“Their films have a purely entertainment-based quality, a pleasure in digging into the mechanisms of suspense, a talent for working with pop icons (characters, actors and roles), all of which has led to the most interesting blends of horror, thriller, sci-fi and even comedy that Italy has produced in the last two decades.” This is what Giorgio Viaro, editor-in-chief of the Italian monthly Best Movie, emails TFV regarding Rotterdam’s choice to honor the Manetti Bros., two of the hottest names in genre filmmaking.
Born and based in Rome, Marco and Antonio Manetti first gained major exposure, in theaters and on the festival circuit, with their 2006 thriller Piano 17. “It cost €70,000, not even enough for a short film,” Marco tells us over the phone – a (literally) cheap endeavor, that nonetheless oozed creativity and skill. In 2011, the brothers took their sci-fi thriller The Arrival of Wang to Venice, where they returned in 2017, this time in the main competition, with the gangster musical Ammore e malavita.
It was the latter film that partly influenced Vanja Kaludjercic’s decision to devote one of this year’s Focus programs to the duo. “I first became aware of their work with Song’e Napule,” she says, referring to the 2013 comedy about a cop with musical aspirations going undercover as part of a wedding band to catch an elusive criminal. “I liked it a lot, and a few years later, with Ammore e malavita (Love and Bullets) it was love at first sight.”
Marco Manetti is pleased to hear this, as the brothers used to worry Song’e Napule might be “too Italian” for an international crowd. “The two films are very different, one [Ammore e malavita] is a musical and the other is about a musician, but yes, there is that connective tissue,” he explains. “And it’s true that a lot of people associate Italy with Naples in terms of music; I’ve had people burst into Neapolitan song when I’m abroad and mention I’m from Italy. So that’s a creative ember whose sparks are still very much with us.”
Music is an important part of their work, which is why we reached out to their regular composers, Pivio Pischiutta and Aldo De Scalzi. Says Pischiutta: “We’ve been working with the Manetti Bros. since 2003, when we scored the pilot episode of Coliandro, first broadcast in 2005. Since then, we’ve done the music for all their work, thanks to a wonderful chemistry that continually renews itself, as we’re encouraged to try something new each time, from funk to symphonic music, from country to metal, not to mention our take on the Neapolitan tradition. And we have plenty of surprises in store for their next movie.”
Coliandro, a TV series based on crime writer Carlo Lucarelli’s character of the same name, is also part of the IFFR tribute. “It made sense to us,” said Marco Manetti, “because those aren’t really TV episodes, they’re feature-length and we treat them like distinct movies. So when they told us what they were planning to show, we submitted a list of Coliandro films to choose from to complete the program, and they picked their favorite.”
The series is also an integral part of what one could call the “Manetti-verse”, seeing that the bumbling police inspector is played by one of their regular actors, Giampaolo Morelli. He’s part of a veritable cinematic family of cast and crew combined, which includes thespians like Valerio Mastandrea (most recently seen in the Diabolik trilogy as Inspector Ginko), Claudia Gerini and character actor Guglielmo Favilla, who has played supporting roles in the brothers’ films as well as their TV output (Coliandro and Rex).
Favilla sent us this description of the interpersonal dynamic on a Manetti Bros. set: “Their approach has stayed the same over the years, and they retain a certain indie sensibility even when the budget is huge, as with the Diabolik films. We’re all a very tight-knit group, all in it together to make something great. They’re very collaborative: Marco is the one who usually talks to the actors in the early stages, and if you ask him what he wants, he’ll say, ‘I don’t know.” Only after he’s seen our take on the material will he come up with suggestions.”
Favilla appears in the first Diabolik, which is screening in Rotterdam alongside its two follow-ups (the third film is making its international premiere at the festival). Marco Manetti is quite curious about non-Italians’ reaction to the trilogy. “Seeing them close together, they might notice the connective tissue across the trilogy, which we didn’t discuss as much in the Italian press because the films were released on a yearly basis.”
And then there’s the vintage elephant in the room. “In Italy, all the questions we got asked were about the original comic book. Whereas abroad, where Mario Bava’s film from the 1960s has a sizable cult following, people usually think we did a remake of that movie. We didn’t. Ours is an adaptation of the comic, while Bava’s version is more like a Bond film.”
