Martone’s 'Scherzetto', based on Starnone's novel, shooting in Naples

Mario Martone has been shooting his new film, Scherzetto, starring Toni Servillo, in Naples. Written with Ippolita di Majo and based on Domenico Starnone's novel, the film recounts the four-day cohabitation between Daniele Mallarico, a gruff, seventy-year-old widower, who is used to living alone, and his four-year-old grandson Mario, unfamiliar with his grandfather, while Mario’s parents attend for a maths conference. Set in the family's home in Naples, the story explores the difficult juxtaposition between senility and childhood, anger and faith in the future.

In his seventh film with Martone, Toni Servillo plays Daniele Mallarico, a well-known illustrator who has lived and worked in solitude for years. He is joined by Lorenzo Perrotta, as his grandson Mario, an exuberant young child. The cast includes Serena Rossi and Leonardo Lidi as Mario's parents; Gianluca Di Gennaro, and Giovanni Ludeno. The DP is Paolo Carnera; production designer is Carmine Guarino; costume designer Daniela Ciancio; editor Jacopo Quadri, and the original music is by Valerio Vigliar. The main character's drawings are by Dario Maglionico.

Scherzetto is a Mad Entertainment production with Rai Cinema, in association with Picomedia, produced by Maria Carolina Terzi, Carlo, Lorenza, and Luciano Stella, and Mauro Luchetti for Mad Entertainment, and Roberto Sessa for Picomedia. The film was created and distributed with a contribution from the “Fund for the Development of Investments in Cinema and the Audiovisual Industry”. It will be distributed by 01 Distribution.  Filming took eight weeks, from February 11th to April 3rd, with a 67-strong crew; 43 of whom local (see our ON SET updates).

Martone himself announced the start of filming with a post on his social media, where he posed with Toni Servillo holding a script from the film, and noting: “Naples, a house, a grandfather, a four-year-old grandson. Is that enough of a synopsis?”.