An unusually Turinese Rome in Paolo Sorrentino's 'La grazia'
ART AND LOCATIONS: CINEMA IN DETAIL
Paolo Sorrentino's new film, ‘La Grazia’, is set in Rome, largely at the Quirinale Palace, starring Toni Servillo as Mariano De Santis, a President of the Republic nearing the end of his term. Yet the film shows us nothing of the palace that was once residence to Popes, Kings and now Presidents, save for its façade and the famous square.The many sequencesset there were actually filmed in a range of different, all perfectly credible, locations, including the turrets and balustraded walkway on the rooftop where Servillo/De Santis smokes, strolls, and reflects. The setting for the image, which recurs throughout the film, isnone other than the crowning glory of Villa Medici, the facade with its turrets, side niches and low tiled roofs.
The large courtyard of the Quirinale Palace, which features one of the film's most Sorrentino-esque sequences, filmed entirely in slow motion, when the Portuguese ambassador's official arrival is blighted by a sudden storm, is actually that of the Royal Palace of Turin (thanks to Dr. Ludovica Annesi for the tip).
Interiors for the Quirinale Palace were also filmed in the Piedmontese capital, in different buildings. The Hall of Globes of the Academy of Sciences,decorated by Giovannino Galliari in 1787 with depictions of scientific instruments on the ceiling,revealsits identity in one of Sorrentino’s many central shots featuring the two large globes created by the Venetian cartographer Vincenzo Maria Coronelli (1650-1718).
In Palazzo Chiablese’sHall of Tapestries, the President converses with the Minister of Justice, Ugo Romani (Massimo Venturiello), seated across from him at a long table, with one of the enormous tapestries depicting the Stories of Queen Artemisia (c. 1620) and one of Francesco De Mura's canvases of the Allegories of the Four Continents (1763) behind him. The room was originally the drawing room of the Duchess of Chiablese, Maria Anna of Savoy (1757-1824), used in the 19th century by Pauline Bonaparte and lateras a ballroom.
The President's daughter, Dorotea (Anna Ferzetti), walks past a large mirror and a console table with a plaster copy of the marble bust of the Queen of Sardinia, Maria Cristina of Bourbon, sculpted by Andrea Galassi around 1826 (Genoa, Royal Palace), positioned in the Ducal Audience Chamber (later, the Salone Rosso) of Palazzo Chiablese.
The President connects with the astronaut Giordano in another room of Palazzo Chiablese, his hand touching the screen in a deliberate reference to Christ's arm in Caravaggio's The Calling of St. Matthew at San Luigi dei Francesi (and, in turn, to the hand of God in Michelangelo's Creation of Adam in the Sistine Chapel). This is the Chamberof the Valets a Pieds, or footmen, the second antechamber to the noble apartment, with furnishings and perforated bands on the walls dating to the reign of Charles Felix (1821-1831).
Tthe Castle of Moncalieri also makes sporadic appearances with a courtyard where General Mare (Giuseppe Gaiani), in Alpine military uniform, converses with the president who later returns there alone at night. But it is mostly Valentino Castle that appears, in whose salone d’onorePresidentMariano De Santis listens to music, watched by his daughter. The wall behind Servillo here features a large 17th-century fresco flanked by twisted columns created by artists from Lugano, a monumental decoration of architectural structures painted in perspective framing a cycle of historical episodes. The iconography, devised by court rector Emanuele Tesauro and scholar Filippo d'Aglié, consists of scenes celebrating the pro-French exploits of the Dukes of Savoy, as an homage to Princess Christine Marie of France (1606-1663), wife of Duke Victor Amadeus I.
While much of Turin "interprets" Rome, equally as many locations in the capital were used in the film, which will be explored in a second part of this column.
The second part of 'Art and Locations' about La grazia:
The real Rome in Paolo Sorrentino's 'La grazia'