BRUNO PISCHIUTTA

HE BECAME AN INSTANT CELEBRITY IN 1977 WITH HIS PROVOCATIVE FILM COMPAGNE NUDE, ALMOST 30 YEARS LATER THIS MULTI-TALENTED MAVERICK CONTINUES TO TELL THE HARD-EDGED STORIES THAT NEED TO BE TOLD AND DOES IT ON HIS OWN TERMS

Premiere Issue (P. 24)

By Deborah Gilels

In the old days, even his friends anticipated "another bloody film of Bruno's" fearing there might be a volatile reaction much like when a theater showing his first feature film, Compagne Nude, was burned down. Fiercely independent and highly intelligent, Bruno Pischiutta understood from the onset of his brilliant and eclectic career that his mission was to change the world for the better through the content of his films. So, instead of making action films and thrillers that would have brought him much more commercial success, he dedicated his life to helping society's downtrodden and vulnerable, tackling difficult subjects such as teen suicide, bulimia, alcoholism and sexual slavery in West Africa. This year he will release a Retrospective DVD, showcasing scenes from his most important films. Here, Pischiutta tells Daria! Contributing Editor Deborah Gilels about his bittersweet journey from idealistic political activist in 1960's Italy to savvy mogul, running his own movie studio in Canada, Toronto Pictures, that has just gone public.

Deborah Gilels: You have a very rich and textured background, starting with your roots in the infamous political theater established by Dario Fo. You learned to make movies from masters like Fellini, De Sica and Visconti and then became a household name after riots ensued upon the release of your first film. Today, you are the master mentoring a new generation through your thriving film studio. So, I want to jump right in and talk about your new film, Punctured Hope, the true story of a young woman named Edinam who was sexually abused and impregnated by a fetish priest - then smuggled out of her native Accra. Once relocated, she returned to school to study law, and now fights to free other young women enslaved in the same situation! How did Pastor Kingsley Sam Obed and this important project find its way to you?

Bruno Pischiutta: The Pastor wrote to me after he saw on our website that we were going to do a movie about lost virginity in America. He told me that we had no idea about lost virginity and sexual enslavement in West Africa and explained that he had written a script about it. At first I was skeptical, but then told him to send it. It was not perfect, but it was good. This was at the beginning of 2004. Soon after, we decided to collaborate on the film's script and on the film. I went to Africa and saw the atrocities first hand. I then decided to move forward with the project knowing that casting the actors and hiring most of the crew from that area, along with the story itself, would be both a great challenge and a significant achievement to pull off.

DG: What aspect of Edinam's journey appealed to you the most?

BP: She looks extremely young and is a representation of the new Africa. The old people represent the past and the young represent the future. Edinam is now a law student but she was a slave. She had the strength to raise herself up. I find her story very inspirational.

DG: You have a long history of making cutting-edge films on topical issues. What made you decide to dedicate your life to films of this nature?

BP: Because film offers the possibility of mass education along with, of course, entertainment. There are a lot of people who make action films or thrillers, and that's fine for them. I like to present a certain view of things. The power that a filmmaker has on a viewer is 100 times greater than the one a politician has on the people he addresses from the TV screen. Of course, we filmmakers are not politicians or scientists. It's easy to make films with guns and difficult to show things like bulimia and the West African slave trade. Because of Punctured Hope being made, the leaders of the American black community will now have a greater ability as well as the responsibility to push the politicians to change laws and life over there.

DG: Who are the filmmakers that made the biggest impression on you as a youth growing up in Italy in the 1950's and 60's?

BP: Well, Fellini was one of the people I learned a lot from watching, also Visconti and DeSica.

DG: You can guess my next question, but here it is -- how did you meet Fellini and did you consider him to be your mentor?

BP: Not a mentor, Fellini was one of the biggest presences - coming with a different approach - art and fantasy.

I met him when I was studying film and was creating a play about the underworld of Rome. The people I put on stage were real prostitutes and gangsters. Everyone came to see them perform - including Fellini. We took young kids from the inner city and changed them, taught them not to steal and some even became interested in film. It was an incredible time.

DG: Who are your favorite American filmmakers?

BP: In America there are some incredible directors like Steven Spielberg and Ron Howard. I really liked A Beautiful Mind and Cinderella Man.

DG: What is your opinion of the "blockbuster" film?

BP: Today many young people are confused and think all films should have the concept of "amusement park" because they watch blockbusters and don't understand that this is only one thing to do with a film. The box office does not always move the culture of the people forward. In my opinion, Star Wars is "amusement park", American Graffiti is a great movie.

DG: Please describe your involvement in the political theater scene in Italy of the 1960's?

BP: It was a dramatic time in Italy, before the onset of the Red Brigade. I auditioned for the group run by Dario Fo, the largest in Italy, was accepted and then after a year or so went on to form my own group. This was a traveling theater company- also political in nature. We went from place to place, putting up the stage, performing the play, then debating about the play with the audience for a few hours after the show. I did this for 2 years all over Italy and in other places in Europe where clusters of Italian immigrants lived.

DG: In 1970, Nanny Loi cast you in his film Rosolino Paterno: Soldato and you worked with some great American actors like Martin Landau, Jason Robards and Peter Falk. How did this happen?

BP: At the time, I was acting in an Italian theater company in Yugoslavia. There were many American and international movies being shot there and they looked for Italian looking actors who could speak a few words of English. I fit the bill.

DG: Around this time Billy Wilder cast you in Avanti - what do you remember most about your experience working with him?

BP: I was cast in Avanti a year later in Rome. I got a really close look at how American movies were filmed. I also got to watch Billy Wilder direct Jack Lemmon, which was a big thing to see at the time. Another great memory from the time in Yugoslavia was when I was in a film called Uomini contro, directed by Francesco Rosi. I got to do a scene with Alain Cluny, the great actor who played the piano player in Fellini's La Dolce vita. What an experience!

DG: In 1977, you burst onto the Italian movie scene with your first film Compagne Nude. Why were there bomb threats in the theaters where it was playing?

BP: Compagne Nude was my first feature film. It was very provocative -they burned down a theater in Venice where it was playing - in other theaters they cut the screens. A bulletin went out all over Italy about the film, the media began to speak and soon after the theater was set on fire as a statement of complaint about the film's content.

The movie is a story of women in a chauvinistic society and it obviously rattled a few chains. If you want to push culture to the edge, someone will always be unhappy… There was a rape scene in the film that was inspired by a true story. It affected people so much that many left the theater during the screening of that scene.

I did not feel artistically free in Italy so eventually I moved on.

DG: The next film you made, Isola Meccanica, is about con-men kidnapping a girl for ransom. Was there a real incident that inspired your screenplay?

BP: It's not a real story, but one that I created. A kidnapping generates a spiral of violence that grows bigger and bigger. Then the world of the kidnappers meets the world of the crazy people who live on the tiny island where the story takes place.

DG: How did the experience of your first 2 films differ in terms of audience reaction and critical acclaim?

BP: (laughs) Well, there was no critical acclaim but I became instantly famous because of the reaction to Compagne Nude. That film was written about in all of the newspapers and talked about constantly on radio and television.

DG: Wow. That's an interesting debut - to say the least…Later this year you will be releasing a Retrospective DVD on the films you made over the past 3 decades. Which of your films will be featured?

BP: Last Meeting in Venice, The Comoedia, Life Charade, Maybe, Dead Love and Punctured Hope.

DG: In 1980 you made The Last Meeting in Venice, a film that examines the downward struggle of an alcoholic Vietnam veteran who comes to Venice to spend his last days. What impact did the war have on you and how did Italian audiences receive your film?

BP: The film was very well received. The main character had been in Vietnam as a journalist with the Marines. So the war was in the background and the movie is really about a topflight writer dying of alcoholism in Venice. The story takes place over the last 5 nights (remember Dostoyewsky's The White Nights?) of his life leading up to the last night, which is death. The film is shot in such a way as this could be a dream or reality- the audience can devise their own interpretation. By the way, along with writing, producing and directing, I also played the part of the writer.

DG: Well, you have remarkable energy and talent. I'm not surprised. In your next film, The Comoedia, an adaptation of Dante's Divine Comedy, what is your interpretation of Hell, Purgatory and Heaven?

BP: Dante's was a Catholic society, so he had a crisis of faith and then was brought on a journey to regain it. My hero is a 60's longhaired hippie in New York City - he's become a dysfunctional heroin addict ever since his girlfriend was killed in the Vietnam War riots. Now, he's a lost soul, going from bar to bar.

DG: How did you meet your famous editor Ruggero Mastroianni, the brother of international icon Marcello Mastroianni? What was your collaboration like?

BP: I had a great friendship with Ruggero. He and Marcello were gentlemen. After I edited the film, my distributor suggested that I use Ruggero to help with the final cut. He asked me for my ideas and did not just impose his will on the film. He was a great guy and a great editor, but he would not make the trailer for the film because when Fellini asked him to make one for 8 1/2 he did such a terrific job that it was used as the ending of the film!

DG: From what I can tell, there were many "firsts" connected with this film. It was the first time you shot outside of Italy and also this film was almost the first music video in the world-

BP: It was supposed to be the first music video in the world and Pink Floyd was going to do the music. But Pink Floyd did The Wall instead. I had not done a movie in America yet and finally was able to shoot some scenes there. In 1981 at the New York International Film and TV Festival the movie took the Bronze Award - it was third out of 3,800 entries.

DG: It was during this time period that you decided to relocate to Toronto. Why there and not Hollywood?

BP: First of all, in Toronto there is a big Italian community. It's also a comfortable place to live. The competition isn't as big as in Hollywood. At the time I was not ready for Hollywood - I needed to learn a lot of things about America: how movies were financed, how to hire an actor, etc. There's no way that I would ever have gone to Hollywood without anything behind me.

DG: What made you decide to create your own film studio in Canada?

BP: Most of the big talent from Canada is working in Hollywood because in Hollywood films are done for the world market. If a movie is good, it is good all over the world, not just Canada. The kind of content the Canadian government approves of is the kind of movie that nobody wants to see.

So, Toronto Pictures became a film factory - we cultivate our own talent, write our own scripts, and our goal is to make 2 to 3 films a year that can be successful all over the world.

DG: In 1987 you wrote and directed a film called Life Charade that deals with teen suicide - a big problem then that still exists today. What was the reason you decided to make this film?

BP: Teen suicide is a subject that I've always been interested in. Today there are 5,000 teen suicides a year in Canada and 50,000 in the US. It's a phenomenon that is painful, but not inexplicable.

The film is in color but every frame ends in a black and white frozen frames. If you put together the black and white frames, you will understand why the leading character committed suicide. He leaves messages for the people around him and if they are able to understand his messages, they can save his life. Nobody prepared him to deal with the adult world and that's the principal reason of his suicide.

DG: Dead Love, a comedy/fantasy short film, is a big departure from your usual fare. What made you decide to get involved with it?

BP: I did not write it. It is a short film that was inspired by a Chinese and Indian legend. I only directed it so I could showcase Christina Macris, who went on to play the lead role in my next film, "...?..."Maybe.".

I decided to put this on the DVD with one of my feature films. In the new DVD market, you can showcase a short film that is very different from the major attraction. A short film like this alone on a DVD would never sell. If really big producers like Tom Hanks understood this, they would be able to help expose more interesting things to people who are buying their DVDs.

DG: In 2003 you made a film called "?" "Maybe" that deals with 20 something's and eating disorders - again you hit the pulse of society with a topical and prominent psychological issue facing so many of our young people. What led you to write this story?

BP: The film is about bulimia. 13 million people are addicted in the US. If you are addicted to alcohol or drugs you know how you can help yourself. Bulimia is more secretive and complex. Young people who are bulimic feel a lot of shame. If you put a film about this subject on the screen, bulimic people won't feel alone. I really believe that bulimia has its roots in the family. Often, the father or mother treats the daughter or son like they are never good enough and this attitude generates the disorder.

If more people understand what bulimia is, there is a stronger possibility to cure it. This all starts by talking about it. So that's the main reason I made this film.

DG: So, here we are in 2005. What will be your next project after you finish Punctured Hope?

BP: I will make a film in China that I've been working on since 1997. I hope to explain China, the super power of the future, to the western world. We are afraid of the things we don't know. There are a lot of things that Americans don't know about China's 5000-year history.

DG: What do you hope to accomplish in both the business and artistic aspects of your career in the next 30 years?

BP: Well my business has gone public today and that's a real achievement. I want to keep creating films that are interesting. After China, I have a film I want to shoot in Romania about child prostitution. I want to make films that are shot in the appropriate place for the material and with people who are from that place. We are intent on making nonviolent films. We are absolutely independent.

The budget of Punctured Hope is $5.8 million, the film that will be made in China has a budget of $50 million and so I will have to cast some big Hollywood stars in the film. D

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