You may wonder why I filmed the adventure of ''Cacciatori Di Navi'' (Ship Hunters) aka Only One Survived. It was because for many years I wished to bring to an end my motion pictures-fresco devoted to the sea. In 1952 I made ''Sesto Continente'' (Sixth Continent), my first scientific documentary portraying the life under the sea waves. In 1956 -with the help of Ennio Flaiano- I completed ''L'Ultimo Paradiso'' (The Last Paradise), my second documentary on how, in an epic way, oceans had inspired our classical literature. Finally in 1960 I directed ''Ti-koyo E Il Suo Pescecane'' (Ti-koyo And His Shark) based on a script of Italo Calvino, which depicted the sea in a legendary way, same as in ''Oceano'' (Ocean) in 1970, based on a popular traditional tale of the people living in the Pacific Islands. ''Fratello Mare'' (Brother Sea) was devoted in 1975 to the disappearnce of the traditional culture of Polinesian people (the documentary was shot among the fishermen of the Polynesian Tuamutuč atolls) But there was another aspect of the ocean world that was left behind, and to that I dedicated the film ''Cacciatori di Navi''. it was the magic side, the magic power of the sea, its power to kindle fear and terror from time immemorial and everywhere. Vessels-ghosts and dark gods of the depths are the subject of the film that tells the story of four lighthearted friends, who, without realizing it, challenge the secret of the indomitable power of the ''cursed sea'', that, eventually, they get overcome, after an involving adventure in a crescendo, and that was made possible by an extraordinarily spectacular sea like that of the Amazonian Brasil, where the film was actually shot...... FOLCO QUILICI |
