You, Me & Tuscany, Marco Calvani Interview

"Lorenzo is the taxi driver of the, of the little town. He's a nice guy. He's, you know, he's trying to make, to start his, his own business. And he's just, just a lovely guy who, who like really cares about people and is very joyous. He's full of life, he's very optimistic and just generally likes to, to hang with people and to be of, you know, of comfort, of help. He also drives this little Topolino, so you can only, you can only take one passenger at a time. 

So that creates really, you know, there's room for intimacy there, definitely. I love that dynamic because when he meets Anna, it's like, it's at the beginning. She just arrived in Italy and obviously she needs a ride. And then the more we get into the story, the more she gets, you know, things get a little frantic and he becomes her best friend. 

And I kind of like also that Lorenzo is a driver, he's a taxi driver, like, it's, there's an allegory there that, you know, he takes people to their destination and somehow he really takes Anna to, accompanies her in this journey towards her emotional independence and romantic freedom. So it's, their relationship is, is very sweet. On a personal level, I'm not only Italian but I really am from Tuscany, like, a few miles away from here. So personally it was such a fantastic experience to come and being able not just to, to bring this Italianness, this Tuscan energy into the, the script and into the film but also to work with peers who are from here. 

It was kind of a, a beautiful marriage for me. It was kind of, actually this is the first time that I come back to work in Italy in a very, very long time. So probably almost 20 years. So personally it's, it's a huge satisfaction. So there's something here definitely, it's, has a huge power on, on the audience. You know, look at the landscape and the light and there's something magical. It's a love story obviously between the characters, but it's also a love story between Anna, the character of Anna, and the Italian culture and the family, the tradition of the family, the affection of the family, the loudness, the joy, it's, there's something larger at play here."