Men and islands. The great blue road

Abstract

Gillo Pontecorvo’s feature breakthrough is the adaptation of Franco Solinas’ short novel Squarciò, focused on the life of a lonely fisherman who uses bombs as wells as fishnets, endangering his life every day. After the first approach with Giovanna, the relationship between the director and his customary screenwriter sharpens. Some casting issue: the actors do not satisfy Pontecorvo, because their physiognomy doesn’t match with those of the characters. The importance of sea landscape into the mise-en-scene’s building. The expressive use of sound. The political meaning: individualism against work’s collectivization