The director of the successful «They called him Jeeg Robot» returns with «Freaks Out», set in the Ghetto of Rome during the Nazi occupation of 1943
«A film about monsters who act like men and men who act like monsters». Set in one of the darkest moments in our history, in Nazi-occupied Rome in 1943, the days of the German roundup in the Ghetto. This was the starting idea that Nicola Guaglianone gave to his friend Gabriele Mainetti for “Freaks out”, in competition at Venice 78. His second feature film, after the surprise and extraordinary success of “Lo Chiamavano Jeeg Robot” ( over 5 million euros in box office receipts in 2015).
The five animators are the protagonists of the Circo Mezza Piotta, the impresario Israel (Giorgio Tirabassi), who practically adopted them and acts as their father. Matilde (Aurora Giovinazzo), the electric girl, Cencio (Pietro Castellitto), the albino boy capable of taming any insect, Fulvio (Claudio Santamaria: “We didn’t want it to be Chewbecca, the good you rely on but a little one-dimensional. With Gabriele we built a complex and layered mask, with a painful assault »), a sort of wolf man with superhuman strength and Mario (Giancarlo Martini), a magnetic man. “We were amused by the idea of approaching the freak, who in itself is unique, a highly confrontational character like the Nazi and seeing what happened. #FreaksOut was born out of this conflict. The title is a tribute to Tod Browning’s wonderful film, which did not get the recognition it deserved and unfortunately destroyed his life. But the title also comes from the English meaning of freaks out which means going crazy. And then they, our freaks, forced by history to abandon their gutted nest, in the Rome of the bombings, and find themselves catapulted out ».
A blockbuster Freaks out
, produced by Goon Films, Lucky Red and Raicinema, will hit theaters on October 28th. Something like 24 weeks of production, an unthinkable budget for an Italian film. «In my opinion Jeeg robot was the preliminary excavation, this will be the dam of a spectacular cinema, which amuses, but tells human issues that concern us all», says Santamaria. Spectacular, in the fullest sense, relaunches Castellitto. «In Italy we are used to escaping the spectacular, to avoiding it. Here, on the other hand, if in the morning you read about the scenes of an oven explosion then they took place punctually on the set ». And much more, including superhero movie special effects. Here the real heroine is Matilde. «She embodies the strength of women, more articulated than the classic action films. Aurora is a rookie, I found her among a thousand at the auditions, an impressive strength and maturity. And when they shot he was only 15 years old, ”says Mainetti who also edited the soundtrack. And obtained (thanks to Santamaria) the rights to Creep by Radiohead, performed in piano version only by the young Nazi Franz (Franz Rogowski), a freak himself, born with twelve fingers, but who dreams of being the instrument for Adolf Hitler’s atrocious plans.
September 8, 2021 (change September 8, 2021 | 18:29)
© Time.News