SYNOPSISQuiet Chaos is what Pietro Paladini has felt in his heart ever since his wife's sudden death.
Pietro is a successful executive, happily married and father of a 10-year old daughter, Claudia.
One day, after having saved the lives of two women who were drowning, he arrives home only to discover his wife has suddenly died.
From that moment on his life changes radically.
Pietro takes Claudia to school on her first day back and decides spontaneously to wait for her until classes are over. He sits in his car, wanders in the park and has coffee at a nearby cafe.
He decides to do the same the following day and the days after that.
Pietro waits each day for the pain to arrive. His bosses, fellow workers and relatives all come to
console him but end up confiding their own pain and difficulties, surrendering to his
incomprehensible calm.
Gradually, Pietro begins to look at the world through new eyes. In the end, it is through his love
for his daughter that Pietro finds the key to a kind of spiritual rebirth and emerges from this
journey with a newfound love of life.
***OFFICIAL SELECTION***
London – Sydney – Berlin – Tribeca
International Film Festivals
London – Sydney – Berlin – Tribeca
International Film Festivals
***NOMINATED FOR 18 DAVID DI DONATELLO AWARDS***
PART OF THE CAST
With Valeria Golino, Isabella Ferrari, Alessandro Gassman, Blu Yoshimi, Hippolyte Girardot, Kasia Smutniak, Denis Podalidès, Charles Berling and with Silvio Orlando
Based on “CAOS CALMO” by Sandro Veronesi winner of the Strega Prize 2006 - published in Italy by Bompiani.
Based on “CAOS CALMO” by Sandro Veronesi winner of the Strega Prize 2006 - published in Italy by Bompiani.
Rating: MA15+
Media contact: Chrissy Thomson at Sharmill films
Ph: (03) 9826 9077
E: ct@sharmillfilms.com.au
Press material available from www.sharmillfilms.com.au
Dendy Cinemas Web-Site
DIRECTOR’S NOTES
The challenge on this film was to stick with the lead actor for most of the time in the same
place and yet try to not to transmit the feeling of a lack of mobility. I took this suggestion from
Veronesi’s novel: Pietro stays outside the school not just to watch out for his daughter’s
reaction, but above all to watch over the story of his life, to keep a tight hold on it.
We will agree with Carlo, Pietro’s brother, when he tells him that perhaps because Claudia
doesn’t see her father suffer, she doesn’t think she should feel pain either.
For these reasons I don’t think it’s ever necessary to abandon Pietro: every scene revolves
around him, in a figurative sense and in a physical sense. The whole story is narrated from his
point of view.
DIRECTOR’S NOTES
The challenge on this film was to stick with the lead actor for most of the time in the same
place and yet try to not to transmit the feeling of a lack of mobility. I took this suggestion from
Veronesi’s novel: Pietro stays outside the school not just to watch out for his daughter’s
reaction, but above all to watch over the story of his life, to keep a tight hold on it.
We will agree with Carlo, Pietro’s brother, when he tells him that perhaps because Claudia
doesn’t see her father suffer, she doesn’t think she should feel pain either.
For these reasons I don’t think it’s ever necessary to abandon Pietro: every scene revolves
around him, in a figurative sense and in a physical sense. The whole story is narrated from his
point of view.
Technically, I used camera movements that allowed me to describe his emotions, respecting his reluctance to demonstrate his sorrow and his attempt to keep it at bay.
I hope I succeeded in portraying this long wait, properly rendering what was so well-described in the novel: the confusion that “modern” people face before the impossibility of dealing with the mourning process, without being able to confide in either a religious or lay tradition.
I hope I succeeded in portraying this long wait, properly rendering what was so well-described in the novel: the confusion that “modern” people face before the impossibility of dealing with the mourning process, without being able to confide in either a religious or lay tradition.
THE BOOK
“My name is Pietro Paladini, I’m forty-three and I’m a widower.”
This is how the lead character of Sandro Veronesi’s new novel introduces himself. A man apparently fulfilled, with an excellent job, a woman who loves him, a daughter ten years old.
Then one day, as he saves the life of an unknown woman, the unpredictable happens and everything changes. Lara suddenly dies.
Pietro takes refuge in his car, parked in front of the school his daughter, Claudia attends, and the period of awakening begins, as insane in its premise as it is productive in its results.
Wise, brilliant, sceptical, cordial, unpredictable, Pietro Paladini is the man who fumbles his way towards recovery, and as he does so he chemically dissolves “today”, he extracts spaces from it with intelligence: he advances, experiments, concludes.
Veronesi’s fascinating writing, his uninterrupted dance between intellect and word is the cord with which Pietro pulls up the bucket from the bottom of the well, little by little, without alternatives, setting the conditions for an unparalleled finale, yet completely natural, in which the limits of what is possible are overstepped and one arrives at the simplest of truths: accepting human nature in its banal, heroic confusion of strength and weakness.
In 2006 Sandro Veronesi won the 60th Strega Prize.
For many weeks the book was in first place and in Italy sold more than 300,000 copies.
Caos calmo was bought in many foreign countries. In France the book was published by Grasset
& Fasquelle. During 2007 Caos Calmo was released in Spain with Anagrama and in Germany it
was published by Knaus (Bertelsmann Group).
In Holland the novel was released with great success last November with Prometheus.
Furthermore, the book was bought in Brazil by the publisher Rocco, in Romania by Rao, in
Finland by Summa Publishing and in Portugal by Asa, in all English-speaking countries it will be
published by Ecco Press.
“My name is Pietro Paladini, I’m forty-three and I’m a widower.”
This is how the lead character of Sandro Veronesi’s new novel introduces himself. A man apparently fulfilled, with an excellent job, a woman who loves him, a daughter ten years old.
Then one day, as he saves the life of an unknown woman, the unpredictable happens and everything changes. Lara suddenly dies.
Pietro takes refuge in his car, parked in front of the school his daughter, Claudia attends, and the period of awakening begins, as insane in its premise as it is productive in its results.
Wise, brilliant, sceptical, cordial, unpredictable, Pietro Paladini is the man who fumbles his way towards recovery, and as he does so he chemically dissolves “today”, he extracts spaces from it with intelligence: he advances, experiments, concludes.
Veronesi’s fascinating writing, his uninterrupted dance between intellect and word is the cord with which Pietro pulls up the bucket from the bottom of the well, little by little, without alternatives, setting the conditions for an unparalleled finale, yet completely natural, in which the limits of what is possible are overstepped and one arrives at the simplest of truths: accepting human nature in its banal, heroic confusion of strength and weakness.
In 2006 Sandro Veronesi won the 60th Strega Prize.
For many weeks the book was in first place and in Italy sold more than 300,000 copies.
Caos calmo was bought in many foreign countries. In France the book was published by Grasset
& Fasquelle. During 2007 Caos Calmo was released in Spain with Anagrama and in Germany it
was published by Knaus (Bertelsmann Group).
In Holland the novel was released with great success last November with Prometheus.
Furthermore, the book was bought in Brazil by the publisher Rocco, in Romania by Rao, in
Finland by Summa Publishing and in Portugal by Asa, in all English-speaking countries it will be
published by Ecco Press.
THE AUTHOR
Sandro Veronesi was born in Florence in 1959 and lives in Prato.
In 1985 he received his degree in architecture. His debut as a novelist was in 1988, the
grotesque and visionary Per dove parte questo treno allegro. In 1990, Mondadori published Gli
Sfiorati which had excellent success from critics and public. In 1995 Feltrinelli published Venite
venite B52. In 2000 he published The Force of the Past, winner of the Campiello Prize and the
Viareggio Prize. This novel was translated in 15 languages and a film was made from it directed
by Piergiorgio Gay with Sergio Rubini in competition at the 59th Venice Film Festival.
Veronesi is also the author of three non-fiction books: the collections of interviews Italian
Chronicles (1992), Live (1996) and An Eye for an Eye (1992), an inquiry on the death penalty
throughout the world, reprinted in 2006 by Bompiani Pub.
In 2003 he published the theatre adaptation of No Man's Land.
His latest book, released in 2007, is titled Brucia Troia.
For many years he has collaborated with numerous daily papers and literary magazines.
Sandro Veronesi was born in Florence in 1959 and lives in Prato.
In 1985 he received his degree in architecture. His debut as a novelist was in 1988, the
grotesque and visionary Per dove parte questo treno allegro. In 1990, Mondadori published Gli
Sfiorati which had excellent success from critics and public. In 1995 Feltrinelli published Venite
venite B52. In 2000 he published The Force of the Past, winner of the Campiello Prize and the
Viareggio Prize. This novel was translated in 15 languages and a film was made from it directed
by Piergiorgio Gay with Sergio Rubini in competition at the 59th Venice Film Festival.
Veronesi is also the author of three non-fiction books: the collections of interviews Italian
Chronicles (1992), Live (1996) and An Eye for an Eye (1992), an inquiry on the death penalty
throughout the world, reprinted in 2006 by Bompiani Pub.
In 2003 he published the theatre adaptation of No Man's Land.
His latest book, released in 2007, is titled Brucia Troia.
For many years he has collaborated with numerous daily papers and literary magazines.
