A beautiful story on Hemingway, an unexpected revelation. A Hemingway, many tried to disguise. Now finally a story that will bring to light the real drama of both the man and writer

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Who killed Ernest Hemingway? A provocative emotional thriller, in the form of a novel, will answer this question.

This drama opens with Margaux, an American blond, 18 years of age, who visits Paris frequenting those places sacred to her grandfather, Ernest Hemingway. At one such place – the celebrated bookstore Shakespeare and Company, located on the left bank – she meets Joseph. He is an Italian author dedicated to the store’s revitalization. It was Sylvia Beach, founder of Shakespeare and Company, who put this store on the map when she published James Joyce’s “Ulysses” in 1922. Margaux proceeds to confide first in Joseph and then her friend George, a boxer and journalist. She tells them what she believes to be the true details surrounding the death of her grandfather, Ernest Hemingway, including her doubts.

From this moment the drama begins. Essentially, it progresses as a thriller in which the CIA and KGB and other various characters become embroiled. But the tone of the narrative becomes infused with a tint of rose with the introduction of another character, Adriana Ivancich, a young Venetian noblewoman. But there is also a mysterious twist involving santeria, some magic like religion in Latin America. Gradually as the plot unfolds, suspicion arises regarding the role of a mysterious figure seen to be amusing himself/herself behind the scenes. As if playing a game of cards, their actions set off a chain of events between Cuba and Venice, Paris, New York and Africa. It ends with two gun shots, one suicide. A legend dead at 61 and the world still mourns his death today and asks ‘was it really suicide’ and why?

They once called him “papa” but today he is simply known as Ernest Hemingway, the “papa” of literature. Cuba became his first ’adopted’ homeland, followed by Italy, France, Spain and Africa. The latter was an attraction based on his love of human geography rather than intellectual. Then Poland, and one wonders “why”? Hemingway’s attraction to Poland is quite complex.

There is a saying, “Fasting has more power than love” – meaning: “Poland has been denied its rightful place for too long in the international film business. “The World of Hemingway” docufilm, on the life of Ernest Hemingway, by Giuseppe Recchia is adapted from his novel, “Hemingway for Cuba”. Thanks to Hemingway, this film could represent that turning point towards the realization of the dreams and hopes of the land of Copernicus.

The final scenes of Giuseppe Recchia’s docufilm “The World of Hemingway” were shot on 22 and 23 October in Mondovì (province of Cuneo). The film is loosely based upon the book “Hemingway for Cuba” (published by Ethos Edizioni).

The film features an international cast:

• Caterina Murino as Santera, symbol of Afro-Cuban magic and religion;

• Ray Lovelock as the 55-year old Hemingway;

• Katrine Bach as Marlene Dietrich at about age 50;

• Camilla Filippi as Adriana Ivancich, the young Aristocratic Venetian fascinated by the older writer;

• Sergio Muniz as Sinsky, Hemingway’s young sailor friend;

• Emily Hall as Mary Welsh, a woman who is angry with her husband and the whole world;

• Marcus Harris as American Ambassador Sprouille Braden;

• Stefano Gallo as the CIA agent “Angel Face”;

• Jaume Najarro as the 2nd CIA agent;

• Antonio Acito as the architect of Matera.

The scenes were shot on location at Loredana Murizzasco’s splendid “Studio di Piazza” hotel and meeting place – filled with 100% Cuban charm: from the garden adorned by a weeping willow and a pond that is a home to the silent fish. The other location offering a natural backdrop is the “La Bua” Restaurant with its sparkling fruits, rum and grilled lobster.

Two extraordinary professionals behind the camera: Poland’s Witold Kornas and Ezio Gamba.

The outstanding makeup artist Nadia Ferrari brought the characters to life along with Hair Stylist Rosy Moietta.

And – the Best for Last -: the immensely talented photographer Claudio Bonanno, whose first fruits can be admired on these pages.

The final scene will be broadcasted in Katowice, Poland. The chosen location is the Hotel Angelo, part of the Vienna International Hotel Chain, featuring Canadian actress Olivia Zugna as Anne, the daughter of a friend of Ernest’s mother, who will introduce the viewer to some of the most confidential secrets of the writer and his family. Olivia will be in the company of Krystyna Latawska (her travel companion) and two dancers.

Giuseppe Recchia’s Hemingway for Cuba is an extraordinary revelation, because it succeeds in combining the fantasy of imagination to what could be, in effect, a newly discovered, or an unexpectedly discovered, reality.

I’ll start off by making a distinction. American literature has an entire series of authors who died by suicide. There is a singular tradition of the fatal outcomes of American writers and poets who have died by suicide. We all, myself included, have become accustomed to considering Hemingway in this vein. It is almost as though at a certain moment the writer was performing a symbolic rite, like a modern version of Jacopo Ortis, or Werther, in American literature. We grew accustomed to this, and it seemed to us that Hemingway’s end could quite appropriately be situated in this context.

Giuseppe Recchia’s novel has created some serious problems for me. It has called the related events back into question, for a series of motives. Partly for the documentation, which is founded on very specific records and elements. And furthermore, because of a technical question: it is difficult to kill oneself using a rifle. Someone who shoots himself to death generally does it with a pistol. To set oneself there with a rifle and shoot oneself—yes, it has been done—is possible, but it gets rather complicated. And then, Hemingway was not in such brilliant physical condition. Nonetheless, if we go beyond this, we wonder if it all has some sense, some coherency.

In effect, some futile lies had been spread (and by whom?). It was said that Hemingway by then was suffering a crisis, that he was lacking inspiration (as was put to air by Cesare Pavese). But Hemingway’s last works are fundamental. Not only that, but they are very different from the preceding ones. There was an extraordinarily creative development in him. And further, Hemingway as a personage, certainly, was restless, as emerges from Recchia’s story, but I wonder whether he was restless to the point that he would commit such an action, so blasphemous, so contradictory, notwithstanding his inner difficulties.

The questions that arise while reading Hemingway for Cuba are rather urgent. And we must add that, during those years, strange things, mysterious, crisscrossed events were occurring, in which national politics was interweaving with international politics. The Cold War was on. They were very, very dramatic times. McCarthyism was at a gallop, even in the Soviet Union.

And so, vigorous doubts emerge when we think about Hemingway’s final political choices. And let us not forget that America’s enemy par excellence was Cuba. Kennedy himself attempted the famous invasion of the Bay of Pigs, driven by interests of certain economic groups and the American Mafia. The shadow is spreading, and Giuseppe Recchia’s novel is truly opening a chapter in history that will not remain isolated. And it will be like a stone cast into the pond: in my opinion, it will generate many waves.

“Gunshot kills Hemingway”. It was a Monday, July 3, 1961, when the newspapers divulged the news on the death of American novelist who had been ill for a long time, depressed and obsessed by the conspiracies that the CIA and FBI had orchestrated against him for his ties with Cuba and Fidel Castro. The first news stories talked about an accident while cleaning a shotgun. Then, the testimony of “Mr. Papa’s” fourth wife, Mary Welsh, accredited the version of suicide. No one had ever opened it up again for discussion, it was and still is part of history. Instead, about half a century later, exactly 49 years after his death, there are people who believe he was killed: and they believe it was Mary Welsh herself who had killed him. For what reason? Maybe upon “Hem’s” request: euthanasia. Or perhaps, she was in cahoots with the CIA agents to impede Hemingway from continuing to give public support to Fidel’s regime (in April, however, there was the disembarkation of the anticastros, then the annihilation at the Baia dei Porci, The Bay of Pigs). The presumed revelations have been entrusted to a film in production in Italy, “The World of Hemingway” and to a book, “Hemingway for Cuba” which at its time had a curious happening. The book was ready in 2009 but has still not been distributed. It is now being published by Shakespeare and Company and will be presented in September in Cuba. Giuseppe Recchia, author, journalist and editor sustained this thesis. He is also leading spirit of the legendary Parisian bookstore, Shakespeare and Company, founded by Sylvia Beach. As a matter of fact, it seems rather improbable. Firstly, the presumed truth is not recounted in a journalistic probe but rather in a novel; secondly the circumstances regarding Hemingway’s death, his illness and a previous attempt to take his own life, support the theory of suicide. But Recchia seems convinced of what he says. He explains it like this: <Margaux Hemingway, Hemingway’s favourite granddaughter, was the first, not to believe it was suicide. In the 1970’s, when I met Margaux in Paris, she told me the big secret herself. Curiousity made me follow that path and brought me half way around the world, from Havana to New York. More confirmations came from other people, above all from an ex-Soviet diplomat and Mary Welsh herself>. Recchia’s reconstruction was appreciated by an “Americanist”, the Turinese Claudio Gorlier, enough to persuade him to write the preface for the English edition of “Hemingway for Cuba”. Amongst other things, the scholar said that the physical state of the author of “The Old Man and the Sea”, in that summer of ’61, was such that it would not permit him to raise or hold a shotgun. Perhaps. The fact remains that the witnesses made reference to in the book are all deceased, Margaux as well. Moreover, there are neither recordings nor written documentation. Recchia never loses his composure: <I could not have recorded the man’s secrets from Moscow, nor those of Welsh’s! Even more so, I could not have photocopied KGB papers! In conclusion, for these and other reasons, I chose to write a novel based on true facts>. A reality novel, like the title recited in a famous column of Mino Milani in the Domenica del Corriere? Or just fiction? The thriller rests in both cases. – MASSIMO NOVELLI

Giuseppe Recchia, film director and Olivia Zugna, assistant producer at the Toronto law firm of Kotsopoulos and Neiman, legal advisors for the docufilm “The World of Hemingway”, book “Hemingway for Cuba” (Ethos Editions), and ”The World of Hemingway” wine.

TORONTO — Robert De Niro, Jason Statham, Clive Owen, Ralph Fiennes, Nicolas Cage, Nicole Kidman and James Gandolfini on Tuesday joined the star-studded lineup for the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival.

Fest organizers announced British Writer/director David Hare’s Page Eight will close TIFF with a Roy Thomson gala after a debut at this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival.

Hare’s spy thriller stars Bill Nighy, Rachel Weisz, Michael Gambon, Ralph Fiennes and Judy Davis.

As Toronto continued Tuesday to set its Roy Thomson lineup with another eight galas unveiled, French director Christophe Honoré’s The Beloved was given a high-profile gala here after a Cannes bow for the 1960s Paris and contemporary London drama that stars the real-life mother and daughter Catherine Deneuve and Chiara Mastroianni.

And Jennifer Hudson and Terence Howard will walk the red carpet with director Darrell J. Roodt into Roy Thomson Hall for a world premiere of Winnie, the Canada/South African co-produced biopic about Winnie Mandela, the wife of Nelson Mandela.

Toronto also booked Roy Thomson Hall slots for The Awakening, from British director Nick Murphy, a psychological thriller that stars Rebecca Hall, Dominic West and Imelda Staunton, and director Tanya Wexler’s Hysteria, a romantic comedy top-lined by Maggie Gyllenhaal, Hugh Dancy, Jonathan Pryce, Rupert Everett and Felicity Jones.

There’s also star-driven world debuts for Gary McKendry’s Killer Elite, a globe-trotting action film starring Jason Statham, Robert De Niro and Clive Owen set for a September 23 theatrical release; Marc Forster’s Machine Gun Preacher, which stars Gerard Butler in the true-life role of criminal-turned-kidnapped child saver Sam Childers; and Joel Schumacher’s Trespass, which stars Nicolas Cage and Nicole Kidman.

The Press Conference at the Columbus Centre with Rino Iannone, Olivia Zugna and Pal Di Iulio was well received and successfully brought Giuseppe Recchia’s docufilm, The World of Hemingway to everyone’s attention.

Another 18 titles were added to the Special Presentations sidebar Tuesday, including Italian director Ermanno Olmi’s The Cardboard Village, which stars Michael Lonsdale and Rutger Hauer; U.S. filmmaker Whit Stillman’s Damsels in Distress, the Greta Gerwig-starring comedy that will close Venice; and Irish director Ian FitzGibbon’s Death of a Superhero, which stars Andy Serkis and Thomas Brodie-Sangster and is based on Anthony McCarten‘s novel, who also wrote the screenplay.

There’s also world bows for The First Man, by Italian director Gianni Amelio, an adaptation of Albert Camus‘ autobiographical last novel; Agnieszka Holland’s In Darkness, a Holocaust drama starring Robert Wieçkiewicz and Benno Fürmann already picked up by Sony Pictures Classics; and Intruders, by Spanish director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo and starring Clive Owen.

Toronto also booked a North American premiere in the Special Presentations sidebar for Hong Kong director Johnnie To’s Life Without Principle, a drama about three characters in desperate need of money that will screen in competition in Venice.

Also Toronto-bound for a North American debut is Low Life, by French directors Nicolas Klotz and Elisabeth Perceval, which just screened in Locarno, while there’s a world premiere for Indian director Pankaj Kapur’s Mausam (Seasons of Love), a turbulent love story starring Shahid Kapur, Sonam A Kapoor and Anupam Kher.

Other world premieres: Anne Fontaine’s My Worst Nightmare, starring Isabelle Huppert; fellow French director Mathieu Kassovitz’ Rebellion, and U.S. director Geoffrey Fletcher’s Violet & Daisy, a film about two girls and some guns that stars Saoirse Ronan, Alexis Bledel and James Gandolfini.

Toronto also booked North American bows for Hong Kong director Ann Hui’s A Simple Life, which reunites Asian screen star Andy Lau with his godmother Deanie Ip as they perform together in front of the movie camera for the first time in 23 years, and Australian director Julia Leigh’s Sleeping Beauty, which stars Emily Browning and Rachael Blake.

Fest programmers also gave an international premiere to Terraferma, from Italian director Emanuele Crialese; and North American bows to Philippe Garrel’s That Summer, which stars Monica Belluci and the French director’s son, Louis Garrel; the epic film Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale, from Taiwanese director Wei Te-Sheng; and Andrea Arnold’s Wuthering Heights, which stars James Howson and Kaya Scodelario.

Toronto’s Contemporary World Cinema section added another 51 titles, including world bows for the latest films by Nancy Savoca, Xiaolu Guo and Nacho Vigalondo.

And there’s North American bows for new films by directors Andrey Zvyagintsev, Gerardo Naranjo, Sono Sion, Asghar Farhadi, Karim Ainouz, Ole Christian Madsen and Cristián Jiménez.

U.S. director Joshua Marston will bring The Forgiveness of Blood, an Albanian family feud drama to Toronto after a Berlin bow; and French director Vincent Garenq will bring the justice drama Presume Coupable (Guilty) after a Venice debut.

And there’s world premieres for Italian director Stefano Chiantini’s Islands; Juan of the Dead, by director Alejandro Brugués, about a zombie outbreak in Cuba; Always Brando, by Tunisian director Ridha Béhi, and Blood of my Blood, by Portuguese director João Canijo.

The Future Projections sidebar of moving image installation includes a collaboration by James Franco and Gus Van Sant, entitled Memories of Idaho (1991; 2010 and 2011), and artworks by Peter Lynch, Nicholas and Sheila Pye, Mr. Brainwash and David Lamelas.

And the Visions program of avant-garde films includes a North American premiere for Julia Loktev’s The Loneliest Planet, and an international premiere for Debbie Tucker Green’s Random.

El cementerio de la ciudad y el anfiteatro son algunos de los escenarios del rodaje de la película ‘The world of Hemingway’, de Giuseppe Recchia, una mezcla de realidad y ficción

La casualidad o la historia ha querido que el rodaje la película The world of Hemingway, de Giuseppe Recchia, se detuviera ayer en Tarragona. El actor Jaume Queralt, (Alforja, 1980 ), que encarna a Dominguín (el torero español amigo de Hemingway), es uno de los amigos del director de la película. Queralt insistió en que Tarragona y el restaurante Joan Gatell de Cambrils fueran algunos de los escenarios de este docu-film, una historia que mezcla el documental y la ficción para recrear la vida de Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961). La parte histórica y literaria que justifica el rodaje de The world of Hemingway en la ciudad es que en el libro Muerte en la tarde, del escritor estadounidense, cita Tarragona.

Acción. El cementerio se transformó en un improvisado plató de cine. Sin grandes cámaras, ni sorprendentes infraestructuras, se apeló a la improvisación. Los actores seguían dentro del cementerio las instrucciones del director. En una de las escenas Jaume Queralt (Dominguín); Victoria Gaitan (Ava Gardner) y la actriz francesa Delphine Chenéac, que interpreta a la nieta del escrito, Margot Hemingway, asisten al entierro del escritor. La película juega así con la ficción y simula el entierro de este premio Nobel en la ciudad. «Queremos darle a Hemingway el entierro y la despedida que se merece», explicó el director. «Y por ello esta escena es importante», añadió Recchia, que combinaba el italiano con el castellano.

Jaume Queralt Jr, hijo del reconocido pintor Jaume Queralt, se mostró más que satisfecho con este papel. «He investigado mi personaje, el torero Luis Miguel Dominguín que fue íntimo amigo de Hemingway», explicó Queralt Jr. «En la época era muy seductor y conquistaba todas las mujeres, incluso a Ava Gardner», dijo Queralt . «Para interpretar mi personaje he trabajado sobre todo el juego de miradas», añadió el actor, que se mostró encantado con la libertad interpretativa que les brinda el director.

El alcalde, de extra

El alcalde de Tarragona, Josep Félix Ballesteros, también aparece en este proyecto, y bajo la atenta mirada de la cámara dijo lo que las exigencias del guión le pidieron: «Trabajaremos para que Hemingway tenga una tumba en Tarragona». Para la ocasión el reconocido pintor Jaume Queralt (padre del actor) pintó un retrato abstracto de Hemingway que se utilizó como lápida. El rodaje continuó en Cambrils, regresó por la tarde al anfiteatro de Tarragona y finalizó en la casa de Jaume Queralt, en Alforja. El rodaje continuará hoy y después de grabar varias escenas delante de la Catedral, en el Pla de la Seu, el equipo viajará hasta Bilbao para continuar trabajando.

La película que mezcla la realidad y la ficción con la imaginación del director, plantea algunos misterios que rodean la figura de Hemingway, como si se suicidó o fue asesinado. José María Gatti, investigador argentino y uno de los especialistas sobre la vida y la obra de Hemingway, explicó ayer que en 1971 conoció en Buenos Aires a Margot Hemingway, la nieta del escritor. «El entornó de Hemingway apuntó ya en su día que la muerte del escritor podría ser un suicidio inducido por aspectos políticos o sociales», dijo Gatti. A partir de aquí, parte del argumento de la película está servido. Conspiraciones, traiciones y amores son algunos de los elementos que aparecen en esta película. El vino y el pescado, algunas de las pasiones de Hemingway también adquieren protagonismo.

De un libro a Cannes

La idea es terminar de rodar la película y editarla lo antes posible para llegar al Festival de Cannes, en mayo.