Andrea De Sica's Gli occhi degli altri was inspired by a true story: the Casati-Stampa murder. In the Sixties, Marquis and Marchioness Camillo and Anna Casati-Stampa are a high-society couple: he is extremely rich, she is beautiful. They live in a villa on the island of Zannone, in the Pontine archipelago, now abandoned.
In August 1970, the Marquis fatally shot Anna at her home in Rome. Next to her body was the corpse of her lover who was in his early twenties. The Marquis then killed himself.
The journalists who rushed to the crime scene exposed the couple’s secret life, stealing albums with photographs of Anna having sex with strangers, mostly from lower social classes, paid by her husband.
"When I discovered this story, I decided to go to Zannone alone. Disembarking at the abandoned dock, I followed a path that climbed a sun-scorched mountain. Passing through a half-destroyed gate, I walked into the kitchen, which bore traces of spartan but tasteful furnishings. The atmosphere was charged with an undefined tension that brought to mind the stories of the house’s owners: Anna sunbathing naked on the terrace; her physical relationships with dozens of men; photographs taken like narratives stories; hunting trips and cartridges scattered everywhere. That's how I decided that this film should take place here: alone on this island—their secret garden," De Sica states in his director's notes: "It was immediately clear to us that we had to take a different path: to tell the story of a tragedy unfolding under the blinding sun of an island, the seasons of a relationship that becomes a nightmare, the opportunity to explore the boundary between love and violence".
The film was shot in 2024 (October to mid-November).
The speedboat scenes were filmed off the coasts of Ponza, Palmarola, Zannone. Four weeks of filming in Monte Argentario and Ansedonia-Orbetello were supported by the Bando Cinema e Audiovisivo di Regione Toscana (2023).
The canals and alleys of Venice feature in the background of the wedding shot in Super8.
Andrea De Sica's Gli occhi degli altri was inspired by a true story: the Casati-Stampa murder. In the Sixties, Marquis and Marchioness Camillo and Anna Casati-Stampa are a high-society couple: he is extremely rich, she is beautiful. They live in a villa on the island of Zannone, in the Pontine archipelago, now abandoned.
In August 1970, the Marquis fatally shot Anna at her home in Rome. Next to her body was the corpse of her lover who was in his early twenties. The Marquis then killed himself.
The journalists who rushed to the crime scene exposed the couple’s secret life, stealing albums with photographs of Anna having sex with strangers, mostly from lower social classes, paid by her husband.
"When I discovered this story, I decided to go to Zannone alone. Disembarking at the abandoned dock, I followed a path that climbed a sun-scorched mountain. Passing through a half-destroyed gate, I walked into the kitchen, which bore traces of spartan but tasteful furnishings. The atmosphere was charged with an undefined tension that brought to mind the stories of the house’s owners: Anna sunbathing naked on the terrace; her physical relationships with dozens of men; photographs taken like narratives stories; hunting trips and cartridges scattered everywhere. That's how I decided that this film should take place here: alone on this island—their secret garden," De Sica states in his director's notes: "It was immediately clear to us that we had to take a different path: to tell the story of a tragedy unfolding under the blinding sun of an island, the seasons of a relationship that becomes a nightmare, the opportunity to explore the boundary between love and violence".
The film was shot in 2024 (October to mid-November).
The speedboat scenes were filmed off the coasts of Ponza, Palmarola, Zannone. Four weeks of filming in Monte Argentario and Ansedonia-Orbetello were supported by the Bando Cinema e Audiovisivo di Regione Toscana (2023).
The canals and alleys of Venice feature in the background of the wedding shot in Super8.
Copyright: Ph: Paolo Ciriello @ Vivo Film, Wildside, Vision Distribution
Filippo Timi, Jasmine Trinca
Copyright: Ph: Paolo Ciriello @ Vivo Film, Wildside, Vision Distribution
Jasmine Trinca
Copyright: Ph: Paolo Ciriello @ Vivo Film, Wildside, Vision Distribution
Filippo Timi, Jasmine Trinca
Copyright: Ph: Paolo Ciriello @ Vivo Film, Wildside, Vision Distribution
Filippo Timi
Copyright: Ph: Paolo Ciriello @ Vivo Film, Wildside, Vision Distribution
Matteo Olivetti, Jasmine Trinca
Copyright: Ph: Paolo Ciriello @ Vivo Film, Wildside, Vision Distribution
Filippo Timi
Copyright: Ph: Paolo Ciriello @ Vivo Film, Wildside, Vision Distribution
Jasmine Trinca
Elena’s arrival on a wildly beautiful island owned by an incredibly wealthy marquis marks the beginning of a passionate love story. Complicity and transgression, sex and power, are key themes in a film that is loosely based on a true story from 1960s Italy where erotic play degenerates into obsession.
