The director Davide Gentile, the screenwriters Valerio Cilio and Gianluca Leoncini, with the actors Virginia Raffaele, Edoardo Pesce and the little protagonist Tiziano Menichelli presented Denti da squalo to the press, a first work with many surprises, at the cinema from 8 June.
There is a young Italian cinema that doesn’t look so much at its illustrious ancestors but looks for different, wide-ranging ideas, without inferiority complexes. A cinema that experiments with genres, dares, enjoys using and overturning stereotypes and takes care of its children with love in every department, even the youngest: it is no coincidence that behind Shark teethwhich comes after a series of previews at the cinema in 200 copies on June 8 with Lucky Redwhich co-produces it (with Goon Film, Ideacinema, Rai Cinema and in collaboration with Prime Video), there are the names of two screenwriters now established as Valerio Cilio e Gianluca Leoncinie Gabriel Mainettiwhich in addition to producing the film (of which he is credited as “artistic producer”), composes together with Michele Braga the beautiful soundtrack (Curci editions). If anything, it is surprising that a screenplay awarded with the Solinas prize in 2014 took almost 10 years to reach the cinema, but evidently the times were not ripe then and now, we hope, something has changed. The direction was entrusted to David Gentileto his first work in feature film, who trained in London and has an award-winning short film to his credit, Food for Thought (2016) and directs with a hand that does honor to his surname a story halfway between a fairy tale and a crime novel, best served by its protagonists: the thirteen-year-old newcomer Tiziano Menichelli, Virginia Raphael in the role of the mother, in a less usual character for her, Stephen Rosci, Claudius Santamaria e Edward Fishboth in an extraordinary participation, short in duration but fundamental to the story. Shark teeth tells the summer of Walter, a boy orphaned of a father and on the road to rebellion, who enters the villa of a boss, with a huge swimming pool, in which a giant shark swims. There he also meets Carlo, a thug a little older than him, who claims to be his keeper and introduces him to a world that Walter would like to frequent to emulate his father.
Having already worked with Valerio Cilio and Lucky Red for the Christian series, Edward Fish was an almost obvious choice for a cheeky boss character, to which he brings many fun touches: from the clogs he wears to the legendary song of the Treasure Island. Menacing but in his own way funny and charming, the Corsair adds another beautiful character to the many characters played by one of our most talented actors. Jokingly, Edoardo defines himself as the “Jessica Rabbit of villains”, always ready to answer the call when looking for a villain, and says that the character of the Corsair was built together with the authors, incorporating his ideas and characteristics of him. Virginia Raffaele says she put herself at the service of this story and felt like it “to also experiment in a different role, also because I am convinced that there can’t be just one colour, and sometimes even in the most serious performances there is a thread of irony, just as perhaps even in the comic ones there is a bit of melancholy”. After all, she will add later, “it would be easy to sit on the things that one always does. I have always liked to get involved, to have courage, it is part of my path. I am a fan of the thousand facets of the human soul”.
Davide Gentile, who lived in England for a long time, had no prejudice against her, since he didn’t know her for her comic roles, which he recovered later, but says it was her live show, Samusà, to change his perception of the actress, who on stage grappled with a story that recalled her childhood in an amusement park. The director found in Virginia Raffaele “a curious, spontaneous and humble actress, and together we worked on the aesthetic and character nuances of Rita’s character”. Gentile then recounts that he met Gabriele Mainetti at the end of 2020 and that he collaborated with him in a discussion that lasted months, for a an adventure that he defines as “very complicated and ambitious”.To find the small (truly extraordinary) protagonist of the film, who had to have certain physical characteristics (being 13 years old but looking smaller) and sporting ability, Gentile carried out an infinite series of auditions ( 600 boys seen in the casting), but very quickly chose the young man who would play Carlo (Stephen Rosci), the start of filming approached without Walter being found. In the end, Tiziano Menichellias he himself recounts with a naturalness that mirrors the one he demonstrates in the film, he was spotted at a party where basketball, football and skateboarding were played, a real “sign from heaven”, in the director’s words.
But there’s more to Shark Teeth: the film has its own little “Bruce”which looks real: a shark created with a mix of animatronics and CGI (to FX Maurizio Corridori e Fabio e Daniel Tomassetti, ed), which was on display in the cinema where the presentation was held, a first time for our cinema and we would say a great success, given that the parts in which it appears are extremely convincing (initially it was thought to use a real shark, hypothesis rejected due to the considerable difficulties it would have created). Self Lion cubs among the inspirations for the film, from an imaginary that nourished it, he cites among many others Goonies, Valerio Cilio he says that the first inspiration came to him years ago from a photo he saw on the internet, in which a boy from Mogadishu was carrying a dead shark on his shoulders. Shot between Tor San Lorenzo and Fiumicino, Shark teeth it remains suspended, also as a location, on a Roman coast that could be anywhere, wanted by the authors in search of a specific space in which to get lost. The huge swimming pool, the tower (which arrived later) which represents Titian’s fears and unconscious, the sea hidden by the houses and visible in the first and last sequence: landscapes characterized with extreme efficacy, like everything in this small film by training, which awaits you at the cinema from 8 June.
