Your story, shortly, from the childhood to BlowUp
Born on October 24, 1979, Scorpio, last of four sons. A father postman and a mother house wife, I graduated in philosophy at Naples University and am proudly Atellano (from Atella), I live in Succivo (Caserta) where we founded the BlowUpFilm to try to make cinema where there was not a cinema.
Why ‘cinema is an invention without future’ as your blog says?
This is a quotation by Lumiere Brothers who, having invented the cinema, were not able to get the great potential of the mean, that was then taken by the great Illusionist, Melies.
This sentence gives also the idea of cinema as an eternal present tense.
Can you tell us your cinema style – that appears to us suspended among truth, denunciation and surreal (as Svanire one of your last works that will be awarded at the Venice Movie Festival)? Is this a choice given the place you were born in (the Caserta area, close to the so-called Terra dei Fuochi) or arising from the fact you like the most up-to-date cinema and also need to ‘elevate’ the bluntness surrounding you?
I love very much the social cinema of Dardenne Brothers and I get touched by Ken Loach raising to the sky the Palme D’or at the last Cannes Festival. That is the cinema I refer to, at which I try to add, together with Giusi Marchetta (friend-writer-screenwriter) some escape systems to do not get trapped into the reality.
You’re the son of an unkind mother at which you continue to give attention in a creative term and make it the main character of your movies. Does not matter that, the local Film Commission is not supporting you and therefore you activate crowdfunding to raise funds for your film company and charity Blow Up. Which kind of audience is ‘awarding’ you every day, from where it comes from and what do you think it does? And what a director feels when he conquers already ‘tickets’ for a movie to be?
I do not like to seem bombastic, but my land is the propulsive energy for my cinema.
I cannot make it without this land even if the stories I tell can be filmed in different places. Regarding the Campania Region Film Commission, I prefer to do not comment. I only hope that this region will make soon a regional law for the (local) movie industry.
And it is also thanks to this deficiency (the famous sentence ‘from diamonds you do not take anything’) that we moved on the crowdfunding and so to the great satisfaction to complete two short movies, with more than 100 producers who backed us from mostly the whole Italy. I’m either very anxious and full of love for that.
What do you give to your land and what do you take from it?
Love, lots of rage, sometimes hate: this is what I take and also what I give.
A nice happening in recent days either on the professional side and on the personal one?
On July 14th I was in Nice for a cinema workshop, we had to make a short video in three days with some law students from the Summer School of Turin tutored by professor Heritier.
The students, and us either, were very shaken, dismayed. We decided to complete our work, so we did the short movie the same. We were together and we were making cinema and they were beautiful and alive.
Your favourite food and drink
I cannot live without the three P: pane (bread), pasta and pizza. A drink? Wine: the red Falerno or, if white, Asprinio from Aversa.
The book and the music with you now? And where are they on?
‘Canzoni della cupa’ by Vinicio Capossela together with ‘La Vita come un Romanzo Russo’ by Carrère that lay down wherever it happens
A talent you have, another you miss
The ability to put together and to mediate. I miss sometimes the ability of the parting. I am too emphatic.
And after Svanire (to vanish)?
We are working on my first full length movie. At last! The temporary title is ‘The last night of the year’ and is written with Giusi Marchetta (we publish an extract from the scenario here with our translation in English) and with Marco Racca – the movie is produced by Alfonso Santoro I thank very much to be believing to us since the inception of our project.
Where do you see yourself in ten years, camera apart?
With Meri, my female cat, with Alessandro Lanciato, brother and director of photography, with Veronica or with some other woman still available to love me, sitting out BarTò in Succivo to drink, to get happily annoyed and to fight with the barman, who is a pure and hard and sad Inter Football Club supporter: Salvatore, aka Baggio.
What did you learn so far from the life?
That is hard to answer. Maybe I learnt that you have to tell ‘I love you’ when you can.
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Angelo Cretella is at 73rd Venice International Film Festival (Venice, Italy), you can meet him on September the 2nd from 11.30 am when he will be at Svanire screening as one of the 17 awarded under 40 directors at ILOVEGAI
To watch online Svanire: https://vimeo.com/117718717
We publish an extract of Angelo’s and colleagues next movie scenario, we have translated as The Last Night of the Year