By Alberto Macchione
The Italian Cultural Institute and the Consulate General of Italy in Sydney hosted a film screening and Q & A with Director Luigi Barletta and his new film, Il Toro Del Pallonetto – La vera storia di Joe Esposito at The Italian Cultural Forum in Leichardt.
The most striking feature of the film was the striking absence of the titular character, Joe Esposito. The film, a mockumentary of sorts, is more of a love letter to Naples.
Featuring truisms and myths, the film is a remarkably compelling film which elicits laughs and tears as it takes us on a journey through the fictional life of Joe Esposito which is evidently a composite of the real lives of the Neapolitan people.
Speaking in Italian and English, Luigi Barletta spoke with the assistance of host and eminent guest, The Italian Consulate General of Sydney, Gianluca Rubagotti. “Gianluca Rubagotti.
“Joe Esposito is an example. But all the people that you have seen, of course, they exist and they talk about something which really happened to them.
So we have the story of a person who is not a person told through the different experiences of people who really had those experiences.
The second idea is how cinema can be used, even to manipulate, because you can move the minds of people around, making them happy and cry and laugh.”
