Listen to our interview with the English filmmaker Nicola Gallani about the film “Queen of Hearts“.
What is this film is about?
Queen of Hearts was a British film made in 1989. The screenplay was by a British Italian screenwriter called Tony Grisoni. It was directed by Jon Amiel who was quite well known at that time for doing an extraordinary TV series called “The Singing Detective“. This was one of the very few British films about the Italian community in the UK. It hasn’t been seen very much since 1989. It had a lot of success at that time; it was critically acclaimed and had a successful release in the US. But it faded a little bit into obscurity, even if in the Italian community it is still much loved and people, I think, had been looking forward to an opportunity to see it again.
What is the story?
It’s a story about a young Italian couple who live in an Italian village. They elope to England so they can marry and they end up running an Italian cafe in the Italian quarter. It is all told all from the perspective of a 12-year old boy called Eddie Luca. Largely, it is about the mythologies that we tell one another. It becomes apparent that a lot of these stories this young boy is telling might be fabrications of the truth, but they are very much his perception of what it was like growing up and what this area was like. You can’t quite place what period of time it was actually filmed in. It’s very much about an heart-warming look at a tight knit community, with a bit of a thriller element thrown in as well…
Why do you believe it is important for English people and for Italian people to go there and watch this film? What will this film give to them?
The reason I wanted to curate a season of films about Italians in London, I mean the historical community in London, was because I was making a documentary about Clerkenwell and the Italian community there which dates back to the 1800s. I started digging around and finding little archive clips going back as far as 1924. It started me on this journey of finding more and more material about the community. I thought it was odd that there were no feature films about the Italian community in the UK. If we think about our perception of Italians, they come from things like American films such as the Godfather and the TV series like The Sopranos. Despite the long history of the British-Italian community, I found it very odd that British film hadn’t really represented that community at all. I think Queen of Hearts is probably the only British film about the Italian community out there.
Is there any difference between Italians at that time and Italians now?
Do you mean the Italians that come over to the UK now? To be honest I don’t think there is an huge difference. It’s very interesting that the people that came over a way back when – pre-war or post-war – were coming to the UK because it was a booming place. Even the people that came here in the Victorian period were coming because they could find work. You can come from a village in the North of Italy and you end up running an ice-cream business or a sculpture business or a cafe. You had no experience of that. I think Italians were very adaptable and very entrepreneurial even back then. And I think they are to this day.
It will be very interesting to talk about that with Tony Grisoni who will be your guest during the Q&A.
He is one of our best screenwriters. “Queen of Hearts” was his very first screenplay. He’s been done some wonderful stuff on television such as Red Riding and Southcliffe. He’s worked with people such as Terry Gillam and very well-known directors in Hollywood and the UK. He is an interesting guy in the sense that he is very inspired by old Italian films. A lot of respect and knowledge finds its way into a screenplay like Queen of Hearts. There is a kind of understanding there of neorealism if you like, but there is a soft underbelly as well. He is a very interesting guy full-stop. He’s a bit of a Renaissance man. He gets involved in all sorts of arts projects, and makes his own films as well.
Can we ask you about your personal projects about the Italians, more in depth?
Yes, I’m making a film called “Arrivederci Clerkenwell” which is about the Italian community in Clerkenwell. The story is about the last generation who grew up there in the 1920s and their memories of that time. And also, intercut with those interviews there will be some archive footage and some footage of the kinds of tradition that the Italian community still hold on to in that area.
Francesca Marchese
CinemaItaliaUK 