Cwho knows if detective Petra Delicado, bad-tempered, lonely but excellent detective, will have sometimes said to her deputy at the height of a case: “Don’t ask me.” He could have with the irony of Petra and Paola Cortellesi who embodies it and who sang a song like that in Sanremo when his career blossomed.
Today she has become a star. So much so as to inaugurate the new pop course of Sky seriality, a wider genre variety but faithful to the highest quality, a home of talents to explore hyperfeminine territories capable of attracting even a male audience, great stars of Italian cinema, literary texts for deviate from stereotypes, a strong human component and excellent quality.
Here is Cortellesi hired and, on her debut in the direction of a TV series, Maria Sole Tognazzi, called on board for her ability to capture different female characters. Four women involved in four four-part novels give body and soul to Petra, a Sky, Cattleya and Bartlebyfilm production from tonight on Sky Cinema and streaming on Now Tv. Petra, born from the happy pen of the best-selling author Alicia Giménez-Bartlett, translated all over the world (we publish with Sellerio) and particularly appreciated by Italian readers. “I was very perplexed. The producers wanted to move the setting of the story from Barcelona to Genoa. I did not understand why and I did not want – explains the author – then it was explained to me that both cities live off the Mediterranean, that Genoa is also unconventional in its lesser known folds, that it is traditional and innovative, that it is a contradictory and not stereotyped city. I began to convince myself. Then I saw Paola on the set, beautiful but not a Barbie, nice but tough, and Maria Sole so precise and authoritarian when she shoots. This scenario was so successful that I worried about having to move locations to the next novels ».
Alicia’s consent was decisive for Paola Cortellesi, who wanted her trusted scriptwriters alongside: «I was more excited in front of Alicia than on the stage of Sanremo. I’m a fan of his, working together was an unmissable opportunity for me ». For Maria Sole Tognazzi who in her directorial debut had directed Paola Cortellesi in Present perfect, a meeting on beloved paths: «I found many affinities with Alicia and her character, in the way of speaking in the feminine, in freedom, in being unconventional».
Genoa is the fifth woman who recognizes herself as Barcelona’s sister. Two port cities, the type of environment, the Mediterranean tone. The world of the great detective story had to be conveyed in images like Chandler, Marlowe or Clouzot’s French noir. To get the best, we turned to a modern Genoa which in its diversity has been able to echo all the literary references.
The couple game was decisive for the atmosphere. Cortellesi says: «You are the female leader who from the archive finds herself commanding the mobile squad, he is your deputy. She, two divorces behind her, lonely and always ready to say what she thinks, Roman transported to Genoa, convinced that she can only count on herself, pleasantly foul-mouthed, isolated because she has rejected the world of relationships, lives and respects only herself. He, Antonio Monte, (played by Andrea Pennacchi), old school inspector, disenchanted and disillusioned, sensitive to good food and deeply rooted convictions. They will be sparks at first, but then they will discover that they are the perfect fit for each other. And their friendship will improve them, even humanly. We have entered a parallel life. Her great irony joins me to Petra ».
The difficulty for the screenwriters was to adapt the investigative techniques to today, in the books still in the nineties, and in this it was Petra who helped them who uses herself, her sensitivity and her experience to solve cases. «Petra – says Cortellesi – is all of us who would like to stop mediating, so fascinating in being contradictory. It is an unconventional archetype ». A second season is planned. —
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