Le Quattro Volte

Unanimously acclaimed as the stand-out film of the 2010 Directors' Fortnight

An old shepherd lives his last days in a quiet medieval village perched high on the hills of Calabria, at the southernmost tip of Italy. He herds goats under skies that most villagers have deserted long ago. He is sick, but believes that he can find his medicine in the dust he collects on the church floor, which he drinks in his water every day.

A new goat kid is born. We follow its first few tentative steps, its first games, until it gains strength and goes to pasture. Nearby, a majestic tree stirs in the mountain breeze and slowly changes through the seasons, until transformed into fuel through the ancestral work of the local Calabrian charcoal makers.

A beautiful and poetic vision of the revolving cycles of life and nature in the unbroken traditions of a timeless place, Le Quattro volte appears as the metaphor of a soul that moves through four successive states of being.

Michelangelo Frammartino was born in Milan in 1968. In 1991, he entered the architecture department of the Politecnico di Milano where he developed a passion for the relationship between physical space and images. He conceived several video installations (THE EYE AND THE SPIRIT, THE HOUSE OF THE SLEEPING BEAUTIES, FILM) and participated in the experiments of the Studio Azzurro. During his studies, he self-produced a series of short films as well as various arts projects (painted decors, video clips, video installations).

He is regularly invited to universities and conferences, and he participated in an education programme whose goal is to act on the relationship between young audiences and television images. These courses inspired video installations shown in 1997 during the first edition of Generazione Media in Milan.

Michelangelo teaches at the ENFAP Lombardia, at the CINELIFE education centre, and at the University of Bergamo.

In 2003, he directed his first feature film IL DONO, which received multiple awards in prominent international film festivals. LE QUATTRO VOLTE is his second feature film.

Filmography

2010                                        Le Quattro Volte

CREW

Written and Directed by Michelangelo Frammartino

Director of Photography Andrea Locatelli

Line Producer Francesca Zanza

Production Manager Marco Serrecchia

Editing Benni Atria, Maurizio Grillo

Sound Paolo Benvenutti, Simone Paolo Olivero

Sound Design Daniel Iribarren in collaboration with Benni Atria

Production Design Matthew Broussard

Costume Design Gabriella Maiolo

Sound Mix Ansgar Frerich/ DIE BASIS Berlin

Costume Design Gabriella Maiolo

Producers Marta Donzelli, Gregorio Paonessa, Susanne Marian, Philippe Bober, Gabriella Manfré, Elda Guidinetti, Andres Pfaeffli

A Co-Production of Vivo Film, Essential Filmproduktion, Invisibile Film, Ventura Film

Supported by Ministero per i Beni e per le Attività Culturali - Direzione Generale Cinema, TorinoFilmLab 2008, Eurimages, Medienboard Berlin-Brandeburg, Fondazione Calabria Film Commission - Regione Calabria

In collaboration with ZDF / Arte, Cinecittà Luce, RTSI

CAST

The Shepherd Giuseppe Fuda

Charcoal Maker Bruno Timpano

Charcoal Maker Nazareno Timpano

Italy/Germany/Switzerland  2010     88 min

Trevor Johnston, Time Out

★★★★★

'You'd have to pretend not to like this film. It is overpoweringly lovable. It is now touring the globe charming the pantaloons off every audience in arthouses and beyond.'

Nigel Andrews, The Financial Times

★★★★★

'Sublime'

Wendy Ide, The Times

★★★★

'Masterful…a gem of art cinema...this beautiful movie…superbly filmed…deeply affecting. Every shot framed and composed with outstanding judgement.'

Peter Bradshaw The Guardian

★★★★

'Intriguing…outstanding…it’s all rather wonderful…a balm to the spirit'

Derek Malcolm, The Evening Standard

Philip French The Observer

★★★★★

'The film is an extraordinary achievement – beautiful, moving, mysterious, and, at times, extremely funny. In its self-effacing way, it’s nothing short of a miracle. One of those rare works that breaks all the rules of about what cinema “should” be, in order to demonstrate what it “can” be…the freshest and deepest film I’ve encountered in a while…the revelation of Cannes 2010.'

Jonathan Romney The Independent on Sunday

★★★★

Spellbinding…arthouse cinema at its most poetic.'

Allan Hunter The Daily Express

★★★★

'A beautiful little meditation on an ancient way of life'

Larushka Ivan-Zadeh, Metro

'We've never seen another film quite like it.'

Tom Charity Lovefilm

★★★★

'It is the least pretentious and most joyous celebration of nature. It's hard to convey the quiet beauty and strange wit of Frammartino's portrait of the changing seasons. Just watch, and wonder.'

Anthony Quinn, The Independent

Edward Lawrenson, The Big Issue

‘’This delightful film has won hearts and minds everywhere it has been shown.'

Peter Bradshaw, NINE OF THE BEST FILMS for 2011, The Guardian

Nick James, Sight and Sound

‘The films that move and interest me, at least outside the documentary format, re increasingly ones that channel the otherworldly quality of the cinematic experience. This was one.’

Lee Marshall, Sight and Sound

‘Probably the most accomplished piece of cinema you’ll see this year…WITTY, WONDROUS AND PROFOUND’

Wendy Ide, The Times

'Quite simply the strangest - and one of the most entertaining - films you will see at this year's London Film Festival'

Nick Roddick, The Evening Standard

“Exquisite images…are contained within a larger poetic scheme …much humour; herds of goats provide laughs aplenty, and one virtuoso long take boasts a brilliant, comic performance from a dog. Very special.”

Geoff Andrew, Time Out

‘Michelangelo Frammartino's Le quattro volte, a wordless, but hardly silent, evocation of the Great Chain of Being (men, goats, trees) as manifest in rural Calabria, that was the shining light of the Directors' Fortnight...’

Jim Hoberman, Village Voice

'An almost wordless film of striking beauty and originality, Le Quattro Volte announces the confident arrival of the second Michelangelo of Italian cinema.'

Lee Marshall, Screen International

'The best film I've ever seen about goats. In short, a maaaa-sterpiece.’

Jonathan Romney, The Independent

“Its view of nature is among the most profound, expansive and unsettling I have ever encountered on film.”

A.O.Scott, The New York Times

For film bookings please contact Colin Burch at Verve Pictures — [email protected]. Press resources are on the Press page.