Harry’s Bar, the movie

Official screening at 72nd Venice International Film Festival organized by La Biennale di Venezia, here is the film “Harry’s Bar”, written by Carlotta Cerquetti with Irene Bignardi and produced by Giovanni Cassinelli. The film is about one of the most famous places in the world, which, during the years, have had very renowned and well-known guests. The most famous and regular was, perhaps, Ernest Hemigway, but the list of movie stars and aristocratics from all over the world is long. Carlotta Cerquetti, Arrigo Cipriani’s niece, found the way to get exclusivity and to tell about unreleased shades, knowing very well the Venetian restaurant and having been working at Cipriani in New York when she moved there to study film making.
It seems that the story of how Harry’s Bar was born is like out of a movie.

It happened in 1931 as a result of a gesture of generosity made by a young barman, Giuseppe Cipriani, towards an American guest ran out of money , Harry Pickering. Giuseppe helped the young Harry, abandoned by his eloping aunt, and the grateful American went back to Venice and financed a new bar that soon became Giuseppe’s realm and took the name of its backer: Harry’s Bar. The bar immediately attracted many clients because it was the first endowed with that hotel bar atmospheare without actually beeing a hotel, but most of all because of Giuseppe’s talent, he was such a cocktails maker and, an exquisite dishes creator and for sure a charming host. Among all his creation we mention the Bellini, one of the most famous Venetian aperitifs in the world and many other dishes, such as the Carpaccio, so imitated but never as the original one.

Since the year of its birth Harry’s Bar underwent many vicissitudes, from its closing during the Fascism to the moment they proclaimed it as a national monument, in 2001. During 80 years of Venetian history this place has seen many writers, painters, directors, movie stars, kings, queens and gourmets passing by. Up to become the legend it is now. Giuseppe’s son, Arrigo, took over during the years and, as he playfully says he is “the first man to be named after a bar” and for 60 years he has taken care of what he calls “La Stanza” (“The Room”).

From the third generation, Arrigo Giuseppe Jr’s son has contributed to spreading the brand in the world, and year by year, the Cipriani restaurants have been opened in New York, London, Miami, Los Angeles, Istanbul, Abu Dhabi, Montecarlo, Ibiza, Porto Cervo. An international reputation which has been through many vicissitudes, even legal, but none of them could affect the glamour of the name Cipriani.

In Venice it is still Arrigo who does the honors, he is still present at the tables with the same affability and kindness both in front of a prince or a passing client, supported by the hospitable and always smiling daughter, Carmela, novelist and writer of cookery books for children, in love with this magic place. Despite the world having passed through it, Harry’s Bar is a small place and its story has always been intertwined with the story of Venice, linked with all the major events that have animated the city since the Thirties: from the Venice Film Festival to the Biennale d’Arte, from the war to Liberation, from the years of the Jet Set to the events of ’68. Intertwining the story of Venice with that of Harry’s Bar, the voices of all the personalities involved in this Venetian affair lead us to the narration, in conjunction with the tales of the bar, as told by Arrigo Cipriani.
The combination of these voices reveals the elements that made this bar unique in the world.

You haven’t been to Venice if you haven’t been to Harry’s Bar” say some of its more loyal clients, because this Venetian place has become, over the years, a point of reference very important to the city.

Credits
Director Carlotta Cerquetti
Story Carlotta Cerquetti – Irene Bignardi
Photography Roberta Allegrini – Martina Cocco
Editor Osvaldo Bargero
Music Claudio Capponi
Sound Mattia Biadente
Producer Giovanni Cassinelli
In collaboration with Camilla Nesbit and Pietro Valsecchi
In association with Istituto Luce Cinecittà
for TAODUE FILM
Enrico Ballarin and Guido Cerasuolo
for Mestiere Cinema
Alan Cappelli Goez
Federica Illuminati
for Produzioni Illuminati
Lidia Cudemo and Alessandro Ferraro
for D-Hub Studios
Luciano and GianmarcoVittori for LVR
Executive Producer Edvige Liotta

Italian Distribution
WIDER FILMS

Lenght 52′
Colour/bw

Watch the trailer

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