Low voices

Sottovoce brings together a number of extremes in an original way. The film was shot in the Italian village of Roccascalegna in the Abruzzi mountains. The actors are recruited from the local population but the film is the opposite of a realistic or documentary drama. It can better be described as surrealist, absurdist and carnivalesque. Pazienza was not only interested in everyday life in the village, but above all in the myths of the village and its population. He blends these stories in concrete pictorial images with his impressions of reality. The stores and legends present under the surface were brought to life by Pazienza as visions and tableaux.One of those legendary figures is Baron Corvo de Corvis, a mixture of various monstrous historical figures from the stories of the village women – passed on by a talkative crow – and a personification of many fears. The legendary baron makes his return in the film, having last appeared in the 17th century. If the film can be called a documentary, it is a documentary of the reminiscences, stories and dreams of the villagers.Sottovoce had a long and difficult history. The first shots in the film, looking like home movie shots of a wedding, were made by Pazienza with borrowed money in 1985. After the slow development of the scenario and a lengthy quest for finance, there were four separate periods of shooting. Over the years the material for the film grew and Pazienza embroidered on his original form.