‘A Brighter Tomorrow’ Director Nanni Moretti Knocks Netflix & Streamers; Says Filmmakers “Bow To The Platforms” – Cannes
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Italian filmmaker Nanni Moretti made it clear why he was making fun of Netflix in his latest Cannes film entry, A Brighter Tomorrow.
There’s a moment in the film when Moretti’s doppelganger filmmaker is debating with a Netflix streaming exec: The suit wants him to establish his story in two minutes. But the director refuses to budge: What about the first 10? The first 37 minutes? There’s also a snark in the scene about there being no Italian film stars anymore.
More from Deadline
At today’s press conference for A Brighter Tomorrow, Moretti expounded that he wasn’t just jabbing specifically at Netflix, but he was knocking all streamers in their encroachment on cinema. Moretti happens to also be a cinema owner.
“There’s something that displeases me: A number of directors and screenswriters just give way to the platforms, they bow to the platforms,” Moretti said at this AM’s Cannes presser for the in-competition title.
“As far as I’m concerned, I think we should continue to feel emotionally, psychologically and economically engaged vis a vie cinema,” the director continued.
“I have a film that crops up in my mind; you’re not going to think about a 13-year old in Pennsylvania on his phone watching while taking the metro,” said Moretti about his intended audience.
“When I think about making a film, I make for movie theaters where the spectators come to see bigger images and I continue to write scripts and make films thinking about movie theaters.”
The movie follows a failing Italian film director Giovanni who is in the throes of late career crisis, trying to shoot his passion project about the Italian Communist Party squaring off with the Soviets over the 1956 Hungarian Invasion. A Brighter Tomorrow is billed a movie in a movie. Giovanni’s marriage is in free fall to his producer wife, Paola, who is paying their bills by producing a violent gangster flick he objects to. Ultimately she asks him for a divorce via her therapist.
Moretti said he originally conceived a portion of the script several years ago, centering on the 1956 incident. “We didn’t manage to write the script, so I gave up on that idea,” he told the room.
However, when he reconnected with the screenwriter, he sought to explore the life and all its warts of the director who was shooting that 1956 movie (meaning himself, Moretti).
Netflix has distributed some high quality Italian Oscar submissions, i.e. Paolo Sorrentino’s The Hand of God which was up for Best International Film in 2022, and the Sophia Loren movie, The Life Ahead, which saw its Diane Warren penned ditty “Io Si (Seen)” up for an Original Song nomination.
Moretti won the Palme d’Or for A Son’s Room in 2001.
Best of Deadline
Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
