Diamanti (Diamonds) by acclaimed Italian director Ferzan Özpetek, playing in Los Angeles at the Laemmle Royal as of May 22, should not be missed.
You have likely seen some of his other movies.
Le fate ignoranti (Ignorant Fairies, 2001) with Margherita Buy and Stefano Accorsi, which was reinterpreted in 2022 as the 8 episodes TV series The Ignorant Angels.
La finestra di fronte (Facing Windows, 2003) with Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Raoul Bova, Massimo Girotti.
Saturno contro (Saturn in Opposition, 2007) with Pierfrancesco Favino, Stefano Accorsi, Margherita Buy, Serra Yilmaz, Milena Vukotic. You may rent it on Amazon Prime.
Mine vaganti (Loose Cannons, 2010) with Riccardo Scamarcio.
La dea fortuna (The Goddess of Fortune, 2019) with Stefano Accorsi, Jasmine Trinca, Edoardo Leo. Read here my short capsule when it was submitted for Golden Globes consideration in 2020.
Nuovo Olimpo (2023) with Damiano Gavino, Luisa Ranieri, Aurora Giovinazzo. You may watch it on Netflix.
Some critics refer to Ferzan Özpetek as the Italian Pedro Almodovar. I assume he is flattered by the comparison, but I did not ask him.
As a long time admirer of Ferzan’s work, I was delighted when I was offered a one-on-one zoom interview with him from his home in Rome to my office in Los Angeles.
My first question was about the title, which does not refer to the James Bond movie Diamonds are Forever, or to the song “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” that Marilyn Monroe performed in the 1953 film adaptation directed by Howard Hawks of the 1949 stage musical Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Ferzan replied that it was Mina, the famous Italian singer and his close friend, who suggested it, because diamonds are precious stones resistant to everything and quite strong. He realized that his diamonds were his women friends.
It was also Mina who objected when Ferzan wanted Stefano Accorsi to play the director in the scene where he gathers the actors to eat lunch outdoors and presents them the script of his next movie for a table read. Mina said, “If Luisa Ranieri is Luisa Ranieri and Jasmine Trinca is Jasmine Trinca, Ferzan Özpetek cannot be Stefano Accorsi. It has to be you.” Her friend had to agree that it would have been wrong. Accorsi would play the director in the movie, which is set in 1974 in a costume house inspired by the renowned Tirelli Costumi in Rome that creates and manufactures movie and theater costumes to this day.
Accorsi is not like Özpetek, but similar to certain directors he knows who may have won an Oscar but are neurotic, aggressive and prone to anger, because they are scared when faced with a new project.
Like many of Özpetek’s movies, Diamonds is based on autobiographical elements. Ferzan, who was born in Istanbul in 1959 and moved to Rome in 1976, had frequented Tirelli Costumi when he worked as assistant director. He recalls that when Federico Fellini or Catherine Deneuve would arrive, he was like the child in his movie, who wanted to hide, because he felt uncomfortable in the presence of such mythical creatures.
Luchino Visconti had passed away in 1976, so Ferzan never met him, but his presence is very much still felt at Tirelli Costumi. In fact they lent him for Diamonds, with a pricey insurance policy, some of the iconic dresses worn by Claudia Cardinale in Il Gattopardo (The Leopard, 1963), Silvana Mangano in Morte a Venezia (Death in Venice, 1971), Romy Schneider in Ludwig (1973). Ferzan met and became friends with Piero Tosi, costume designer for those movies and many others.
So I asked Ferzan how he decided on the bright red color of the dress that is being created for the star of the movie set in the late 1700s. He suggested to Stefano Cammitti, costumer designer for Diamonds, that he look at Balenciaga’s red dresses for inspiration. And besides, red has always been his favorite color. Cammitti also designed the amazing costumes for the TV series La legge di Lidia Poët (The Law According to Lidia Poët, 2022-2026)
Diamonds is a movie about women: the two sisters who jointly run Sartoria Canova, Alberta (Luisa Ranieri) and Gabriella (Jasmine Trinca), the costume designer Bianca Vega (Vanessa Scalera), the cook Silvana (Mara Vernier), the hidden talent Beatrice (Andrea Giovinazzo), aunt Olga (Maria Venier). But there are many men as well: the husbands or former lovers, and, amusingly, the handsome young men who deliver food to the extremely busy women at their workplace. Ferzan said that he enjoyed the role reversal and told his actresses to treat these guys as if they were pretty girls arriving at a Fire station full of firemen. These encounters turned into parties where everybody sings and dances.
Two of the songs are Mina’s hits: “Mi sei scoppiato dentro il cuore” (1966), see here a young Mina sing it, and “L’amore vero” (2024) written for Diamonds. Watch music video here. Another song is Diamanti by Giorgia, watch here music video with stills from the set.
While researching this article I learnt that Özpetek directed three opera productions: Aida (2011) and La Traviata (2012) by Giuseppe Verdi, Madama Butterfly (2019) by Giacomo Puccini. He wrote four novels: Rosso Istanbul (Red Istanbul 2013), Sei la mia vita (You Are My Life, 2015) dedicated to Simone, his life partner of 24 years, Come un respiro (Like a Breath, 2020), Cuore nascosto (Hidden Heart, 2024). He conceived two video installations: Venetika for the 2022 Venice Biennale, Tutti gli DEI for the 2026 exhibit ‘Meraviglie del Grand Tour’ at the Museo Poldi Pezzoli in Milano.
Diamonds is dedicated to Mariangela Melato, Virna Lisi and Monica Vitti.
Özpetek’s favorite director is Vittorio De Sica, because of the way he worked with actresses, such as Anna Magnani, Silvana Mangano, Sophia Loren.
For a glimpse at the glittering world of Diamanti, watch trailer here.
