Film: "Respiro"
With Valeria Golino and Emanuele Crialese
Actress and Director
Wednesday, May 7, 2003; 12:30 p.m. ET

"Respiro" (to breathe) was inspired by a legend told in Lampedusa, a small island near western Sicily: A young mother meets disapproval by the villagers due to her free-spirited lifestyle and disappears, leaving her clothes on the beach. In time, the community feels guilty for having driven the woman to suicide. The legend has it that the force of prayers brought her back to life from the sea.

The film update is that her husband prepares to send her off to a psychiatric hospital in Milan but their son Pasquale steps in to foil his father's plan.

Actress Valerie Golino stars as Grazia, the young mother, and is directed by Emanuele Crialese. They were online Wednesday, May 7 at 12:30 p.m. ET, to talk about the film which won the 2002 Cannes Film Festival Critics Week Award.

"Respiro" is Crialese's second feature film, shot in his native country. His first film, "Once We Were Strangers" (shot in English in New York) was shown at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. In "Respiro," he contrasts the sea with the devastated countryside of Lampedusa. "The sea is an inexhaustible reservoir of life and prosperity. Its moods beat the rhythm of time on the island. I tried to capture the relationship of the characters to the water," he explained in an interview with Sony Classics.

A transcript follows.

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washingtonpost.com: Valeria Golino and Emanuele Crialese, welcome to washingtonpost.com. Your movie Respiro was inspired from an old fable that was updated for today. Why did you decide to take an old story and revise it for today?

Valeria Golino and Emanuele Crialese: EC: It's not really a true story. This is something that I took inspiration from -- the island -- and I was there for nine months leading a completely different lifestyle from my one in New York. I wanted to really get out of being with movie people and get just with people. And then I was inspired by the place and the people and I started to write this story. The story is based on a woman that lots of people talk about in the village. The story is about a community finding an enemy. It happens everywhere. I took the most interesting moments of this story and I put it on film. In the community where I was, I found the perfect example that I was looking for. I discovered through the film a way to explore this concept. We either kill the enemy and need to invent one another way -- eliminate the enemy -- and go out and find another one. Or, we have another option ... we can accept the person, the enemy, the black sheep, and that way we evolve as a society. The community decides to accept her differences and let her back in.

I sympathize with this character because it's through the sacrifices of such people that we evolve as a society.

VG: Of course, I completely agree with this concept. We've discussed this many times. But not during the shooting of the movie. I think when you are doing a movie, something artistic ... theory should stay out of the moment of creation and that's how it was with us. We never talked about anything that was not happening at the moment. We never theorized my character or anything else but we did that before and after shooting, but not during the two-month shoot of the movie. We had too many other things to take care of and also because the movie ... it's not only a theory, metaphor ... it's also simply what you look at which is an island, a woman, her children, her husband ... and a very simple, beautiful story and that's what I think is the strength of the movie. There are two levels to the movie. You can choose to look at one of them or at both of them. You can choose to just look at the movie or invest what you see with significance and with symbols and with everything that you want. So it's not a heavy movie to look at. Actually it's a quiet, easy movie to look it.

Bethesda, Md.: To Mr. Crialese: Your first feature film was "Once We Were Strangers" which was shot in English. Do you plan on doing more English-speaking films?

Valeria Golino and Emanuele Crialese: EC: Yes, I'm doing a lot of planning. I've lived in New York for nine years so the privilege is that I'm American and I'd like to direct a crew one more time in this country.

Arlington, Va.: What does Respiro mean in Italian and when does the movie come out here in the U.S?

Valeria Golino and Emanuele Crialese: EC: Respire means breathing ... to breathe or breathing in and out. I needed something very simple and very essential and there's nothing more basic than the act of breathing. Two weeks before Cannes, I came up with this word, Respiro.

VG: It opens in Washington June 27. In LA and New York, the 23rd of May. Then San Francisco.

Washington, D.C.: Valeria –- I’ve very much enjoyed seeing you lately in films such as Frida -– miraculously, you look EXACTLY the same as you did when I enjoyed seeing you in such films as Rain Man! What’s your secret? Do you bathe in the blood of virgins? Please let the lest of us mortals know….

Valeria Golino and Emanuele Crialese: VG: That's a very flattering question. Let's say I give a break to myself. I don't overdo it. I do the basics. I put cream on my face. My big regret is that I would like to be less lazy ... go more to the gym, do those things that help you along but unfortunately I'm a lazy southern Italian. So between the treadmill and cup of espresso ... you know who wins.

Bethesda, Md.: Valeria –- I’ve been a fan of yours for quite some time, and it’s always struck me as very impressive that you manage to balance two successful careers in Italy and the U.S. How does working in those respective countries differ, and where do you prefer to work?

Valeria Golino and Emanuele Crialese: VG: For me, it's really a pleasure to work in both places. It gives me the opportunity to meet a lot of talented people with different mentalities, different points of view. The only difference that right now comes in my mind is that in the U.S. they pay you better money. You have a bigger industry here. In Italy, we have more artisans. But also for me, my country gives me the opportunity to do better roles. I will keep doing both and as long as they ask me, I'll keep going back and forth.

Silver Spring, Md.: Emanuele –- I’ve read that you’ve taken a very familiar story in Italian cinema and made it very much your own. Was that challenging? What made you decide to work from such a traditional story?

Valeria Golino and Emanuele Crialese: EC: Because I really needed to go back down into my roots and explore my background. I disappeared from the scene for too long and I felt unrooted. I do believe that whenever we write or film a story, we have the obligation to be as personal as we can, to expose ourselves as much as we can.

Arlington, Va.: This question is for Emanuele –- what was it like working on such a remote location as Lampedusa? Were the locals welcoming? How much of the cast were residents of the town?

Valeria Golino and Emanuele Crialese: EC: All the cast were residents of the town except Valeria Golino and Vincenzo Amato. The rest of the crew and cast was entirely real fishermen and people who were part of the community. They don't have a movie theater on the island or a hospital. The first time my children (in the film) actually entered a movie theater was in Cannes to watch their own film.

It was difficult to shoot in a location where people don't care anything about movies and how they are made. It's not like shooting in America where people want to kind of take part in it. It's not like that at all. They are kind of suspicious about you representing their own story. At the beginning they were very suspicious and then little by little they understood that I really wanted to do something about their own history, and their approach changed toward me. They started to help me out. They started to understand that we were trying to do a really tough, hard job on the island and they respected us. They see writers, actors, directors are basically lazy people who want to hang out with very cute and pretty actresses. They don't see us as working people. This attitude is shared by my father. Only if you're a doctor, a lawyer or a professor do you have respectable work.

So by the end, it was fantastic because the community really started to get involved with the story and the filming of this story.

New York, N.Y.: Congratulations on winning a Cannes award. That says something. What directors have inspired you? Have you always had a visual sense?

Valeria Golino and Emanuele Crialese: EC: I think I've always had a visual sense. We can start with Fellini and De Sica and then among the American directors I have a passion for John Cassavetes. Of course, I like Scorsese and many films from Coppolo (Apocalypse Now, The Conversation and The Godfather).

Harrisburg, Pa.: Have people in Lampedusa seen the film? If so, what has been their reactions?

Valeria Golino and Emanuele Crialese: EC: The reaction has been the most amazing for me. They showed up in an improvised theater that we brought in on the island to screen the film and they sat throughout the whole film like statues with no noise. Just like statues. Considering this is a community that doesn't sit still for a moment, this reaction was amazing. They didn't move.

After seeing it, the ones who worked on the film were very moved and enthusiastic. Especially moved. The other ones who weren't in the film ... some of them thought that I showed old-fashioned images of Lampedusa. They said, "We have cell phones, we have TVs, why aren't they in the movie?" And I said I didn't need to see them because I wanted to concentrate all of my attention on them, on the people and their relationships.

Princeton, N.J.: Emanuele –- your first film was set in NYC. Did you always intend to return to Italy for your next film? Do you plan to continue working on Italian films or do you have ambitions for Hollywood?

Valeria Golino and Emanuele Crialese: EC: My next film will be a bridge between Italy and New York. Half of it will be shot in Italy and the other half will be done on another island which is called Ellis Island in New York. It's going to be the real story of all American people coming to America in 1900. I like to call it the "Titanic of the Poor and the Willing."

So again, my first film took place on an island, Manhattan. And my second film took place on an island off the coast of Sicily called Lampedusa. And now my third film in the trilogy will be from another island called Ellis Island.

Washington, D.C.: Does the movie have a message?

Valeria Golino and Emanuele Crialese: EC: I think it does, but as a director my job is, I think, to explore a subject and let the audience find their own message. My message, which is completely personal, is that we should learn from history and embrace differences among people rather than remove them.

Washington, D.C.: Why do you like to make films?

Valeria Golino and Emanuele Crialese: EC: I need to have the opportunity to escape my routine life and recreate a world that sometimes I feel more comfortable in. And I also like very much to work with people and creating a movie is like being able to convey the best out of the people you work with.

washingtonpost.com:

That wraps up today's show. Thanks to everyone who joined the discussion.