Andrei Tarkovsky and Tonino Guerra, in their search for the location of Nostalghia (1983), give an account of their extraordinary “Travel across Italy”. Guerra guides Tarkovsky through Italy’s most traditional beauties. Tarkovski, amazed and disenchanted, is intent in his search of a more secret and inner Country which, perhaps, exists only in his imagination as an artist. In the end he will find what he is looking for in the desolate countryside of Central Italy and in the medieval villages around Sienna. Throughout this trip he is constantly urged by Tonino Guerra to reflect on his work and to think back on his experience as a film-maker and a poet. –Cannes Film Festival
Legendary Italian screenwriter was born Antonio Guerra on the 16th of March 1920 in Sant’Arcangelo, Italy, south of Ravenna. He wrote several short stories, poetry and novels and in 1956 his first screenplay “Man and Wolves” (co-written by Elio Petri) was directed by Giuseppe De Santis. Three years later he wrote the masterpiece, “L’Avventura”, which began his long collaboration with one of the greatest directors of all time Michelangelo Antonioni. Tonino Guerra earned Oscar nominations 3 times: for the Casanova ‘70 (1965), for Blowup (1966) by Antonioni and for Amarcord (1973) directed by Federico Fellini. He has worked with many other masters such as Francesco Rosi on Lucky Luciano (1974) and and Andrey Tarkovskiy on Nostalghia (1983). Tonino Guerra is a poet and one of busiest and the most important screenwriters of cinema who won Cannes Film Festvial’s Best Screenplay award for the “Voyage to Cythera” by Theo Angelopoulos and received an honorary award of the Venice Film… read more
Considered one of Russia’s most distinguished contemporary directors, the late Andrei Tarkovsky is known for highly personalized and poetic films. The son of poet Arseni Tarkovsky, he studied Arabic and first worked as a geologist before attending the State Film School in Moscow under Mikhail Romm. While there he made a pair of short films, “There Will Be No Leave Today” (1959) and the acclaimed Katok i Skripka/The Steamroller and the Violin (his diploma film). Following graduation in 1960, Tarkovsky went to work for Mosfilm and made his feature-film directorial debut in 1962 with Ivanovo Detstvo/Ivan’s Childhood. The film earned him top honors at that year’s Venice Film Festival. His sophomore film, Andrei Rublev, is Tarkovsky’s most renowned work. Ostensibly a portrait of a 15th century Russian painter, the film is actually a metaphorical drama mirroring the plight of Russian artists. Some have expanded the film’s parable to reflect the dramatic effects of war and chaos upon humanity… read more
A little gem. Very poetic and profound. The scene at the beginning where Guerra receives a phone call from Antonioni (who wanted to say hello to Tarkovsky) made me cry. They don't make intellectuals like these three guys nowadays.
I like how Tonino Guerra spends so much time making "artistic" babble and you can just see Tarkovsky internally facepalming.
The scene with the little girl and the yellow balloon is overwhelmingly beautiful.
With the recent passing of screenwriter Tonino Guerra and all the discussion of Geoff Dyer’s Zona, he’s been on our minds lately.
The poet and screenwriter worked with Antonioni, Fellini, Angelopoulos, Tarkovsky, Rosi and many others.
