have nice equipment. If a mechanic does not have his iron box well equipped, he can never make a good repair
Fortunately, my brother and I have a good base, we see each other often, and new ideas are always coming out of our meetings, not only in the world of detective films. Gradually we are accumulating a lot of experience making films in this genre, and this is perhaps preparing us for the future to make films in other genres.
L: Thank you Luciano, as always you are very kind and your answers are very satisfying!
L.O.: Thank you Barbara for the interview. It was an immense pleasure for me.
I thank my friend Silvina Grippaldi for the translation.
