Salvatores, the time I said no to Weinstein and the evil Hollywood

Without regrets but with great curiosity Gabriele Salvatores returns to Los Angeles: in 1992 he won the Oscar for the best foreign film with the Mediterranean, a choral story of a group of Italian military men on a Greek island during the Second World War and from that exhilarating moment never returned. He does it these days, president of the Los Angeles, Italy festival that takes place in the week before Oscar Night.
"It scares me a lot to come back and at the same time I am fascinated by it, the year in which Mediterraneo won in nomination there was a masterpiece film, Zhang Yimou's Red Lanterns, after all I never forgave him", he says modestly in a interview with ANSA Salvatores. That February 28 years ago also reminds him of something else, a 'sliding doors' of his private and professional life, "for which I must say I have no regrets". And he says: "A certain Harvey Weinstein wanted me to move here after the Oscar: he offered me a contract, a villa in Malibu, an office, new productions for me and Maurizio Totti. But I said no: at that time Hollywood was for me the empire of evil, maybe I was not wrong, however I was terrified of it, frightened, it seemed like selling my soul. And to be honest the reason was also another one for which I did not accept: I was in love and the idea of ​​leaving Italy was inconceivable ".
Salvatores is grappling with the new film project, "for the first time it will be a love story" and with the preparation for the return to La Scala "in May with the Masked Ball".
Meanwhile in Los Angeles he presides with Nick Vallelonga (Green Book) the review of Italian cinema presented by the Capri institute in the world and organized by Pascal Vicedomini (among the events the premiere of I hate the summer of Aldo Giovanni and Giacomo and the meetings with Francesca Archibugi, Elisa Amoruso, Ginevra Elkann, Remo Girone, Franco Nero, Marco Bocci, Francesco Di Leva, Ezio Greggio, Chiara Ferragni). And breathe the feverish air of the eve of the Oscars. "I didn't vote even though I would have the right to be an ex-award winner, because I never registered," he admits, but he has seen and loved the candidate films and that's what he thinks about it. "I really liked Sam Mendes 's 1917 he has so many exciting poetic moments. Roger Deakins' photography is crazy, I hope he will win the statuette too. I saw the film with my director of photography, impressive to make such a long sequence plan with all and I also liked the story of a wedding by Noah Baumbach, I think that cinema in Italy, in Europe must go in that direction there, be more and more poetry and less and less novel, a story to itself That 's why there are tv series, you watch them, you like them but they hardly leave you anything like happens with a powerful film ".
As for Tarantino Salvatores' Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, he's not entirely convinced, "I like him very much obviously, but for a while he seems to have started making films for himself as if he were more important than the credibility of the story, his ability to entertain. Brad Pitt? Only he could stand in for DiCaprio. He has always been considered beautiful rather than good, after all he suffers a prejudice usually linked to actresses, but here is a really great test. " Joker by Todd Phillips "I have seen it two or three times, each time finding other interesting details, it is a film of emotions and thoughts that makes you think especially in this moment of hatred and anger. And then I loved those references to American cinema of the years '70 and I find Joaquin Phoenix very good ". Another film "monstre" is The Irishman whom Salvatores considers "very beautiful and with an incredible cast, including Joe Pesci an actor that I have always liked very much". Parasite by Bong Joon-ho "is powerful and highly topical because the topic of social classes is increasingly central in our society".
Salvatores went to see Greta Gerwig's Little Women "without ever reading the novel and I found the protagonist Saoirse Ronan a fantastic actress". Judgment suspended for Jojo Rabbit and Ford v Ferrari: "I have yet to go and see them". (HANDLE).