Amore 14, the new film by author and director Federico Moccia, opens in Italian cinemas tomorrow and teenagers are keen to see this cinematic portrait of their own generation. Moccia, in trying to recreate the world of youth with loving attention to detail, has made “youth” the main character of the film. Young people like Moccia’s stories and films because he seems to be speaking directly to them and to remember how it feels to be teenaged and confused.
Moccia, born in Rome in 1963, is the son of the director Giuseppe Moccia and he worked as assistant director to his father when he was barely 19 years old. He later had some success in directing TV movies and as a scriptwriter. He wrote his first book, Tre metri sopra il cielo, in 1992. As he was unable to find a publisher, he paid for publication himself, ordering a small print run.
Young people who read the book loved it and were soon photocopying it for their friends. It was later published by Feltrinelli and a film version followed in 2004. Moccia’s sequel Ho voglia di te was published in 2006 and an enormously successful film version came in 2006, making a teen idol of Riccardo Scamarcio. These two books mentioned the custom of hanging padlocks with lovers’ messages on a lamp post near Rome’s Ponte Milvio.
After reading the books, more and more young people started to do it and finally Mayor Veltroni introduced fines for anyone caught leaving a padlock there. In 2008 Moccia himself directed the film version of his book Scusa ma ti chiamo amore. This film took 4 million euros at the box office during its first weekend of screening.
Moccia has an interesting and poetic autobiographical summary on his website, from which the following is an extract:
“I’m the words I love, the stories I write, the dear friends who accompany me in this life. I’m in the colours of a flower obstinately growing at the side of an asphalt road... I like the adult I am today because he is the product of the boy I was yesterday.”
Moccia says he is not attempting to portray an entire generation in Amore 14 but simply to explore the emotional ups and downs of teenagers in love.
Do you think mayor Veltroni was being unromantic?
