BECAUSE I’M A GENIUS! LORENZA MAZZETTI

FILM
FESTIVALS
TRAILER
PRESS

Directed by Steve Della Casa and Francesco Frisari
Documentary
2016, Italy
62′, Color, HD

SYNOPSIS

«I am not a writer, I have written books.
I am not a painter, I have painted pictures.
I am not a director, I have directed films»
Lorenza Mazzetti

The “genius” of Lorenza Mazzetti is all in her profound gaze, and the mysterious and fablelike atmosphere in which she lives and recounts her own personal extraordinary tale, and the works which flow from this. Adopted as a child by the Einstein family, which was then massacred by the SS in front of her eyes, in the first years of the 50’s she went to London to forget this tragedy. She found herself impoverished and alone, but she didn’t lose heart, and was able to join to the famous Slade School of Fine Art, requesting to be admitted: “Because I’m a genius!” – not knowing what else she could say… She stole a camera, invented herself as a director, and shot “K”, a film about the person she felt most close to, Kafka. With Lindsay Anderson, Karel Reisz and Tony Richardson, she evolutionized English cinema, founding the Free Cinema movement, which militated for a cinema which was “Free” and anti-establishment, attentive to the great social changes of the post-war period, and capable of founding neo-realism, poetry and that desire for rebellion which then led to the Beatles, to Swinging London, and the Revolutionary times and changes of the 60’s.
Meanwhile Lorenza continued to work as a waitress, while also making films, and in 1956 won a prize at Cannes with her second film, “Together”, the tale of two deaf and dumb workers, amid the rubble of a London still scarred by the signs of the German bombardment. In Cannes, Zavattini fell in love with the film and proposed his collaboration with her. And so, Lorenza decided to return to Italy, but upon seeing again her twin sister Paola, and the places of her childhood, she recalled the tragedy that she had sought to remove from her mind, and returned to facing it all over again through art. Thus she wrote “Il cielo cade,” (The Sky is Falling), the amusing and tragic diary of a young girl who recounts with ferocious delicacy, fascism, the war, and what happened to her family.
“Because I’m a Genius! Lorenza Mazzetti” focuses on these incredible years, where Lorenza discovers and begins to explore her “genius”, which will then find other and new forms of expression, not only in film and books, but also in collaboration with the
magazine “Vie Nuove”, in which she analyzed the dreams of Italians, and with the marionettes of her Puppet Theatre and through painting.
In the film, it is Lorenza herself who tells her tale, while she accompanies us in the places of her past, and of her life today, with her twin-sister Paola, and her world made up of meetings and memories, always wearing the aura of her childhood freedom. With the
participation of friends Bernardo Bertolucci, Malcolm McDowell, and David Grieco, the images of her films, from those of the Free Cinema, and the animations of her paintings, in “Because I’m a Genius! Lorenzo Mazzetti” tells of a life which is a unique personal work of art.

CREDITS
Directed by: Steve Della Casa, Francesco Frisari
Written by: Emanuela Del Monaco, Francesco Frisari
With: Lorenza Mazzetti, Bernardo Bertolucci, Malcolm McDowell, David Grieco, Paola Mazzetti, Dante Morganti
A production of: Tangram Film
Produced by: Carolina Levi
In association with: Francesca Padula
Editing: Alice Roffinengo
Photography and filming: Martina Cocco
Original Music: Ratchev & Carratello
Animations: Fiammetta Horvat
Sound: Paolo Testa
Editing sound and Mix: Federico Tummolo
Colorist: Manuela Spartà
Organization for Tangram Film: Giulia Campagna
Photo and video repertory materials: British Film Institute National Archive, Archivio Storico Luce, Lorenza Mazzetti
International Distribution: Wide House
Italian Home Video Sales: Cinecittà Istituto Luce
Press Office: Giulia Gaiato

Film recognized of cultural interest with the contribution of MINISTRY OF HERITAGE AND CULTURAL ACTIVITIES AND TOURISM DIRECTORATE-GENERAL FOR THE CINEMA, with the support of BRITISH FILM INSTITITUTE and ROMA LAZIO FILM COMMISSION, in collaboration with SKY ARTE HD.

The film will be screened soon on Sky Arte HD (Sky Italy channels 120 and 400), fist run in prime time on 27 January 2017, for the Holocaust Memorial Day.

BAFICI – Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente – Cinephilias Section 2017
73. Venice International Film Festival – Venice Classics 2016
Laceno d’Oro – Festival Internazionale del Cinema 2016
Festival del Cinema di Porretta Terme 2016
Geneva Film Festival 2016 – Critics’ Award, Daunbailò Award, Special Mention of the Jury
Italian Docs Screening 2015 – Selected Project