“I’ll tell you a story”

This article is published in number 48 of Vanity Fair on newsstands until November 29, 2022

Guide to recognizing his holy cards: «I liked him very much X-Files. Dawson’s Creek the afternoon was a fun alternative to studying. The secrets of Twin Peaks I recovered it later. With Lost the electrocution for the series has arrived ». Which then became her life and brought him to streaming heaven. Ludovico Bessegatofrom Milan, born in 1983, is the Italian showrunner that everyone wants since he created the now cult Skam Italybrilliant tale of a group of Roman high school students and local adaptation of the original version born in Norway, now in its fifth season on Netflix.

The son of a theater actor and an art historian, he always nurtured the dream of telling stories on screen, «but it seemed risky to me not having great contacts and not wanting to burden my parents endlessly. So, after high school, after a bath of reality, I enrolled in Law. On the first day of class, however, I received a call from a friend of family friends: he was looking for a theater assistant, I took it as a sign ». The interpretation is right.
From there Bessegato joined the creative team of a Roman production company, Magnolia, which later became Cross Productions, working on projects for generalist TV: Rocco Schiavone with Marco Giallini, The hunter with Francesco Montanari. As far as Skam Italy.

Ludovico Bessegato’s latest creature is on Prime Video and is called Prism: another teen drama, another streaming success of this hot autumn, which precedes an even hotter winter for platforms; between increases in the price of subscriptions, opening up to advertisements and directors who distance themselves in defense of cinemas.
The words of Paolo Sorrentino at the International Film Festival of Marrakech are from a few days ago:
«I don’t want to make any controversy, I filmed It was the hand of God with Netflix, with which I had a great time. But today the platforms are having the best success, they don’t need me, us directors. Today I want to make films for the cinema: cinemas are in crisis». The chat with Ludovico Bessegato thus turns into a reflection on his world.

Is Sorrentino good?
“The issue is complex. Escape from theaters seems inevitable if there are few left, increasingly peripheral, ugly, and at the same time televisions with giant 70-inch screens and soundbars are being sold that are not so far from those in cinemas. I don’t think reducing the ticket price is the solution. Rather, I think it is necessary to think about how we aggregate now and study those countries, such as England, where cinemas continue to be full, even after the pandemic and despite the presence of platforms. I wonder, for example: why can a film be streamed, but a series can’t go to the cinema and if it does, it rarely happens?
I am convinced that creating indoor events with marathons of spectacular series such as The Lord of the Rings – The rings of power or House of the Dragonthe prequel to Game of Throneswould work”.

And would he go there?
“Yup”.

Maybe he already goes to the cinema regularly in his spare time.
«The real truth is that I don’t watch many series or many films: I limit myself to the right thing to keep myself informed and to know what is coming out at any given moment. I was a fanatic, I’m not anymore. I spend every day, from 9 in the morning to 8 in the evening, writing, filming or editing seamlessly, often even on weekends. I try to dedicate the time I have left to my girlfriend, friends, meetings, reading, listening to podcasts, watching documentaries. To observe as much as possible what is around me and I don’t know, and to avoid looking inside myself. This is how I find the stories to bring to the stage».

Running away from himself?
“It may actually feel like an escape. But the point is another».

Which?
«I don’t believe in autofiction, in self-representation, in the umbilical story. I’m even a little scared by the tendency to focus on oneself. Also to MasterChef the judges get pissed because a dish doesn’t speak enough about the contestant! But why all this request for self-centeredness, for sharing one’s problems? I prefer to face them in private, with my analyst, with my friends. And I don’t feel like exploiting the dysfunctions that anyone manages in life to hook viewers or critics. I have a lot of respect for my difficulties, I don’t want to sell them off by making them part of my job. Nor do I have the presumption that they can become universal, reflect the spirit of the time, as Walter Siti said (who introduced the autofictional genre into our literature, ed). In addition, I wish to protect my loved ones, myself. Let me be clear, I have esteem for those who choose autofiction done well, like Walter Siti, like Nanni Moretti, who is my favorite Italian director, or nearly so».

So instead of focusing on himself, he focused on the teenagers.
«Talking about them means going where things happen, where fashions are born, where the future is built. So why tell them by compromising on quality, simplifying when their stories are often more moved, more complicated? The lives of young people are pioneers, full of exclusive feelings. Time, on the other hand, muffles feelings. I regret the years in which she ran to catch the bus carrying her loved one, lied to her parents for an evening of dancing at the Muccassassina (the longest-running LGBT+ party in Italyed.)».

Don’t you want to change the subject now?
«I think I still have a couple of years of autonomy, curiosity and wonder for discovery. Then I’ll probably have to take a step back and leave the burden of the story to others».

Then there will be the sixth season of Skam Italy and the second of Prism?
«At the moment I can say that they have not been cancelled. Prism it has an open ending: after all, no creator makes a series to close it in the first place. We await the considerations of the broadcaster, hoping they are positive: the mechanism, diabolical but legitimate, provides that the renewal of a title takes place only after having evaluated the approval data. For Skam Italy the story is different: the fourth season could already be said to be over, yet we went on, ditto the last one. The moral? Never trust the series too much: there is always a way not to put an end to it».

Aren’t you tired of these and other “diabolical but legitimate mechanisms”?
«That’s how it works and you have to play along: you have two seasons in mind and they ask you for five, you start and someone else completes your project. With Prism it was somewhat frustrating: I wrote it in 2019, shot it in 2021, shared it a couple of months ago. Perhaps I would have made three films in the same very long time».

Don’t you mind the extreme competition? Now 40/50 titles come out every month.
«It actually allows us creatives to be able to choose how and with whom to work. The important thing is that everyone, including the platform, is aware that it is much more difficult to stay in the most viewed ranking for a long time. Two further positive aspects: the pressure on the single title decreases and the spaces for young talents, screenwriters and screenwriters, directors and actors and actresses increase».

So, isn’t it time yet to “betray” series with films and streaming with theaters as Paolo Sorrentino asks?
«After 15 years in this serialized world, I’d be curious to measure myself with smaller and more compact projects, which I can take care of from start to finish». \

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