The Genius of a Place

Posted September 05, 2017

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Last week, we met three Italian filmmakers at a party in Tuscany.

Mattia Amadori, Andrea Corti and Max de Ponti.

They have a production company, OLO FARM

You can meet a lot of 'indy' filmmakers who want you to 'look at their stuff'.  Most of the time, we ignore them, or, when we do take a look, it's a total disaster.

In this case, we liked them, so we went home and watched their doc.  

They are seling it, so I can't include a link, but here's the trailer.

It's pretty good.

What makes it good is, a) the cinematography is stunning.  Of course, if you are shooting in Cortona, in Tuscany, it's hard to mess it up.   b) the subject matter is spot on.  The story is about how old villages are being destroyed by tourism and by globalism.  In this case, they start with the village of Cortona. If you read the book, Under the Tuscan Sun, (or saw the movie) you'll know it.

Before the book came out, Cortona was a quaint and mostly unknown Tuscan town.  It's charm was in fact that it was both unknown and untouristed. 

After the book, (and an esimated 400,000 tourists a year), the town (population 4,000) has pretty much been destroyed - or made rich. You decide. 

Which is what makes the film so interesting.

It's a universal problem. 

Is it commercial? 

Well, this is what they want to know.