An intricate and multicultural labyrinth inside one of the most important medieval historical centers in Europe: Genova, which Francesco Petrarca called The Superb, has a dual soul, the sea with the hill right behind it, the port and the narrow streets.
Even Dickens highlighted its “strangest contrasts; things that are picturesque, ugly, mean, magnificent, delightful and offensive break upon the view at every turn. There seems to be always something to find out”.
Therefore it is probably not a coincidence that two new detectives who will soon become very familiar on the small screen, have found their natural habitat here: a lone wolf with a mysterious past like the investigator Masantonio (Alessandro Preziosi) who specializes in missing persons cases, and the rough yet implacable detective whose name is a contrast in itself, Petra Delicato (Paola Cortellesi), based on the bestselling novels by Spanish crime writer Alicia Gimenez Bartlett which have been Italianized and brought to the screen.
Two television series produced by Cattleya with the support of the Genova Liguria Film Commission (GLFC); the first, directed by Fabio Mollo together with Enrico Rosati for Mediaset, the second, from Maria Sole Tognazzi for Sky Italia.
Last September, even before being broadcast in Italy at the beginning of 2020, “Petra” and “Masantonio” had already been thrust into the international limelight at the launch of the Los Angeles ITTV Festival, the first Italian television festival devised and created by GoodGirl- sPlanet (Valentina Martelli, Francesca Scorcucchi, Cristina Scognamillo) and Marco Testa. Trailers and teasers of the shows were presented alongside other series with great in- ternational appeal like “The New Pope”, “My Brilliant Friend”, “Zerozerozero”, “1994” and “Gomorra Season 4”.
In addition to accompanying the titles which were ‘made in Liguria’, the film commission ‘introduced itself’ in Los Angeles with two films from among the 2018 productions using locations in Liguria made available by Agenzia In Liguria.
“2018 was a record year which has already been widely surpassed in the first 8 months of 2019 with 140 productions assisted, 411 days of production and 4657 overnight hotel stays: results that give us greater impetus to continue our work”, declares Cristina Bolla, president of the GLFC, who met various producers and members of the trade in California including the director and scriptwriter Steven Gaydos and the actress-producer, Natascha Pfeiffer. “For the twentieth anniversary of the Film Commission we have organized a very wide-ranging promotional initiative for the region which will be carried out side by side with the project to relaunch and consolidate our Foundation that I have followed personally.”
Apart from Los Angeles the stages of this promotional path include the Venice Film Festival where the GLFC worked on the launch of the docufilm “Genova ore 11:36” by the 42° Parallelo production company and the first edition of the Digital Fiction Fest, held in Finale Ligure in August, which aims to bring the best international TV series to Liguria.
A two-way path that incentivizes international networking inside and outside the Region, with the objective of attracting production investment to Liguria and creating and developing new businesses in the audiovisual sector.
The movie tourism aspect is not of secondary importance seeing as Liguria has been the leader of the newly completed European project, Famous, managed by Movie Travel, which builds movie tourism itineraries linked to UNESCO sites.
Once again the big boss is La Superba with its port, a location also chosen by Polanski for his “Pirates”, by Winterbottom for “Summer in Genoa” and, more recently, by Sergio Castellitto for “Fortunata” or the Italian- Japanese co-production “White Flowers”; the MU.MA, the biggest maritime museum in Italy that “Petra” will bring to the attention of viewers; the historic city center and the buildings that make a spectacle of themselves in “Grace of Monaco”.
The Gulf of Tigullio is a “must” (from Portofino to Moneglia), especially after the ‘visit’ from Netflix and the “Murder Mysteries” comedy starring Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler; and Finale Ligure, whose stunning sites were greatly appreciated by guests at the first edition of the Digital Fiction Fest and which will also arrive in movie theaters thanks to “Io sono Vera” by Beniamino Catena, an Italian-Chilean co-production between Simone Gandolfo’s Macaia Film and Átomica, filmed in Finale Ligure and Pietra Ligure.
From October 30 Albenga, already the location of the fantasy “Inkheart”, will be the protagonist of “Glassboy-Il Bambino di vetro” by Samuele Rossi, a co-production between Italy (Solaria Film), Switzerland (Peacock Film) and Austria (WildArt Film), with the contribution of Rai Cinema, Mibact, Euroimages and the support of four regions (Calabria, Lazio, and Tuscany, in addition to Liguria).
“Glassboy was an opportunity both in terms of economic development as well as the adjustment of the tourist season, given the presence of a crew of over 80 people during a low season period” concludes Cristina Bolla.
