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50 years after the disappearance of a young Sicilian boy purported to be French writer Andre Gide's last love, Danielle Russo, a young journalist on the editorial staff of the Paris literary magazine Nouvelle Revue Littéraire, is sent to Sicily in 2000, to the elegant resort town of Taormina and finds herself embroiled in a complex labyrinth of shocking "truths" involving the literary set vacationing at the Hotel Themo in Taormina. The local reporter is investigating events related to a mysterious crime that also made the headlines in 1950. An elite set of intellectuals, regulars in Taormina, are involved: André Gide – historic guest at the Hotel Thmeo - and Truman Capote, Jack Dunphy, Peggy Guggenheim, Jean Cocteau, Jean Marais.

The famous in Taormina in 1950.

André Gide, 1945

Andre Gide (Paris 1869-1951). In 1950 André Gide is aged 81. He would die the next year in Paris. Gide was winner of the Nobel prize for Literature in 1947. A true free spirit, both in his ideas as well as his lifestyle, he was one of the most influential cultural figures in France of the time. He dared to openly declare his homosexuality in the novel The Immoralist (1902). His other works include: Fruits of the Earth (1897), Strait is the Gate (1909), The Caves of the Vatican (1914), Travels in the Congo and Return from Chad (1928), Return from the URSS (1936). In 1950 Gide was beginning his final diary journal.

Truman Capote, 1959

Truman Capote (New Orleans 1924 - Los Angeles 1984). In 1950 Truman Capote, 26, is already a prolific writer. His first success, in 1946, was Miriam, winner of the prestigious O. Henry Award. In 1948, he published the strongly autobiographical Altre voci, altre stanze, and then a collection of short stories A Tree of Night in 1949, and in 1950, Local Color, about his lengthy stay in Europe (two years, mainly in Sicily).

Jean Cocteau in his 20s

Jean Cocteau (Maisons-Laffitte 1889 – Milly-La-Forêt 1963). In 1950 Cocteau is 61. He is one of the most representative authors of French poetry and fiction, as well as being a playwright and important filmmaker: La Machine Infernale, Les Parents Terribles, Le Sang d'un poète, L'Eternel Retour, La Belle et la Bète, L'Aigle à deux tètes, Orphèe.

Jack Dunphy (Atlantic City 1914 - New York 1992). In 1950, Jack Dunphy is 30. A choreographer, he was noted for his long relationship with Truman Capote.

Peggy Guggenheim (New York 1898 - Venice 1979). In 1950, Peggy Guggenheim is 52. The wealthy New York heiress and patron of the arts, is a prominent figure in the history of twentieth-century art. In 1948, she bought the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni in Venice and transferred her entire art collection there. She discovered and supported American painter Jackson Pollock. In 1950, Guggenheim has already been a long-time friend of Cocteau's, having organised an exhibition of his work in Paris in 1937.

Jean Marais, 1947

Jean Marais (Cherbourg 1913 - Cannes 1998). In 1950 Jean Marais is 37. He became one of France's most famous and beloved actors on the stage, screen and television. Marais was Jean Cocteau's partner for many years, and was the leading actor in most of the director's films.

• directed by Diego Ronsisvalle
• screenplay Diego Ronsisvalle
• director of photography Maurizio Calvesi
• editor Pietro Lassandro
• art director Andrea Salomon
• costumes Sabrina Beretta
• sound Anton Giorgio Sabia
• music Carmelo Mafali, Bruno Ventura
• music Carmelo Mafali, Bruno Ventura
• produced by Augusto Allegra for Lastrada srl

Cast:

• Danielle Russo Olivia Magnani
• Signor Lagrua Gigi Angelillo
• Filippo Baiamonte Guido Caprino
• Platamona Alessandro Haber
• Cultrera Nicola Di Pinto
• Gesuino Mariano Rigillo

Director's note:

"The structure of this film combines fragments of library footage from Taormina in the fifties, and the narrated events of the story set in Taormina 2000. Much like an intriguing investigation, it confronts past and present to get to the truth. When a film is set in the past, there is always the risk of manipulating the historical backdrop, an inevitable overstatement of it. Here, it is very muted. This was one of the basic ideas of the film: to change the point of view, to shift the eye of the camera from objective to subjective, to tell the story through the eyes of an outsider in terms of the true characters. That is, without sacrificing or belittling any part of the main story. This gives way to an investigation, precisely, one that is developed very cautiously, almost in disbelief, with a sort of baffled impatience as expressed on the face of this protagonist from Paris. The young woman, Danielle, has the cultural make-up of the elitist milieu for which she works. To the same degree, the local journalist who helps her, though he is a complete product of his milieu, rejects this with a sensitive critical force that goes beyond the bounds of this beautiful paradise. In a story that is nevertheless extraordinary, there emerge simple everyday situations, as well as complex and monstrous ones, from the vilest to the most generous. The "rhetorical" fame of the magnificent site is placed side by side with the lives, personal details – even the most minute and seemingly negligible – and psychologies of the local figures. To tell their stories most convincingly, bending to the sharpness of the rare footage of that era, that works as a support to realities of today. That is, to the enigmas of quite another magnitude in terms of the past. Perhaps if we had chosen to draw and combine only from the past, the result would have been a montage film, with footage from the cinématèques of the world, from the Rossif. But this was not the initial idea. Perhaps it will be for another time, for another film."

Diego Ronsisvalle.