MAMELI
"Il ragazzo che sognò l'Italia"
CREDITS:
Running time
200 min
Shot on
Sony Venice
Aspect Ratio
2:35
Edited on
Adobe Premiere
“While we were dancing in the spring of 1847, a thrill of freedom was going throughout Europe and our little Italy, occupied by the Austrians and divided in many little states.”
Director's note
“A simple idea: to tell, through the short life of Goffredo Mameli, the fantastic years between 1847 and 1849, those years which served (despite their substantial failure) as a political, creative, social laboratory, to prepare for the Unity of Italy, which occurred twelve years later, in 1861. And since Goffredo and his friends Nino Bixio, Gerolamo Boccardo, Stefano Castagnola are boys between eighteen and twenty-two years old, we decided to portray them as such. As they would be in the current modern age, forgetting the classic iconography reserved to the heroes of the Risorgimento, taking them down from the pedestals, from the street plaques, from the schools named after them, to describe them as alive, full of doubts, energy, desire to live, as their peers are today.”
AGO PANINI & LUCA LUCINI
Chapter one
Genoa, 1847. Goffredo Mameli is nineteen when, at a dance party, he meets Marchesina Geronima Ferretti. It’s love at first sight as the two soon discover that they have the same dreams and ideals. However, Geronima’s mother, with very different ideas from those of her daughter and manipulated by the Jesuit Father Sinaldi, hinders the union between the two. Thus, the young Mameli finds himself facing the loss of his beloved. Unexpectedly comes the meeting with Nino Bixio who introduces Goffredo to a secret society called: “Entelema”, a group of very young Genoese revolutionaries. Together they begin to organise flash-mobs and Goffredo, with his poetic talent and charisma, involuntarily becomes their leader.
Thanks to the overwhelming enthusiasm of his new friends from the “Entelema”, Goffredo finally manages to find his creative drive again, composing the Anthem that will consecrate him to history and which will be the very soul of the Oregina event, where it will be sung by over thirty thousand people, to the music composed by Michele Novaro. Upon hearing the news of the insurrection in Milan against the Austrians (March 1848), Goffredo and his companions decide to take action: they leave for Lombardy, taking up arms for the first time and experiencing the war conflict firsthand.
Chapter two
Director's notes
“Ultimately this serie is first and foremost a coming of age story, a Genoese “via Pál”, full of life and energy, for which we have chosen an unpublished image of the Risorgimento. By studying the paintings from that period we discovered the taste for color, even excessive, we discovered that young people (observing the very first daguerreotypes that began to capture people’s faces with a “snapshot”) had long hair, earrings. We discovered that the Risorgimento is not necessarily rigid, dark, and above all… boring. We therefore always worked very close to the actors, with the hand-held camera, to listen to their voices, as if they weren’t those of historical figures, but of someone whose ideas are timeless.”
AGO PANINI & LUCA LUCINI
Vanity Fair
“Goffredo Mameli is the Italian pop star of the nineteenth century”
Hollywood Reporter
“Mameli, a rock band of patriots, young and rebellious: “The first musical performance of the “Canto degli Italiani?” It was a flashmob”
La Repubblica
“Mameli, the hero who bewitched president Mattarella”
Il Corriere
“The most watched program was the event serie Mameli, which recorded a net of 4,247,000 viewers”
Listen to the original soundtrack
Director's notes
“Telling this story to a broader generation of Italians has been an exciting “mission” full of meaning and pride. After this experience, listening to the Italian national anthem is no longer the same for us and we would like it to be the same for all those who will experience this show.”
AGO PANINI & LUCA LUCINI
CREDITS: Testi a cura di Chiara Balestrazzi dal comunicato stampa Rai di presentazione della serie.