Giancarlo De Cataldo, what did he want to do when he grew up?
“The Formula 1 driver. Then, when I grew up, I sometimes didn’t even get a driving license. I never learned to drive well.”
In the end he became a magistrate, a writer, a screenwriter.
“They were all adult choices. As a boy, however, I had a mania for planetary exploration.”
However, her passion for the planets remains: is it true that you believe in horoscopes?
«As a good southerner…».
Like a good southerner?
“Non si sa mai”.
What sign is it?
“Aquarius. It is said of us Aquarians that we are all head, all dreams, all escapes.”
Does it match?
“Yes, even for escape routes. The idea of having the doors closed, the impossibility of going out, distresses me.”
An anguish that you remember experiencing?
“The one because of Goffredo Fofi.”
What did Fofi do to her?
“What he hasn’t done to me. She didn’t say a word at the performance of my first play. She was sitting next to me and throughout the show she kept shaking her head. Not a comment, just looks of commiseration. It was 2001, I still remember it.”
Crime novel: a book, a film, a series. A brand, practically. How was it born?
“When I wrote it I was in a kind of trance.”
What does it mean?
“I didn’t understand what I was writing. I thought it was a novel that told fifteen years of Italian history, along the lines of the nineteenth-century French novel.”
Which character do you feel closest to?
«You don’t ask a father who he loves more than his children. Although I should say the grandchildren.”
Why?
«For the Novel Criminal gang I am the “uncle”».
Uncle Giancarlo: are you in contact with that gang of actors?
«Not that we go out to eat pizza in the evening, but we talk. With Pierfrancesco Favino when we meet we do fake radio commentary on Roma”.
Cioè?
«He acts like a complaining Roma fan who calls on the radio. I’m his sidekick. We laugh a lot.”
What memories do you have of the set of that film? In addition to Favino there were Kim Rossi Stuart, Claudio Santamaria…
«These are the first days of filming: Kim Rossi Stuart is preparing to go on stage, we are at the Madonna del Pellegrino. I approach, I had had doubts about the part he had been given. I introduce myself: “I’m De Cataldo”. He freezes me with a hieratic look. Doubts dispelled: he was the Cold One.”
If you were to write “Crime Novel” today, what would come of it?
“I couldn’t write it. More than twenty years have passed, crime has changed. A group trying to establish itself as the Magliana band today it is not there. The only strategy to assert oneself today seems to be a head-on collision.”
The Magliana gang in “Criminal Novel”, the crime in Via Poma, the murder of Marta Russo: is there a case among the sensational ones in the history of Rome that you didn’t follow as a magistrate?
«Mafia capital».
But then he told it in “Suburra”.
“Yes. Even though in the end the investigation decided that the whole affair had nothing to do with the mafia.”
Thirty-three years have passed since that crime, for the record the crime in Via Poma. Will we ever know who killed Simonetta?
Anus. At least from the papers I have seen it is impossible to establish it.”
His books were filled with bloody, rude and dark characters. Is this why at a certain point he invented a gentle, melomaniacal detective of noble origins like Manrico Spinori?
“After dealing with headline-grabbing crimes for at least twenty-five years, I needed to breathe a sigh of relief. With him everything is softer, lighter. But that’s not the only reason I created Manrico Spinori».
What need drove you?
“I thought: all crime writers worthy of the name have a serial character. And I asked myself: why shouldn’t I have it?
Yes it was answered. Does Manrico Spinori look like you?
«I love opera in a special way, and music in general. But he is divorced, I have always been with my wife Tiziana”.
Do you play any instruments?
“Let’s forget it.”
Why?
“Among the plans of my adult life was to play the sax.”
And you didn’t succeed?
“I diverted to the guitar. But I play it very badly. And it’s best that I don’t let my wife see me with the guitar in my hand.”
Is there a myth?
«Leonard Cohen».
Contemporary authors that you like?
“It’s a diabolical choice. I am omnivorous and I am capable of finding good things even in those who are very far from me. I read all my Italian noir friends but I don’t want to say who I like the most.”
Someone she doesn’t like?
“It’s a diabolical choice.”
Do you believe in miracles?
“I believe in surprising events. Those who have faith qualify them as miracles. But the concept doesn’t change.”
What makes her happy?
“To actually have in your hands something that I made. A film, a book, even an article in the newspaper. It gives me a sense of salvation.”
And one thing that bothers you?
«The extremism of political correctness. I find it unbearable.”
What does he mean?
“I am terrified of moral police. In Italy we are not at the level of hysteria of the American woke, but too many of us who write find ourselves skating on sheets of ice in fear of saying something that could frighten or terrify”.
A great friend from the world of cinema with whom you worked?
«Mario Martone, “We believed”, the film about the Risorgimento it was a deeply engaging experience that still accompanies us today. We still greet each other as Mazzini did with the other conspirators.”
What greeting is that?
«One says “Martyrdom”. The other replies: “Resurrection”. We always greet each other like this even if thirteen years have passed since the film.”
Read the other interviews in the series «A CHARACTER ONE CITY/ROME CAPOCCIA»
2024-01-04 21:20:53
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