Lucca's gates, the historical entrances to the powerful and huge fortified walls of the city in the heart of Tuscany; the desolate and fascinating Garfagnana; the over three hundred villas pin scattered over the hills, the monuments and the historical palaces. These among the many places that make up the historical centre and the province of Lucca, places chosen by directors and script writers for films and television fictions, as ideal cinema sets.
In 2000 the province of Lucca was the ideal location for two films, in competition at the 58th edition of the Venice International Film Festival. And one of the two films set in Lucca, "L'amore probabilmente" by Giuseppe Bertolucci - brother of the better known Bernardo - opened, in the section "Cinema del presente" (Current day cinema), the Venetian review. Sonia Bergamasco, Rosalinda Celentano, Fabrizio Gifuni are the film's actors, as well as the participation of Mariangela Melato, Stefania Sandrelli and Alida Valli.
Another film that will bring Lucca to the big screen is "The Triumph of love" by Clare Peploe - director, as well as wife of Bernardo Bertolucci, co-script writer of the film with Marilyn Goldin. The piece taken from Marivaux 1732 stage work "Le triomphe de l'amour", was also competing in Venice in the section Venezia 58.
Clare Peploe chose Lucca to set the story where actors are Mira Sorvino, Ben Kingsley, Fiona Shaw and Jay Rodan. "The Triumph of love" and "L'amore probabilmente", two scripts quite distant from one another, a story of other times the former and a present-day one the latter, two stories who nevertheless find the same setting in a "small" city. This shows the natural set the region offers. A true opportunity for the valorisation of the artistic, cultural and naturalistic heritage of the province of Lucca which brings on the big screen the beauties, sometimes underestimated or hidden of the province and of the whole Tuscany: residences like Villa Rossi, Villa Mansi and Villa Grabau; the Apuane caves and the historical halls of Palazzo Ducale, the same which once hosted Elisa Bonaparte.
Province of Lucca (In Italian)
Venice international Film Festival
