In his film “Le Dernier pour la route,” currently in cinemas, Francesco Sossai tells the story of Northern Italy in an inherently political road trip. The rising star of Italian cinema is boldly following in the footsteps of the greats.
Francesco Sossai seems miles away, taking advantage of the time the interpreter takes to translate his responses from Italian to French to check his phone. Far be it from us to hold it against him: shortly before our meeting, he learned that his film, “Le Dernier pour la route,” had been nominated for sixteen David di Donatello awards (the Italian version of the Césars, with the ceremony taking place on May 7), including best film, best screenplay, and best director.
An achievement, according to the press officers accompanying its release in France, almost a year after its presentation in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival. Especially for a young director – 37 years old, with a graduation film, a short film, and a feature film under his belt. Especially for “such a modest film,” notes Francesco Sossai, still surprised by its success in Italian theaters. Especially when competing with none other than Paolo Sorrentino (and his “Grazia,” adored by the international critics), also nominated.
The atmosphere is festive, with congratulations in order. But one cannot help but think that after all, it is to be expected. Like his namesake, Francesco Sossai is attached to a certain idea of his country, an almost pictorial vision of its landscapes. “I wanted to create a counter-capriccio, tell the untold story, the vast plain of the region dotted with towns.”
“What we have done to our landscape is irreversible. We destroyed what existed in the name of a strange idea of progress that was never realized.” ***
In “Le Dernier pour la route,” two free spirits with a penchant for alcohol embark on a road trip until the end of the night and across the panoramas of northeastern Italy. “Road movies allow for a topographic cinema,” says the filmmaker, himself originally from the region. “I wanted to explore it as if it were an autonomous continent, recreating an inner map. I spent years traveling in the Venetian plain, trying to see it with fresh eyes, as if it were the first time.”
“Le Dernier pour la route,” a postcard film? Not exactly. Sossai signs here an exercise in style in the form of a manifesto attacking an Italy we are not used to seeing – rural, almost neglected – a political work “all the more important as the two protagonists, a product of a time as much as a reflection of Italy’s destiny over the past forty years, embody a form of resistance,” according to him. “Italy has taken the opposite path of France and England. What we have done to our landscape is irreversible. We live in the ruins of this idea. Since 2008, we have been living in the ruins of our landscape.”
A recurring theme in this evolving filmography: a play of contrasts, visual as well as narrative. The nostalgia of 16mm, “a supportive medium resistant to time and modernity,” meets the new millennium in his short film “L’Anniversaire d’Enrico” (2023). A factory worker philosophizes on the concept of “nothing” in “Altri cannibali” (2021), a student project he completed at the German Academy of Cinema and Television in Berlin.
Tragic and comic intertwine in “Le Dernier pour la route,” a testament that “by reflecting on the extremes, one can reach this mysterious object that is authenticity, telling life as it is: full of terrifying, ridiculous, beautiful, sad things.” With his nuanced and contradictory cinema, Francesco Sossai has managed to convince the public. On May 7th, we will see if he has also convinced his peers.
[Translated from French. Original article source: telerama.fr/cinema/francesco-sossai-releve-du-cinema-italien-en-reflechissant-aux-extremes-on-peut-arriver-a-l-authenticite-7030561.php]
