Giampaolo Letta is arguably the most powerful man in Italy’s film industry. He hails from an influential Italian family. His father, Gianni, is a well-known journalist and politician who was undersecretary of state in four Silvio Berlusconi governments. His cousin, Enrico, was himself prime minister of one of Italy’s short-lived governments. Letta became vice president and CEO of Medusa Films in 2004. He produced The Great Beauty, Italy’s last Oscar-winning movie.
The Film Verdict: Thank you for taking the time to sit down with The Film Verdict. We understand that you don’t often grant interviews. So, lets jump in. You personally guided the image and perception of Medusa very carefully over the last years. How do you believe Medusa is perceived outside of Italy today?
Giampaolo: We have always been very active internationally over the many phases of Medusa’s existence. Up until eight or nine years ago, we were very active as buyers. We distributed many films in Italy, from Lord of the Rings to all Woody Allen films, Roman Polanski, and many other important films. Then, we changed our approach a little and started to concentrate more on Italian films. Medusa had always offered Italian films in the international markets, from Giuseppe Tornatore to Bernardo Bertolucci flicks and many others that were coproductions with foreign partners. We coproduced Woody Allen’s To Rome With Love, which was a great success. He had just finished Midnight in Paris and wanted to shoot a film in Rome, and since we were his long-time partners in Italy, we decided to produce the film together. Another successful example is Paolo Genovese’s Perfect Strangers, which was a Medusa production that sold in 50 countries and also led to over 30 remakes all over the world. We also produced Welcome to the South – and its sequel, Welcome to the North – which was a remake of the French film Welcome to the Sticks that we had distributed in Italy two years earlier. Last year, we worked hard to get Mario Martone’s Nostalgia on the Academy Awards’ short list. This allowed me to get back in touch with old acquaintances and to travel to many cities like London, Paris, Berlin, New York, Los Angeles, and Denver to promote the film. In my travels, I saw for myself that Medusa enjoys a strong image abroad. And, last but not least, there was Paolo Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty that won the Best Foreign Language Film at the 86th Academy Awards in 2013. I am very proud of what we have done so far.
TFV: As the largest private Italian film company, do you feel a certain responsibility to ‘Italian film’? How do you contribute to it?
Giampaolo:: We pay attention to every aspect of it. Traditionally, Medusa invested in box office hits, classical comedies, like the films of the trio of comedians known as Aldo, Giovanni and Giacomo, or commedia all’italiana, like Perfect Strangers. We pay attention in particular to new talents, trying to discover them wherever they might be, like Edoardo De Angelis, whose career we launched. Last year, we brought a young director, Francesco Costabile, to Berlin with his first film. He is now working on a new movie, Con Noi. We are paying attention to high quality Italian films of all genres.
TFV: Speaking of quality, over the last years streamers such as Netflix and Amazon have expanded aggressively into international feature films. How has this impacted Italian filmmakers’ mentality as a ‘pay and play’? Has it changed the way Medusa produces and distributes its films?
Giampaolo:: No. During the lockdown, when the movie theatres were closed, we licensed films that had been ready for release directly to the streamers: Prime Video in particular. I think that in general the advent of the streamers has been very positive in that it has opened up and expanded the market in a significant way, not just for feature films but also for TV series. In this way, it has allowed the industry and individual producers to grow significantly. Theatrical distribution is a key part of our activities, but we also work with the streamers. The advent of the platforms has clearly changed both our habits and the face of the market in the past three years, but the results of the Italian theatrical releases in the past six months have been very encouraging. I am not one of those who see the streamers pitted against the theatres and the distributors. I think the streamers are our new partners – and very important ones at that. This trend had already started before the pandemic but was accelerated by the lockdown. The streamers can circulate Italian films around the world, and they bring significant resources to us. Now that the pandemic is over, I think we are going toward an equilibrium in the relationship between streamers, distributors, and movie theatres. For many films, the theatrical release is still very important because it gives the film and the actors greater visibility and an added value that stays with the film. In other words, a film that has had success in the theatres does much better when it is streamed on the platforms or on free TV. Then there are those films that can be produced for TV or for the streamers, skipping the theatrical release. In this sense, we have a wider market now, thanks to the streamers.
TFV: Does this have any effect on Italian creativity? Do producers and directors enjoy creative freedom, or do they have to follow the algorithms?
Giampaolo: I hear a lot of talk about this, but honestly, from my personal experience, when we meet to negotiate, I see that our partners are specifically looking for Italian creativity. Algorithms may suggest a direction or a target audience, but I personally haven’t seen any interference in the creative process. On the contrary, the streamers place great value on our creativity. Besides, streamers look for Italian creativity and stories because they are produced specifically for the Italian market. Their subscribers are Italian.
TFV: Medusa is taking Mario Martone’s documentary on Massimo Troisi, Laggiù Qualcuno Mi Ama, to Berlin. Are documentaries going to become an important part of Medusa’s catalog?
Giampaolo::That’s possible. This documentary was born out of the relationship that we’ve had with Mario Martone following Nostalgia. More than documentaries, which I am very interested in, there can be an opening to this genre as a result of the experience with Martone. This is not a traditional documentary with interviews and such, but the point of view of a filmmaker, Mario Martone, on another filmmaker, Massimo Troisi, who has influenced many other filmmakers, including some in France. It’s a mixture of stories about the early movies that Troisi made – which made us all laugh so much – and the later, more melancholy movies that led to “Il Postino” before his premature death. It’s a very special documentary steeped in cinema.
TFV: Is it true that Medusa is releasing a documentary on Pasolini?
Giampaolo:: We will distribute a documentary on Pasolini by Giancarlo Scarchilli. That too is not a traditional documentary but explores the influence of Pasolini’s cinema on the Italian cinema of our time and the commonalities between some of the filmmakers of the past and those of today.
TFV: What are Medusa’s plans regarding international and domestic art house productions?
Giampaolo:: The documentaries you asked about constitute a test for us and will allow us to understand what can bring the public back to the theaters in a world that has changed so much over the past three years. We are always looking for stories, content, and films that can motivate the audience to return to the cinemas. It could be that documentaries like this will provide that additional motivation for the public to decide to see the film in a theatre rather than at home.
TFV: Would these be geared specifically toward the Italian market, or are you thinking in terms of international distribution as well?
Giampaolo:: I am hoping that they will have international appeal. Personalities like Pasolini are well-known abroad. Finding stories with an international appeal is one of our, and the entire Italian filmmaking industry’s, goals.
TFV: Which international markets do you think would be interested in Italian documentaries?
Giampaolo:: Depends on the subject, but when it comes to documentaries on Italian film giants, both the European market – France, Germany, Spain – and the US market, which is very different, of course, but also has a specific sector that is knowledgeable about Italian cinema. Touring the US for Mario Martone’s documentary, we realized that many of the people that we were meeting were very familiar with Martone’s work. His first movie, L’Amore Molesto, was based on a book by Elena Ferrante, who is considered ‘very hot’ in the US these days.
TFV: Speaking of international, the Academy Awards are seeing more and more international films enter in various categories since Medusa films won two Oscars with Mediterraneo and The Great Beauty. Why do you think there is such an increase in non-American, and non-European films in the Oscars? Do you think that could be a reason why Italy has been absent from the Awards for nearly a decade?
Giampaolo:: No doubt there has been an increase, especially in Asian films. The Asians have invested a lot over the past years. I think the streamers have also allowed the distribution of films that would have been much harder to view, say, ten years ago, except for a very small circle of people in the business. This, along with the emergence of new national cinemas, has created more competition. So Italian cinema now has new competitors besides the traditional ones, and this is more challenging. Italian cinema has the advantage of having a well-known history, but individual films now face more and tougher competition.
TFV: There are different methods for different countries in selecting a national film for the Academy Award and although Medusa has done well, is Medusa satisfied with the system in Italy or would you recommend another strategy in selecting the film that represents Italy for an Oscar?
Giampaolo:: This is a question we ask ourselves every year. But I think that the method adopted by Italy is a good one. The only request I might have is that the selection be made earlier – not at the end of September, but at least two or three weeks earlier so that we have time to organize the events, screenings, meetings. I experienced this firsthand two months ago. It is very important to have enough time as well as financial resources to get the job done.
TVF: Ultimately, how important is it to an Italian film to win an Oscar today?
Giampaolo:: Very important, of course. It’s very important because it’s a great satisfaction for the producers, the directors, the actors, and everyone else involved in making the film. It’s the most important movie award in the world.
TFV: Looking to the future, how do you see Italy’s own future when it comes to cinema? Who are the next generation of directors and writers that Medusa is keeping an eye on in Italy?
Giampaolo: I won’t name names because I’ll blunder for sure. I think in the past 10 or 15 years, we’ve had a sizable group of young filmmakers who are producing excellent cinema. It’s obviously a long process – which also requires some luck – to win an award like an Oscar. In my view, Italian cinema is growing fast and in many areas. Compared to 20 or 30 years ago, there are many filmmakers, some of whom are also working abroad, which is an important thing. The French, the Spaniards, and to some degree the Germans, started doing this before us and they are now reaping the results. We got there after them, but I am confident about the future because we have a good group of very capable filmmakers.
TFV: Do you think then that Italy can still produce great filmmakers like Pasolini, Fellini, De Sica?
Giampaolo: You are mentioning top names. But I do think that we have some who have already shown their mettle and that there will be others in the future. I am thinking of Paolo Sorrentino, Matteo Garrone, Luca Guadagnino, who are already well-known. But there will be many others too, for sure.
TFV: We’ve seen the film industry constantly adapt. Is Medusa exploring new digital mediums outside the realm of traditional television and film?
Giampaolo: The question of new digital mediums is a complex one. What I can say is that the new mediums – for example, social media – have transformed the promotion and distribution of films. This transformation came about very quickly; faster than we expected. The means of promoting films have changed very much over the past two or three years. We try to pay close attention to all these changes. This morning I participated in a meeting on Artificial Intelligence that was very interesting, but also quite disturbing. Let’s say that the situation can easily get out of control. But it must be analyzed and understood because it can offer many new opportunities, particularly in the promotion of films and in communications. Opportunities that we can’t even imagine yet. Just thinking of data collection and profiling of individual targets for every single film; there is a whole world that still needs to be discovered. The world of cinema has been left behind in these areas, unlike television, which always had tools to measure its audience and demographics. The streamers, too, have detailed profiles that they use to create the algorithms. But in the film industry, we know very little about the moviegoers. I think in the next two or three years we’ll experience a great leap forward in this area and we’ll have more data to help us produce films that appeal to the public.
TFV: And finally, you are attending the European Film Market in Berlin, is there one film in particular that you are excited about for the international market?
Giampaolo: I am proudly partial to Mario Martone’s Laggiù Qualcuno Mi Ama. Berlin is a very important market that I think this year we will be able to enjoy fully after three very difficult years.
–Caren Davidkhanian
