Pinguini Tattici Nucleari’s “Class Dinner” Arrives in Theaters, Accompanied by Modern Soundtrack
The promises “that you make at eighteen last either a day or a whole lifetime.” And as strange as it is, a “forever” can be consummated on a Saturday evening. Thus begins «Classy dinner» one of Nuclear Tactical Penguins’ most loved songs, which inspired the bittersweet choral comedy of the same name by Francesco Mandelli, arriving March 26th with Medusa.
The film, built on a close-knit ensemble cast, which includes Andrea Pisani, Beatrice Arnera, Roberto Lipari, Herbert Ballerina, Annandrea Vitrano, Giulia Vecchio, Nicola Nocella, Francesco Russo, Giovanni Esposito, is Mandelli’s most mature attempt as a director.
«This film was a challenge for me from the beginning, starting from creating a film from a song – Mandelli explains to Ansa – and then because, as my partner also told me, I had the opportunity to show other aspects of myself. Our function is about characters, they probably position you on a certain shelf and people want that from you. This time I had the chance to do something that also had different tones, more similar to this moment in my life. There are more emotions inside me that I want to express than the simple joviality as it might have been 15 years ago.”
The Story
In the film (produced by Roadmovie with Medusa), which mixes two temporal planes and cites various cults of the genre, we find many of the characters present in the song, former high school friends now in their thirties, reunited 17 years after graduating from high school for the funeral of Pozzi (Mandelli), the former filmmaker of the group, who had documented their dreams and hopes as teenagers. Among others Bonelli (Pisani), who dreamed of being a musician and became an undertaker; the apparently idyllic and still together couple composed of Marco (Lipari) and Laura (Vitrano); Nané (Arnera), a successful lawyer but with a troubled private practice; Gemma (Vecchio) who immediately after high school was faced with an vital choice; the unpredictable “daddy’s boy” Michael (Ballerina); the sensitive Alex (Nocella) who let himself go after some personal and work defeats; Romeo (Russo), tired of being ignored by others.
The dinner that closes the day, to which they also invite their favorite janitor Nando (Esposito), a widower, kicks off a tragicomic night when the group takes, without knowing it, a narcotic substance. The former classmates go off to let loose in their old school and in a story rhythm that goes from slapstick to tragicomedy to dramedy, there is a succession of pranks, pranks (including the disappearance of Pozzi’s coffin), revelations, disillusionments, emergencies and new beginnings.
«The idea of the initial funeral (which recalls a cult like “The Large Cold”, ed.) actually comes from an experience Francesco had, a classy dinner after the death of a former high school classmate – says Lipari -. From there came the question that starts the story: “If everything ended tomorrow, what life would we have lived?”. In «my generation – observes Pisani – we have always been hit by inspirational models, like that of Messi, who became a myth by overcoming many adversities. But there are also a million aspiring Messis who haven’t managed to achieve what they wanted, because wanting isn’t always being able. People who are now frustrated and maybe experience guilty, thinking they haven’t tried hard enough… We wanted to talk about them.”
On the occasion of the release of the film «Class Dinner», in theaters from March 26th, the video of the song which, contained in the 2022 album «Fake News» (Five Platinum Records) is a true generational manifesto. In the video, produced by Roadmovie, the images of the film alternate with the live performance of the most important band on the Italian music scene.
The film’s soundtrack by Riccardo Zanotti and Marco Paganelli will also be released on March 27 (Sony Music) which features all instrumental songs with the exception of «We Failed» to which the young Lysa lent her voice, a nostalgic song that proceeds through images and deals with a melancholy and ephemeral existential theme: the illusions that everyone has at school.
The Track List
History is made here
We Failed
Cut Poetry
Do you really wanna know?
Between the Corridors
I remember
Break-in
Romeo Liar
Marisa
Bubble
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