I
writer friend of mine, one a bit more experienced than I, told me that
publicists do best when they
have a hook in a novel they can use to pitch it to
the media.
Somewhere today there is a publicist who is very pleased with themselves. They found their hook and got articles in both the Los Angeles Times and the Wall Street Journal about a production of Julius Caesar made by prisoners, most of them doing life sentences, in Rome’s Rebibbia prison. The documentary movie of the project, Caesar Must Die, is showing in limited release in theaters across the country.
This all started when Paolo and Vittoria Taviani, brothers and Italian directors, visited the prison to listen to a live reading of Dante’s The Divine Comedy by the prisoners. The brothers realized that if these men could do what they did with Dante, then they would clearly understand the themes of Shakespeare’s play—tyranny, murder, loyalty, betrayal, treachery.
The result was not only a dramatic production of the play, but a 76-minute documentary by the brothers on the making of the play, complete with arguments between some of the prisoners when the action got a little too close to home.
But back to the publicist. Whoever this person was, they did such a good job that they got this quote at the end of the Los Angeles Times article:
“Though it would be comforting to concentrate on the notion that being able to act has enlarged these men's lives, the Tavianis, now in their 80s, won't allow us that easy consolation. Perhaps the most memorable line in "Caesar Must Die" comes when the prisoner who plays Cassius looks at the camera and simply says, "Since I got to know art, the cell has become a prison."
The Wall Street Journal ran a similar passage with the exact same quote.
That’s a good publicist.
See ya’ later.
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