ROMA What unites Colapesce and Dimartino are the memories. When they met twelve years ago, they were two boys born and raised 300 kilometers apart, one a Solarinoin the province of Syracuse and the other a Misilmeri, near Palermo. “Sicily is always there, but if we had to reach us by rail even today, it would take us six hours, like going to New York,” says Antonio Di Martino. They were music enthusiasts and shared the same tastes: Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, De André, Dalla, Battisti… It is nice to imagine them discovering these consonances, often the spark of friendships and loves, in the small square of Mazara del Vallo, where they met in 2011. «What made us feel close, similar, however, were the memories of the town, indeed of the two towns. They looked alike, albeit distantly, to each other. Telling them to ourselves we understood that we came from the same rootswe had breathed the same vento» adds Lorenzo Urciullo, known as Colapesce.
I meet them not so much to talk about theirs record hits oh you San Remothat also you can turn the page, but because I saw “The spring of my life”, the film in which they are the protagonists (directed by Zavvo Nicolosi and written together with Michele Astori) which will be released in cinemas on Monday 20 February. It is rare that, having had a sudden, overwhelming, success in the glittering world of music, choose to continue it with a film. The result is surprising. It’s not their story, it’s too soon. It’s not a sequence of songs, even if the soundtrack it’s original and fun. If I had to, si parva licet, make a comparison regarding intentions, I would rather look into the universe of Richard Lester and his wacky movies sui Beatles.
“The spring of my life” To the story of a journey. A trip to Sicily. The journey of two musician friends who meet again later a breakup who divided theirs partnership. Di Martino in the film is affiliated with an imaginary sect, the Ancient Semenite Order, and convinces his friend Lorenzo to accompany him, aboard an old Taunus orange, strolling through wonderful places in their homeland. Reason for the trip is the preparation of a book on Sicilian legends. Fantastic legends, located in that border area between reality and imaginationbetween poetry and story which, the two mention, is part of the film that inspired them, «Big Fish» of Tim Burton.
Colapesce and Dimartino mention, in our conversation, Bufalino and Consolo, skid and the lightness described, as a value, by Calvino in “American Lessons”. She hit them «Stoner» by Williams. They love the arts, all of them, and are curious. Rare talents, in this agitated time. I ask them why in Sicily, to put on a show, there are often two of them: Franchi and Ingrassia, Ficarra and Picone… Antonio replies: «Sicilians they get tired easily and support each other. And then, as Bufalino said, we are one plural regionalmost a continent. We are Arabs, Normans and we like it to composethrough the encounter, these diversity . Individualism is not contemplated”.
Lorenzo says: «In Sicily everything is probable, nothing is certain. Even the legends we told in the film, like the largest teapot in the world or the story of the giants and of Polyphemus, are stories on which each has built its truth. In our idea the film is a fairy taleis the crossing of a fantasy world, composed of feelings and imagination. Even the story that Shakespeare was actually from Messina seems a joke but it has some truth to it. Roberto Vecchioni, who appears in his capacity as a professor in the film, is convinced that this is indeed the case. We tried to stay in that border area, so Sicilian, between truth and imagination».
The film is mildmoves in harsh and poetic Sicilian scenarios, has a tone amused and alienatinge, with a suspended acting and an engaging approach. A bit like the music of the duo. They answer together: «We often discuss a theme that we know is central, since when culture it has become an industry. the relationship between the search for beauty, or if we want for one’s inner coherence, and the effort to reach the general public. We don’t want to be nor avant-garde, nor scoundrels. We try to communicate our content in the most captivating way, the harmony possible between beauty and consent. Between us there is a true relationship, deep friendship. We told it in the film. We liked to describe its dynamics, follow it when it is born, develops, breaks down, reassembles, stabilizes or dies. And travel was the right form to contain this dynamics. We Sicilians have to travel, it’s in our condition and in our DNA. We liked the atmospheres of “Paris Texas” oh you “Easy Rider”, the meeting, moving, in the void. Just as we like it the doubt which of the trip is the fundamental engine. Only the imbeciles they never have doubts».
Finally I ask them to indicate a day that they would like to revive. Antonio, son of a carpenter and a philosophy professor who pushed him to love all forms of storytelling: “The day I realized that I could live by transforming my authentic passion in a job. No one believed it, no one bet a lira on my future.. Instead I conquered theindependenceTO”. Lorenzo, think about it for a while: «A summer day, when I turned eleven. I was with my grandmother Peppina. It was one happy day , swimming in the sea, all serene. It was a normal day, nothing extraordinary happened. Maybe that’s why it stayed inside me, that memoryand it gives me joy».
