Italian director and documentary-maker
Gianfranco Rosi on Monday presented his new travelogue on Pope
Francis at the Venice Film Festival saying the Argentine pontiff
was a "rock pope" whose fans could vie with those of British
popstar Harry Styles, also on the Lido for his Don't Worry
Darling.
Raising his voice to be heard above the screams of Styles' fans,
Rosi said "don't think it's any different from when Pope Francis
travels, the screams and shouts are the same: he's a real rock
pope".
The documentary, out of competition in Venice and in Italian
cinemas on October 4, the feast day of St Francis, from whom the
pope took his name, In Viaggio (On The Road) is a work that the
58-year-old Eritrean born director has been updating to the last
minute.
Rosi, who won the Golden Lion in Venice in 2013 with Sacro GRA
and the Golden Lion at Berlin in 2016 for Fuoccoammare, had
produced a documentary spanning all nine years of Francis's
pontificate through 37 trips from Brazil to Cuba, from the USA
to Africa, and on to southeast Asia.
The documentary is spliced with archive footage, images from
Rosi's own cinema, and current events and more recent stories.
And, of course, the pope's speeches on the poor, Nature,
migration, human dignity, war, and paedophilia in the Church.
"I had total freedom," he said, "and also six months to decide
whether to do it or not. I selected about 200 hours of material
(from the original 800) and I found myself having to mount it
for a whole year to get to a synthesis of 80 minutes. And all
this fo a film that remains in any case 'open."
Rosi, who chose to end the docu with a shot of a plane revving
its engines for take-off, stressed: "The war in Ukraine changed
things. If the pope leaves for Kyiv I'm going to be there. This
film is not over".
Calling Francis a "solitary and brave pope," Rosi said "among
the most beautiful memories are those of his trip to Canada in
which the pontiff publicly apologized for what the missionaries
did to the Natives. He spoke of a 'cultural Holocaust' saying
'the pope says sorry in the name of the Church and also
personally'. But from what I've understood there are many who
have never forgiven him (for his liberal stances)".
Asked what had prompted hi to make the doc, Rosi said "it was a
life experience, but also an act of humility" and said "he is a
pope who speaks to believers and non-believers alike, and I'll
never forget his gaze in the Philippines after the tragedy of
the typhoon when he was meeting the poor."
Asked about what he might have in common with Francis, Rosi said
"Everything that Bergoglio says, for me who am a secular person,
is a world that belongs to me in any case, because they are
universal speeches that many politicians should adopt."
He added: "Netflix will never see my works because they don't
respect their algorithm. On that platform you don't even see any
more the name of the director and now many young cineastes are
agreeing with this formula."
Asked if Francis was a "pope alone", Rosi replied: "Yes, you
realize that immediately, and he's also full of courage: I've
seen him go around in his car without any protection without
showing any fear".
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