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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Fans meet director Franco Nero at screening of Forever Blues

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Muscat, March 27

The 10th Muscat International Film Festival on Tuesday screened the 2005 Italian film, Forever Blues, written, directed and starred by Franco Nero.


It was screened at VOX Cinema at Qurum City Centre. For attendees, it was a great opportunity to see Nero, who was there to introduce the film to the public.


“When I was young — about 16 to 17 years — I used to go to the cinema all the time. In the morning, I would go to school and after that I would go to the cinema, another movie and one more. I was crazy about movies,” recollected Nero.


He said two movies, both from the fifties, changed his life. They are: From Here to Eternity, in which Montgomery Clift plays a bugler, and Look Back in Anger, in which Richard Burton plays a trumpet-playing social dropout.


“Both had trumpet as the focus. Since then, I have been in love with the trumpet. I always wanted to be a trumpet player. Since I could not play one in real life, I decided to play it in movies,” said the veteran actor, whose directorial debut was Forever Blues.


At the age of 22, Nero went to Rome, where he met a priest who was taking care of orphaned boys because the war had destroyed almost everything.


“I went to the village in 1963 and said to the priest, listen, I do not have a penny and I am a nobody, but I will be with you throughout my life. I kept my promise. Even now, I work for this village. The boys are mainly orphans or children with a family problem. That made me do this film. It has both the trumpet and the story of a boy with a family problem.”


The healing power of music, a delicate balance of relationship as well as the impact of conflict on a young mind are key focus of the film.


The narration gets even stronger when young Marco, one of the central characters portrayed by Daniele Piamonti, slowly opens up to the world because of Luca (Marco Nero) and his music. In just one day, Luca takes Marco and teaches him how to face the world and hands him his beloved trumpet. He grows up to become a successful trumpet player.


The film works its way through flashbacks, where a grown-up Marco (Robert Madison), an accomplished musician, wants to meet his best friend just before his concert.


“I did not even put extras in the street because I was afraid the extras would destroy the dialogue between the man and the boy,” said Nero.


So what is the message the film wants to convey? “I want to say music never dies. It will always exist.”


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