THE LAST MEETING OF ROBERT REA – PRODUCER To me, films are the result of meetings and desires. They follow a variable and winding path, a little stream that gets bigger with the contribution of anyone that joins it. Of course, my first meeting was the one with CORTO, which enchanted me as a book or a film may enchant you. It was a story mixing tension and digressions with a great evocative power, in which a few strokes were enough to hint at an ocean, a desert, a jungle, a city or mysterious and fascinating characters. But at that time I was not a producer. My second meeting - this time as producer - was the one with HUGO PRATT. Everybody knows his legendary great charm, which struck me too, without exception. The only thing that PRATT required was to make something “great”. He was perfectly aware both of the graphic adaptation required for animation and of the different use of the colours, which he wanted to be very rich. However, his main concern was narration. This authentic graphic novelist knew that his characters did not exist but in a narrative plot whose essence had to be preserved. My third meeting was the one with the director PASCAL MORELLI. For the first time, I had the feeling that I was speaking with someone who had an idea about how to adapt CORTO. As you can imagine, it was quite difficult to find some financial partners. Cartoon films are mainly addressed to children and therefore the project was even more atypical. However, CORTO, too, has its own public including both those who already know him and those who do not know him, but they are mainly manga and film lovers, not children. We talked about the choice of the story to be adapted. There was, of course, “Ballad of the Salt Sea” on which the whole series of CORTO MALTESE is based, but it posed some problems of graphic adaptation as seas and palms are hardly credible when reproduced on the big screen. Therefore, we soon opted for “Corto Maltese in Siberia” for its coherent structure very rich in new developments and false appearances. The story starts in a hidden court in Venice swept by the autumn wind and finishes with some butterflies flying away somewhere in Southern China. In the middle, there is a tumultuous and frenetic chase through a continent during which you meet lost soldiers, Chinese patriots, warlords and an adventurer called CORTO MALTESE who is mainly looking for his soul rather than the imperial gold (…) (…)PRATT’s art is particularly cinematographic as it shows a dynamic narration with sudden changes of rhythm. His characters are very complex and driven by a strong passion, but are also disillusioned or cynical. Every cartoon reflects the subtle irony of its author. The history of the film seems to have affected the production too, which was dotted with failed studies and broken promises as well as with unusual and profitable meetings. VENICE, HONG KONG, SHANGHAI, MONGOLIA, everything was fascinating and stimulating to be drawn, to be come alive. Cartoon films offer this tour de force that represents our desire to believe that real settings and characters are true, which is something stronger than our reason. It is a supreme art of illusion that directly addresses our imagination. And, as it develops, the film is increasingly no longer ours but that of the viewer, to whom we wish to dream as we did. This is the last meeting.