Variety Critics’ Choice: Europe Now! 2008 / Lascia perdere, Johnny! / Italy 2007
A young musician in mid-’70s Italy floats through life in the visually accomplished Don’t Waste Your Time, Johnny! thesp Fabrizio Bentivoglio’s first feature as director. It’s 1976 in the city of Caserta, and Faustino fresh out of school, has to prove he’s employed as a guitarist, and his widowed mother’s sole support, to avoid military service.
A young musician in mid-’70s Italy floats through life in the visually accomplished Don’t Waste Your Time, Johnny!, thesp Fabrizio Bentivoglio’s first feature as director. It’s 1976 in the Neapolitan city of Caserta, and Faustino (newcomer Antimo Merolillo), fresh out of school, has to prove he’s employed as a guitarist, and his widowed mother’s sole support, to avoid military service. But coaxing a contract out of slippery music manager Raffaele is proving difficult. Faustino plays for a hodgepodge outfit led by alcoholic Mimmo Falasco (Toni Servillo); but when faded ’60s bandleader Augusto Riverberi (Bentivoglio) comes to town, Raffaele makes Faustino the maestro’s personal assistant. A little hustling by Raffaele gets Riverberi & Co. a decent gig, so they hire an amateur crooner renamed Gerry Como. But Raffaele runs out with the gate, and Riverberi returns to Milan, leaving Faustino, nicknamed “Johnny” by the maestro, still without a contract.
95 min / Color, 35 mm
International premiere
Director Fabrizio Bentivoglio
/ Screenplay Umberto Contarello, Filippo Gravino, Guido Iuculiano, Fabrizio Bentivoglio
/ Dir. of Photography Luca Bigazzi
/ Music Fausto Mesolella
/ Editor Esmeralda Calabria
/ Producer Domenico Procacci
/ Production Fandango
/ Cast Antimo Merolillo, Ernesto Mahieux, Lina Sastri, Toni Servillo, Peppe Servillo, Fabrizio Bentivoglio
/ Contact Fandango, Fandango Portobello Sales
Fandango
Viale Gorizia, 19, 00198, Rome
Italy
Phone: +39 068 521 8141
Fax: +39 06 85218120
E-mail: [email protected]
Fandango Portobello Sales
12 Addison Ave, W11 4QR, London
United Kingdom
Phone: +44 207 605 1396
Fax: +44 207 605 1391
E-mail: [email protected]
Serena Mazzi
Film Institution Rep.
Fabrizio Bentivoglio
Film Director, Film Director
Daniela Staffa
Production Company
Silvana Tucci
Film Institution Rep.
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