THE DIRECTOR

Pascal Morelli was born in Paris in 1961. He studied applied arts, then started to work in the world of comics and advertising making storyboards and drawings. From 1985 to 1988, he lived between Los Angeles and Tokyo working on the storyboard and making of animated cartoons for the TV like “Ghostbusters”, “Alf”, “Hello Kitty”...

From 1989 to 1991, he lived between Paris and San Francisco working on the storyboard of the feature film “Henry and June” by Philip Kaufman (Universal) and on the storyboard and making of "Jimgrim and the 9 unknown" by Philip Kaufman, too.

Between 1992 and 1993, he produced in Los Angeles the animated cartoon “The Specialists" for MTV, took part as artistic director to several multimedia projects on CD-ROM and worked on the storyboard of the feature film “Rising sun” by Philip Kaufman (Fox).

In 1994, he directed the animated cartoons "Busy world Richard Scarry" (Paramount), "Arsenio Lupin" (France Animation), and "Calamity Jane" (Warner Bros-Kayenta). He also worked on the storyboard and making of "The Alienist" by Philip Kaufman (Paramount). Hugo Pratt’s fan since when he was young, he started to work on the adaptation of “Corto Maltese” in 1997. The following year, he settled in Paris in the so-called “Studio Corto” together with all the staff involved in the project. In the end, after five years and about 500,000 drawings, the first feature film “Corto Maltese” is projected on the big screen.


CORTO MALTESE IN PASCAL MORELLI’S VIEW

Like many young boys of my generation, I discovered Corto Maltese when I was about 12 in the weekly magazine “Pif Gadget”. At first I didn’t like it, but I had never tried to read it. One day, as the Reader’s page was, as usual, full of critical letters about Pratt’s comics, I decided to read it. I wondered: “How may a comic book that everybody rejects be?” The first story I read was “Concerto in O Minor for Harp and Nitroglycerin”. If the title was obscure, the story, too, remained obscure from the beginning to the end. What did “Sinn Fein” mean? Why did the “good character” die at the end? Why did Banshee refuse the fascinating Corto as it is clear that she is in love with him? And what was this sailor without a ship doing in Ireland? Why had some of the cartoons no setting? Why didn’t characters tell each other what they were really thinking? Pratt gave me some hints about the messy world of adults, which was sometimes illogical and contradictory but always fascinating.

CORTO: A FILM?

Corto Maltese was still one of my points of reference but I had never thought about it in terms of direction …
I was first asked to direct a TV series, then the Italian TV network RAI asked me to direct a long TV series. At the beginning, we had decided to adapt “Ballad of the Salt Sea” but in that comic book Corto is not the character that we all know today yet.
Therefore, we soon opted for “Corto Maltese in Siberia” where Corto and Rasputin are definite characters and live in a very intense historical period rich of remarkable events. I started to work on the film in 1997 making the first drawings and then, very quickly, a pilot version. At the end of 1998, I settled with five, six drawers in the Studio Corto in Paris and we started to work, at the same time, on the TV series and on the film.

THE ADAPTATION

Thierry Thomas, who wrote the film script and dialogue, specifies: “Like all the other Corto Maltese stories, this story, too, is based on changing bets. Hardly ever do adventures take place where you would expect, so that the resulting pleasure is even greater. Unlike many classic heroes, Corto always distances himself from the plot, thus asserting its futility. Corto does not believe (or, at least, not wholly) to the business he is offered. He believes, instead, in a certain idea of freedom that is above any law and value, which are always relative. “We knew that it was necessary to preserve the peculiarity of this story in which some adventurers leave to steal a treasure without any plan whatsoever! Everyone follows his own instinct and desires without ever explaining his choices. However, it is in this very peculiar way to tell adventures that Pratt’s talent lies.

The objective to be achieved is never more important than the relationships between the different characters and this great freedom represents the real adventure. We had to reproduce the characters’ unusual path and not rationalize their trip. The characters’ progress full of digressions in which mysteries are never solved is part of the charm of Corto Maltese stories. At the beginning of the film, one of the Red Lanterns says to Corto: “She is here in Hong Kong”. “She” has no name. “She” is elusive, but who is “She”? “She” may be a woman that Corto met in the past or, maybe, “She” is also the adventure.

THE DRAWINGS

Pratt was a master in the art of sketching. His drawings hint and indicate more than he says. His way of combining thin strokes with big spots of uniform colour gives his images a great fragility and strength. Our main difficulty was to “complete” his drawings without affecting their charm and to preserve the elegance of his compositions and the veil of mystery that surrounds every page.

THE ANIMATION

Animation means setting in motion, often making characters move in an extreme and even grotesque way. Pratt’s characters do not move very much (nor do they speak very much). Corto himself is not particularly expansive.

Therefore, we had to animate characters that hardly move. This is a very important aspect, because this immobility defines the relationships between the different characters and the role they play in their age. We are in a violent and chaotic world in which anyone is a potential danger for the others. This is why every word and every gesture must be carefully evaluated and considered. All characters eye and watch each other without giving nothing away about their real intentions. Here there is no place for any superfluous word or gesture. It is as if all characters were saving their strength for a potential battle.

Moreover, all Pratt’s stories feature tired and resigned characters who, powerless, witness the evolution of a world they can no longer understand. They are like statues of an age that is about to end. The only character making fun about that is Rasputin, who strongly expresses his life and desires in any moment.

THE COLOURS

Even though the original Corto stories are black and white, in our mind we all add some colours to them. The choice of the colours is thus based on the emotions we feel while reading a story. In the staff, it was Claude Razimowsky who was responsible for the colours. She went to visit Pratt’s house in Lousanne, where she found some historical documents and many watercolours. With all these elements we created the atmosphere and setting, using them in a narrative rather than scenographic way.

We established a “path” for the colours in which, as the film moves forward, the initial warm, autumn and night tones gradually develop to a nearly total white. Then there is an end with a very strong contrast between black and bright colours (Chang’s death vs. Corto and Shangai Lil in the rice fields) and, in the very end, a return to the initial warm tones.

THE SETTINGS

As to the settings, there was practically no starting base as Pratt did not draw them and they are not essential for a comic strip. On the other hand, we had to do historical and graphic research but the result does not look like what he did.

As we did for the colours, we tried to draw what had impressed us rather than what was on the page, such as a black spot, a small window, a door… this is enough to let you imagine the rest. The idea was thus to draw everything that Pratt had let us imagine, not what he had actually drawn.

THE RHYTHM

Since the story belongs to its characters, we needed an adjustable rhythm, a set of different narrative rhythms reflecting the wanderings of the characters and the chaos of the whole situation.

In this respect, Rasputin is a real “rhythm accelerator” as, when he is on stage, the story gets faster and more unpredictable. Other characters, such as the duchess Semenova or Nino, are, on the other hand, people refusing to keep pace with History. They retreat to the past and try to impose their nostalgia and memories.

Even though it seemed that Pratt told his stories with great nonchalance, as a matter of fact, they were the result of a careful work and of a series of very rational choices, which is, indeed, what made all his stories so original and successful.

THE VOICES OF THE CHARACTERS

We needed peculiar but not grotesque voices as, like in the case of animation, none of the characters really show themselves. They never try to convince anyone or to impose their point of view. Each of them says what he or she has to say in a very minimalistic way, without any effect or explanation whatsoever. It is the interlocutor‘s responsibility to understand what he or she is being told… Even in this case, Rasputin is the only one that does not follow this rule.

Richard Berry gives the voice to Corto. I needed someone charming, fascinating, with a certain nonchalance and always a little bit funny and ironic. In France, there was nobody like that … apart from Dutronc, maybe. Patrick Bouchitey was perfect for the role of Rasputin because this is a very elusive character. You never know what he is going to say or think, he always amazes you. Bouchitey is a master of improvisation. He can be frightening, funny, caustic, he knows all the registers. Marie Trintignant gives the voice to the Duchess, a character with a fading charm and old-fashioned elegance.

THE SOUND

It is an important narrative element. As we did for drawings and colours, we gave priority to emotions rather than to realism. Jean-Noël Yven and Nicolas Becker have literally drawn the sound. Just to make an example, each of the four trains has its own peculiar sound. The train of the Duchess has a regular rhythm and an almost homey sound, while the armour-plated train of Semenov is violent and heavy and the train of Chang has a very unpleasant whistle similar to that of a snake.

THE MUSIC

Franco Piersanti and I wanted to write a soundtrack that did not describe the different places and actions but rather expressed Corto’s point of view with respect to his current situation. For example, the piece written by Franco for the attack to the trains expresses the horror of the massacre witnessed by Corto. Our two composers of reference were Stravinsky and Bartok. The pieces were recorded in Prague and then mixed in Paris.

SOME FIGURES ABOUT THE FILM

5 years to make it - 400 people involved - about 500,000 drawings - about 1,000 frames – 60,000 cigarettes smoked