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Welcome to Narnia, Sergio!
Bio from Film Society of Lincoln Center: With four films slated for release within the first half of 2005, Sergio Castellitto seems well on his way to becoming one of the most popular Italian actors for international audiences since the heady days of Mastroianni and Gassman. Born in Rome in 1953, Castellitto became active in the theater while in his twenties, working with some of Italy’s finest stage directors. In the 80s he began appearing regularly in films, and by the 90s had graduated to leading roles for directors such as Marco Ferreri (La Carne), Francesca Archibugi (THE GREAT PUMPKIN), and Giuseppe Tornatore (THE STAR MAKER). But it was with a French film, Jacques Rivette’s Va savoir, that Castellitto really attracted international acclaim. Playing Ugo, the artistic director of an Italian theater troupe visiting Paris, Castellitto brilliantly captured a certain kind of contemporary artist/intellectual, a man simultaneously completely self-centered and painfully aware of just how self-centered he is. Indeed, it’s his very “contemporary” quality that makes Castellitto such an appealing figure. There’s a wonderful sense of irony, a kind of world-weariness belonging to someone who thought he had seen everything. One can see this in his growing bafflement in My Mother’s Smile, as he gets caught up in a plot he no longer thought was possible; or in his reaction to discovering the chummy relations between talk show superstars of the political Left and Right in CATERINA IN THE BIG CITY. Castellitto isn’t an “everyman,” but there’s something that assures us that we know someone just like him. Besides acting, Sergio Castellitto has also tried his hand at directing, and his second film, DON’T MOVE, co-starring Penelope Cruz, was one of the great critical and commercial successes in Italy last year. – Richard Peña