“A CUP OF COFFEE WITH MARILYN”. MIRIAM LEONE IN THE ROLE OF UNKNOWN YOUNG WOMAN BUT STILL A DYNAMIC ORIANA FALLACI.

Miriam Leone is the protagonist of the short film “A Cup of Coffee With Marilyn” based on the Autobiographical event contained in the first book of Oriana Fallaci “I Sette Peccati di Hollywood” of 1958. Written and Directed by Alessandra Gonnella, produced by Diego Loreggian for Redstring and co-produced by the same director and the English Company Hoffman, Barney & Foscar Ltd. Francesca Michielin signed off two of the unreleased soundtracks in English.

The short film was presented as a world premiere on the 18^th of October during the 14^th edition of the Rome Cinema Festival within the Alice section TIMVISION of the Auditorium Parco della Musica. The Film Premiere will continue to be distributed at the main National and International Festivals.

Filmed entirely in London but set in the New York of the 50’s, the film narrates the life of a really young Oriana Fallaci, sent to the United States by the Newspaper L’Europeo to carry out an investigation into the Hollywood star system during her desperate search to interview Marilyn Monroe. Despite the repeated attempts, Oriana never manages to meet her and, with a stroke of genius, decides not to hide the shame of the failure, describing in detail all the particular humiliations of the case. From that point on, Oriana Fallaci becomes the most important Italian Journalist of the post war, with her unforgettable ways of portraying the characters of her interviews.

Alessandra Gonnella, author of the short film is a 23 year old director from Venice and this is her second short film. Formed in the London Cinema, where she lives. The short film is in both English and Italian and boasts of an International cast and crew, made up principally by young people under the age of 30.

“The idea came to me two years ago, -explained Alessandra Gonnella- when I was re-reading the Seven Sins of Hollywood I saw that history flash before my eyes, as a film. It stayed with me and it has never left me. I want at all costs to let everyone know about this really brief, funny true story that sheds light on not very well known aspects of Oriana Fallaci, a character that I already loved.” Even if the film tells of a personal life of an ironic personality, the film also tells of things which are close to the director and at the same time universal. “The world of Oriana which I have represented in the film is very similar to my world; I don’t mean Hollywood, but a world where I speak English and Italian at the same time; going to Party’s, Theatres, Hotels, Lavish Houses, running after people without receiving anything positive, getting false promises, everyone knows everyone but, in reality, nobody really knows nobody, everyone trying to get to the top”.

I am, by nature like Oriana, open and clear, combined with a dose of ingenuity, I tease and oppose the system, but I still have to swallow things and I suffer. Face to face with the tenacity and irreverence of Oriana, I always feel moved because they are characteristics that bond us. To describe her failure in that work at the beginning of her career was like exorcising my defeats and finding a way of responding.” All of this was possible thanks, first of all, to Eduardo Perazzi, nephew and heir of Oriana Fallaci, who had given his blessing and had followed enthusiastically step by step, the project, providing materials, cues and precious details regarding the like of Oriana.

“I aimed really high with this project so as to grow as a director, but also to pay deserving homage to a writer that I admire. I relied on Miriam Leone and Francesca Michielin because in their respective fields they are different, special, and Oriana is different and special.”

The two stars, in response, embraced the energy of the young film maker and in many ways a very unique project, and threw themselves in.

During the set in London Miriam Leone revealed: “Diego and Alessandra told me this story which I didn’t know and I liked it immediately; then, I was told that we are talking about a young project, full of enthusiasm, risky, with a character as immense as Oriana and I said: no, this is a project which is really dangerous! Ok I’ll do it!! (laughter). Regarding the challenge to interpret Oriana Fallaci, I’ll continue: “Oriana is a character who has always fascinated me for her courage, for being outside of schemes and independent. I got so passionate that I read all of her books. I was fascinated by her contradictions, her contempt for this curvy blond actress, but nevertheless being obsessed, wanted to search and find her at all costs without the possibility of failing. Oriana is a very modern feminine and controversial person; for me on a human level, as an actress, she is a super interesting character. […] Everything that went against the freedom of the individual, she fought. I believe she needs more affection from her country, we mustn’t forget our great characters.”

During the presentation of the trailer at the 72nd edition of the Cannes Festival Francesca Michielin declared: “I was contacted by the director with the request to produce the soundtrack and in the past I had already collaborated with the cinema in different ways but, I had never produced an entire soundtrack. I was a bit afraid at the beginning but also very motivated to do something beautiful and coherent. I wasn’t by chance that when I found out that the film was set in ’58, it immediately came to mind the first album of Nina Simone. From that moment a whole flow of consciousness and personnel brainstorming began to produce the original Jazz soundtrack.”

Diego Loreggian, the creative and executive director of RedString had, for many years, been promoting new talents in the cinema through the production and distribution of short films and serial projects. Winner of no less than the Nastri d’Argento with ‘Moby Dick’ by Nicola Sorcinelli as the best Italian short film in 2017 and ‘Inanimate’ by Luca Bulgheroni Nastro Speciale in 2019, sustained this project from the beginning, whether it was for the huge appeal that surrounded a character like Oriana Fallaci, or whether it was for the quality of the writing when the project was first presented to him. “The style of the story, the characters of the personalities and the locations in the first book of Oriana convinced me to produce along with Alessandra this little film so I could then draft a potential pilot for the successive development of a mini series on which we are already working. I believe that what is lacking at this moment in Italian serial productions is a character so authentic and gifted like Oriana of that period. There are dozens of articles published in the ‘Europa’, in which Fallaci-Mata Hari (she is compared to her by Orson Welles, in the preface of the book for her beauty, ingenuity, for her capacity to spy and to pass by without being observed) brought back the mysterious aura of great actors, producers and directors of the period, experiencing their tears and their lies but managing to outline a precise context and certainly different with respect to the Hollywood that everyone in the world knew, as her old writer friend Bill would say, “Hollywood doesn’t exist. […]. Hollywood is a mental state, a mirage. You don’t look at Hollywood with your eyes: but with desire, envy and grandeur.”

The cast, other than Miriam Leone, includes Marco Gambino, Giulietta Vainer Levi, Antonio Mancino and the English actors Sam Hoare and Jamie Wilkes.

Furthermore, there were numerous companies both Italian and English that participated in the project, fascinated by the character of Oriana and her interpreter, many of whom are based in Florence the homeland of Fallaci. Amongst the others were: Leonardo Manetti, Giratempo Vintage, Dadada, Le Cinéma Café, Salvatore Ferragamo, Omega, Safilo, Luxottica, Gattinoni, San Domenico House.