Storia di una notte

Piero and Elisabeth met and married very young and created a happy family. They felt they were blessed, until the unthinkable occurred: Flavio, their eldest-born, died. Everything fell apart for Piero and Elisabetta after that. They separated, only to meet up again in Cortina; their children Denis and Sara have persuaded them to all spend Christmas together. There something else unexpected happens that triggers more soul-searching.

COMMENTARY
Winter is not merely one of the fours seasons of the year; it’s also a place of the soul, as the screenplay co-written by Paolo Costella and Tania Pedroni shows us perfectly, making of the cold and the silence potent metaphors for pain and loss. Based on the novel Nelle migliori famiglie by Angelo Melone, the film delicately interweaves a range of emotions, the result being a meditation on grief and the imperative to somehow pick oneself up and go on.

DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
While writing Storia di una notte, we went on the theory that less is more, in order not to emphasis the side of these tragedies that is usually seen on screen. The style, therefore, in the construction of the scenes and the form taken by the dialogues as well, reflects this way of reasoning: it’s extremely clean and simple, with no gratuitous details or mannerisms. The sequences always get straight to the point and avoid too much exposition or explaining after the fact. Words count in such a delicate situation. Moreover, in our approach to handling the family theme, unlike other films about family tragedies, here the characters start with the worst behind them, since the family has already disintegrated.