From left to right, actors Michael Gandolfini, Alessandro Nivola and William Ludwig, on September 22 at the preview of “The Many Saints of Newark” in New York / AFP
Fourteen years after the last episode of the cult TV series The Sopranos, the film retracing the years of youth of the future mafia boss “Tony” was presented on Wednesday evening in preview in New York, in front of an overexcited audience of won over fans at the advance.
The Beacon Theater, a performance hall transformed into a giant cinema, took on the appearance of a stadium when David Chase, creator of the series, who co-wrote the film, introduced the actors of “The many saints of Newark”.
And the applause redoubled for Michael Gandolfini, the son of James Gandolfini, who died in 2013 at the age of 51, and who played Tony Soprano, violent leader of an Italian-American mafia clan but tormented family man, in the HBO series which has marked the TV of the 2000s and was a real social phenomenon in the United States.
“We miss your dad!!!” yelled a viewer. In the film, 22-year-old Michael Gandolfini plays himself a teenage Tony Soprano in ’60s New Jersey.
“I didn’t know if Michael really wanted to do it, it might be too much for him,” director Alan Taylor told AFP on the sidelines of the screening at the Tribeca Film Festival.
The creator of the Sopranos, David Chase, on September 22, at the preview of the film “The Many Saints of Newark” at the Beacon Theater in New York / AFP
“But he showed it in an audition, and I never doubted again. I just sometimes had to prevent him from being + too much + his father”, because in the film, “he had to be this version young and tender of the character”, added Alan Taylor, already behind the camera for several episodes of the series at the 21 Emmy Awards and five Golden Globes.
– final twist –
If it retraces the years of Tony’s youth, a gifted but unmarked teenager, between an absent father and an overly strict mother, the film is centered on a character he venerates, Dickie Moltisanti, played by Alessandro Nivola.
The story also explores the tensions between the Italian-American and African-American communities in New Jersey at the time, as well as the 1967 Newark riots and police brutality.
But like any self-respecting prequel, “The many saints (“molti santi” in Italian) of Newark”, multiplies the references to the series and delivers some keys to fans who master the genealogy of the Sopranos at their fingertips.
“I saw the series maybe six or seven times, and it really lived up to my expectations,” said Robert Quinn, 23, after the screening, still blown away by the final twist.
“I grew up in New Jersey, where you really hear people talk like that,” he added, saying he identifies “a lot” with the show.
Broadcast in the United States simultaneously in cinemas and on HBO Max from October 1, the film is released this week in the United Kingdom and in early November in France.
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