by Marilena Moretti
Italia, 2014, 120'
Rossofuoco (Torino)
Whoever works in the cultural field in Turin should know Alberto Signetto.
A big man with hair tied back, a bag with books, notebooks, a camera to take notes. Ready wit, subtle intellect, great culture, irresistible irony.
It comes naturally to sit somewhere with him for a drink and conversation, even controversy, which is his passion.
But at the turn of sixty years old, its customary economic problems have been compounded by serious health problems.
He moved into a house provided by friends, without heating in the middle of the trenches of boxes.
When his friends have knew on last february of his disease and his economic problems they organised a fund raising to help him.
This is a film about his life as a rigorous artist, not prone to compromise, stubborn and countercurrent filmmaker.
I have knew Alberto Signetto for 30 years, when we started as directors at Rai, in the early '80s.
While I was doing entertainment programs, he made his debut filming the Rolling Stones during their first Italian tour in 1982. He had already been assistant Angelopoulos and Jean-Marie Straub.
When I moved to Rome, pursuing "career", he remained in Turin.
Occasionally I heard news of him, always grappling with money problems and projects unfeasible and my judgment was unkind: loser, inconclusive.
In 2010 Piemonte Movie has dedicated a tribute to Alberto, with a retrospective of all his works. I was in the cinema. On that occasion he said he felt "exhausted" for this long struggle against the world. That evening I discovered him, as a person and as an artist.
In the last thirty years he has continued stubbornly to "make his film," earning appreciations at international film festivals in China, Japan, America, India. In Italy he is almost unknown. That evening I felt he deserved a reparation. Which one of us was losing?
His story was about all of us filmmakers.
To return the memory of his art is my way to apologize to him.
4 maggio 2015 Torino CineTeatro Baretti
6 maggio 2015 Torino Cecchi Point - Hub Multiculturale
venerdì 8 2015 Torino Centro Studi Sereno Regis
Bergamo Bergamo Film Meeting
Cagliari Skepto International Film Festival
Torino Piemonte Movie gLocal Film Festival
Roma Casa del Cinema
2014 Torino Torino Film Festival