I Manetti Bros. I am an Italian symbol of genre cinema, from Zora the vampire up to the trilogy of Diabolik the duo formed by Marco and Antonio have revived noir, thriller and Italian cinecomic in a period of emptiness on the big screen. We had the opportunity to interview them during the Stretto Film Festival (held in Palmi from 2 to 4 August).
With the Manetti Bros. we talked about Diabolik, cinecomics, Marvel Cinematic Universe, their next film set in Palmi, and their activity as producers. During the Stretto Film Festival the two filmmakers presented the feature film Don’t Hang Upa dramatic story set during the Covid period.
Here is the report of the interview with the Manetti Bros.
After Diabolik you are working on the US film Palmese. Did you feel the need to manage a smaller, less pressured project?
Marco: We felt the need to do something of our own, not in the sense that Diabolik wasn’t ours, but we wanted something that had fewer ties and wasn’t derivative. Diabolik, in this sense, already existed.
What did you take away from the experience with the Diabolik film trilogy?
Antonio: I would say a lot. For the first time we made a film for the cinema that did not start from an original idea of ours. We were dealing with a character that had other creators and it was a big responsibility. We worked on it with a lot of attention, even more than that reserved for our own productions, precisely because it was not material that belonged to us. And then this experience left us with the pride of having entered the Diabolik family, and at the same time we expanded that of Astorina.
Would you do another comic book movie project, maybe with Sergio Bonelli?
Marco: Sergio Bonelli has characters like Dylan Dog, Zagor, Martin Mystere at its disposal. It would be nice to work with figures like that, but right now we feel like doing things that are a little more our own. We have to say that both Tex and Martin Mystere have passed through our fantasies, but as for other non-SBE characters we would like to make a film about them. Alan Fordand then we’ve always dreamed of making an adaptation of the manga Mai, the Psychic Girl.
As filmmakers and nerds, do you think Robert Downey Jr.’s return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a desperate move, or a genius one?
Marco: The MCU has lost some of its energy but, simply put, the main problem is that the most interesting superheroes have run out, and perhaps it is more appropriate that figures like Iron Man and Captain America return. However, I can say that, in my opinion, it is a brilliant move, I really want to see Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom, also because he is my favorite villain.
Antonio: In my opinion, this is a desperate move.
Can Italian genre cinema still have an important space?
Marco: Genre cinema will have space when it stops being defined as such. We must stop considering genre cinema as something special. When making a genre film becomes a normal thing, everything will be outdated. We and Mainetti have helped overcome certain barriers in recent times, so I believe that today the genre has a say. In the Seventies, genre cinema had more space also because at the time the productions were more daring.
Could this be a problem that arises from the bond that has been created since the 1980s between film production and television?
Antonio: The problem is not television, it is the state funding that was born in those years that demarcated cinema from a certain point on. For a long time funding went only to art films. Now state funding does not give money only to those projects, and this is demonstrated by the fact that Rai has also funded our productions.
Marco: Television is not a problem. We are talking about a medium that allowed something like this to emerge in a period in which Italian genre cinema did not exist. The Octopus, which is a detective story. Ours too Coliander It was born on television.
At the Stretto Film Festival you presented Don’t Hang Upa project you are involved in as a producer. What kind of films do you and your production company look for?
Antonio: We are more interested in authors than projects. We try to create a relationship and trust with an author.
Marco: I don’t know if it’s nice to be a producer, but the beauty of producing is that it allows you to bring out films that aren’t your thing. We can’t make any film that we like to see, but as producers we can. And the title we presented here in Palmi allows us to have a project by a director with a delicate touch that we don’t have.
During the debate in which the Manetti Bros. were protagonists during the Stretto Film Festival, the two filmmakers said that their next film, US Palmeseis also the fruit of their affection for Palmi, their mother’s hometown.
We shot a film in Palmi to be closer to our mother – they said – but, in general, this place is dear to us, also because when we were little we spent our summers here, and we watched more films in Palmi than in Rome.
The circularity of life, the return to the roots, the value of passions. These are some of the elements that emerged through a precious meeting with the masters of genre cinema, the Manetti Bros.
