On set with Laetitia Casta
The subject
Una storia nera, a thriller by Leonardo D'Agostini from the novel by Antonella Lattanzi, produced by Groenlandia and RAI Cinema, in cinemas from 16 May 2024. Shot in Rome, including at Rebibbia.
The point of view
In a film that moves through nightmares and fears, I was looking for the effort and hardness of choosing to protect oneself. The film tells it as a flow; photography stops an expression and underlines a state of mind lifted out of time.
The crucial scene of violence at home was the hardest to photograph: it called for being quick and discreet.
Finding myself face to face with Laetitia Casta, twenty years after seeing her in magazines as a boy, is one of the absurd coincidences photography gives me.
The journey
Unit stills photographer, 2023-2024, for about a month of shooting.
The images were used by Filmitalia, on the cast's social profiles and in the online press.
Unit Stills Photographer: Groenlandia / RAI Cinema
Unit stills photographer for Una storia nera, the second feature by Leonardo D’Agostini, who won the Nastro d’Argento for best new director with Il Campione (2019).
Filming took place in Rome, Gallicano nel Lazio and the Rebibbia women’s prison. The cast includes, alongside Laetitia Casta (Carla) and Andrea Carpenzano, Cristiana Dell’Anna (known for Gomorrah, the series), Lea Gavino (Skam Italia), Mario Sgueglia, Giordano De Plano and Licia Maglietta.
The film deals with domestic violence and self-defence through a noir courtroom structure, alternating the family story with the trial. Laetitia Casta was the lead face of the international press campaign.
Do you have a subject that deserves a point of view, not just a photograph?