02/05/2024 - The Italian director’s sophomore feature is a romantic film noir starring Riccardo Scamarcio, Mariela Garriga and Maria Chiara Giannetta

Riccardo Scamarcio and Mariela Garriga in Close to Me (© Paolo Ciriello)

The shoot has wrapped in Rome for Close to Me, the second fiction feature by Stefano Sardo, who presented his feature debut, With or Without You [+see also:
trailer
interview: Stefano Sardo
film profile], in the Giornate degli Autori at the 2021 Venice Film Festival. Starring in this romantic film noir, which reverses the roles of victim and oppressor, are Riccardo Scamarcio (seen recently in Sei fratelli [+see also:
film review
film profile]), Mariela Garriga (Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning) and Maria Chiara Giannetta (Welcome Back Mr. President [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]). The cast is rounded off by Paolo Pierobon, Giulio Beranek, Francesco Brandi and Mariana Falace.

“Close to Me talks about a ‘man who watches’. Luca [Riccardo Scamarcio] is married to Sara [Maria Chiara Giannetta], a woman who’s richer than he is and who recently turned 40 years old. He is a crisis-riddled teacher who, during the lockdown, ends up being a spectator, watching the life of Amanda (Mariela Garriga), his new neighbour. He decides to bridge the gap that separates them, with disastrous consequences,” explains Stefano Sardo. “For a while now, I’ve wanted to make a film about desire: it’s an explosive element of our lives, and yet it’s sorely lacking in Italian cinema, as if we no longer wondered about this mass of dark energy that resides within us all, whether male or female.”

The movie’s cinematography has been entrusted to Francesco Di Giacomo, who worked with Marco Bellocchio on his recent titles Kidnapped [+see also:
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trailer
film profile] and Exterior Night [+see also:
series review
trailer
interview: Marco Bellocchio
series profile], the editing to Sarah McTeigue, the set design to Mauro Vanzati, the wardrobe design to Cristina La Parola, and the casting to Chiara Natalucci and Mara Veneziano.

Written by the director himself together with Giacomo Bendotti, who penned the script for Roberto Andò’s Una storia senza nome [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Close to Me is an Italian-Serbian co-production by Ines Vasiljević and Stefano Sardo for Nightswim and Medusa Film, in co-production with Jelena Mitrović for Film House Baš Čelik, and with contributions from the MIC – Ministry of Culture. It will be out in Italian theatres courtesy of Medusa Film.

(Translated from Italian)