LEO - Lux Vide

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00195 Rome, Italy
www.luxvide.com
International Sales Manager: Francesca Avalle [email protected]
International Sales Assistant: Cecilia Tosti [email protected]
As White As Milk,
As Red As Blood
Leo is an ordinary
sixteen-year-old boy.
He enjoys hanging
out with friends,
playing soccer
and music.
Still, his life is
WHITE .
Until he sees
for the first time
Beatrice’s
bright RED hair.
And he falls in
LOVE.
Outline
Leo is an ordinary sixteen-year-old boy.
Time he spends at school is a drag,
until he meets the new philosophy teacher.
This young man is different.
He encourages his students to live intensely and follow their dreams.
Leo's dream is Beatrice, the most beautiful girl in school.
The girl who has leukaemia.
Do dreams die?
Is love any stronger than death?
It’s time for Leo to fight and find the strength
to believe in something bigger than himself.
Based on the Mondadori best-seller novel
by Alessandro D’Avenia
700.000 copies sold in Italy
Publishing rights sold in 20 foreign countries
(Germany, Spain, Catalunya, France, Netherlands, Greece, Portugal,
Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria,
Romania, Albania, Lithuania, Turkey, Russia, Taiwan, Brasil)
Already published in 10 foreign countries
(Germany, Spain, Catalunya, France, Netherlands,
Portugal, Bulgaria, Russia, Brasil, Poland)
a
LUX VIDE and RAI CINEMA
CO-PRODUCTION
Script by Fabio Bonifacci
with the collaboration of Alessandro D’Avenia
Directed by Giacomo Campiotti
LEO
16 years old, wild, curly hair and a
crumpled t-shirt. An idealist who is
full of life and colors. He’s deeply in
love with Beatrice… and forever will
be.
He doesn’t know where his love for
her could take him, but even if it
means facing up to death, he’s not
giving up…
Filippo Scicchitano
After his brilliant debut as the protagonist, alongside Fabrizio
Bentivoglio, of Scialla! (film by Francesco Bruni that grossed €2,473,000
at the box office and won the David di Donatello Award as Best First
Feature), he returns to the silver screen in the film Un giorno speciale,
directed by Francesca Comencini that was selected to compete at the
69th Venice International Film Festival.
BEATRICE
17 years old, gorgeous with red hair. She’s tough, but simple and
cheerful. When she falls ill with leukemia, she is won over by Leo’s love
for her and begins to let her thoughts flow in a personal diary that soon
becomes a conversation with God.
Gaia Weiss
Young, French actress who
starred in the film Mary, Queen
of Scots (2012) directed by
Thomas Imbach.
SILVIA
16 years old, smiles with determination. Her nickname is “Trusty
Silvia” because she is always ready to get Leo out of trouble. She’s
also hopelessly in love with him, but Leo doesn’t know that…at least
not yet.
Aurora Ruffino
Student at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia (Experimental Cinematography Centre) Foundation who made her
debut in 2010 in the film La solitudine dei numeri primi by Saverio Costanzo. As White As Milk, As Red As Blood is her
second feature film.
NIKO
16 years old, Leo’s desk-mate, teammate and…best friend. They “save” each other’s lives at least once a month, like Jack
Sparrow and Will Turner. Unlike Leo, he’s a realist and comes up with a plan for Leo to approach Beatrice.
Romolo Guerreri
Young actor with the
Italian Disney Channel.
He’s played important
roles in different TV series
including Quelli
dell’intervallo, Fiore e
Tinelli, Sketch Up, and I
soliti idioti.
SUBSTITUTE TEACHER
The Italian Literature substitute, young enough not to be boring, but old
enough to be wise. He asks questions that set the students’ hearts on fire
and gives answers that provide them with strength and courage in their
time of adolescence.
Luca Argentero
Young actor who has received acclaim
for several films including Diverso da
chi? (2009), La donna della mia vita
(2010), Lezioni di cioccolato (2007) and
C'è chi dice no (2011). He has worked
with important directors such as
Michele Placido and Ferzan Özpetek.
THE DIRECTOR
GIACOMO CAMPIOTTI – Trained by the best in Italian cinema (he worked as assistant director to Monicelli in Il marchese del
Grillo, Speriamo che sia femmina, I picari and joined the Ipotesi Cinema group founded by Ermanno Olmi), he has worked on several
International co-productions such as Il Tempo dell’Amore in 1999, an English and French co-production for which he was both
screenwriter and director, and the successful miniseries Doctor Zhivago that boasts a well-known cast including Keira Knightley, Sam
Neill and Hans Matheson.
Campiotti is particularly sensitive to the theme of adolescence and has showed great finesse and delicacy in bringing the theme to the
big screen. The film was well received by critics. He made his feature film debut in 1989 with Corsa di primavera, a story about life in a
small town through the captivating eyes of children. The film was a huge success at the Venice International Film Critics Week. It was
then presented at several international film festivals and won the Giffoni as Best Film. He directed Giancarlo Giannini, Valeria Golino
and Fabrizio Bentivoglio in 1994 in Come due coccodrilli, a film that received numerous awards throughout the world as well as a
Nomination as Best Foreign Film at the Golden Globes in 1996. In 2005 he returned to the big screen with Mai più come prima, a
sensitive film on the difficult themes of death, disability and the lack of communication between adults and adolescents.
As White As Milk, As Red As Blood is his fourth feature film.
AWARDS AND RECOGNITION
 1990 Giffoni Film Festival, Golden Gryphon for Corsa di primavera
 1990 Annecy Festival, Audience Award for Corsa di primavera
 1994 Golden Globe, nomination for Come due coccodrilli
 1994 Locarno International Film Festival, nomination for Come due coccodrilli
 1994 Festival Nice New York, Best film for Come due coccodrilli
 1999 Locarno International Film Festival, nomination for Il tempo dell'Amore
 1999 Annecy Festival, Special Jury Award for Il tempo dell'Amore
 2003 BAFTA Awards, nomination for Doctor Zhivago
 2004 New York Film Festival Word Medals: Best Serial, Best Photography, Best Soundtrack for Doctor Zhivago
 2006 David di Donatello Awards, nomination for Mai più come prima
THE SCREENWRITERS
FABIO BONIFACCI – Screenwriter with expertise in writing films that border on the lines of both comedy and drama (Si può
fare, Amore Bugie & Calcetto, C’è chi dice no). He is the author of some of the most successful Italian comedies in recent
years such as Benvenuti al Nord, Diverso da chi? and Oggi Sposi. His other films include E allora mambo, Tandem, Notturno
Bus and Lezioni di cioccolato. He has also written scripts for theater and TV. For Mondadori Publishing House, he has coauthored with Enrico Bertolino the novels Ho visto cose… (2003), Quarantenne sarà lei (2005) and Amore, Bugie &
Calcetto (2008).
ALESSANDRO D’AVENIA – Thirty-four years old, PhD in Classical Literature, High School Literature teacher and
screenwriter. His first novel, As White As Milk, As Red As Blood (Mondadori 2010) was received with great enthusiasm and
continues to attract new, avid readers. He has recently published his second novel, Cose che nessuno sa, which sold over
100,000 copies in the first three months following publication.
BOX OFFICE
As White As Milk, As Red As Blood grossed €1,163,000.00 on its opening weekend (04/04/2013 04/07/2013) and was shown on a total of 410 screens with an average of €3,000 per copy in each
theater, placing second to Croods (€1,260,000).
The film steadily remained in the top-ten of the highest-grossing Italian films for 3 weeks in a row
with good reviews from the critics and positive word-of-mouth, competing with American
blockbusters such as Oblivion, Scary Movie 5, Olympus Has Fallen and Iron Man 3.
As of May 2013, the film has grossed a total of € 3,300,000.