Matteo Garrone‘s follow-up to his moody gangster film Gomorrah revolves around the reality TV show Big Brother (Grande Fratello). Oscilloscope Laboratories has acquired U.S. distribution rights to Reality and released a brand new trailer for the film which debuted at the Cannes Film Festival last spring.
The best part about this film with Fellini-esque characters sprinkled throughout a Bunuelian surreality is that it exists as a comedy, yet has none of the usual comedic tropes that most of the Judd Apatow comedic fans are so used to nowadays.
Set in a hyper-real world of reality television, Reality is a bizarre look at a man who becomes obsessed by the idea of fame.
Neapolitan fishmonger Luciano auditioned to be on the Italian version of Big Brother becomes entirely consumed by the possibility that his mundane life Maria will be replaced with the glamour of being on television and his chance celebrity.
What’s really crazy, is the story behind the star of the film, Aniello Arena who plays Luciano. He’s serving a life sentence in prison for his role in a triple homicide while acting as a mafia hit man. Cast after Garrone happened to see him perform in the prison theater company called Fortezza (Fortress), Arena was only allowed out to the film’s set on day release.
The film will be released starting March 15th in New York followed by March 22nd in Los Angeles.
A new teaser trailer can be seen below.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j21LZ5CKvlw[/youtube]
