Golden Door (2006) Nuovomondo (original title)

Director:

Emanuele Crialese

Writer:

Emanuele Crialese

Release Date:

22 September 2006 (Italy)

Genre:

Drama | History | Romance

Tagline:

A remarkable vision. A dream of a better life. A romance that would change their lives forever.

Plot:

The story is set at the beginning of the 20th century in Sicily. Salvatore, a very poor farmer, and a widower...

Plot Keywords:

Farmer | Sicily | Quarantine | Widower | 20th Century

Awards:

14 wins & 19 nominations

Cast

Charlotte Gainsbourg	...	Lucy Reed
Vincenzo Amato	...	Salvatore Mancuso
Aurora Quattrocchi	...	Fortunata Mancuso
Francesco Casisa	...	Angelo Mancuso
Filippo Pucillo	...	Pietro Mancuso
Federica De Cola	...	Rita D'Agostini
Isabella Ragonese	...	Rosa Napolitano
Filippo Luna	...	Don Ercole
Andrea Prodan	...	Mister Del Fiore
Ernesto Mahieux	...	Dottor. Zampino
Marcelo Benassi	...	Il Gatto (as Paride Benassai)
Giuseppe Sangiorgi	...	Uomo Olive
Alessandra Fazzino	...	Santa
Giuseppe Culino	...	Dottore (as Giuseppe Cutino)
Massimo Laguardia	...	Mangiapane (as Massimo La Guardia)
Antonio Castrigano	...	Musicista 1
Aldo Abel Perez	...	Padre Olive
Paul Perry	...	Ufficiale d'Immigrazione
Enrique Piñeyro	...	Ufficiale Test Adulti 1
James Murray	...	Ufficiale Test Adulti 2
Pascual Condilo	...	Promesso di Rita
Nicola Specchio	...	Musicista 2
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Linda Abadi
Fioreal Acosta Movia
Lihue Acosta Movia
Carolina Alfonsín
Alfredo Allende
Robert Allyn	...	American official (voice)
Adriana Angrisano	...	Italian emigrant (voice)
Antonio Angrisano	...	Italian emigrant (voice)
Cetti Arancio	...	Italian emigrant (voice)
Mariano Argento
Emilio Bardi
Tom Bocanelli	...	American official (voice)
Antonino Bruschetta	...	Italian emigrant (voice) (as Nini Bruschetta)
Agustín Bruzzone	...	Italian emigrant
Oriana Celentano	...	Italian emigrant (voice)
Marcelo Chaparro
Doriana Chierici	...	Italian emigant (voice)
Nino D'Agata	...	Italian emigrant (voice)
Claudio Da Passano
Aldo De Martino	...	Italian emigrant (voice)
Paolo De Vita	...	Italian emigrant (voice)
Vincenzo Diglio	...	Italian emigrant (voice)
Carlos Durañona
Ezequiel Díaz
Uisal Elvan	...	Foreign emigrant (voice)
Gianni Fiore
Lucilia Gandolo
Tin Geber	...	Foreign emigrant (voice)
Chiara Gioncardi	...	Italian emigrant (voice)
Salvatore Gioncardi	...	Italian emigrant (voice)
Ilaria Giorgino	...	Italian emigrant (voice)
Lutfullah Gotkas	...	Foreign emigrant (voice)
John Rockwell Harris	...	Immigration official
Wolfram Hecht
Andrea Heinz
Monique Hindriks	...	Foreign emigrant (voice)
Jean-Luc Julien	...	Immigration Officer (voice)
Carla Juncadella
Martín Lavini
Paola Lelio	...	Italian emigrant (voice)
Gaetano Lizzio	...	Italian emigrant (voice)
Steve Luotto	...	American official (voice)
Alejandro Magnone
Giancarlo Mangione
Fernando Margenet	...	Immigration Doctor
Bruce McGuire	...	American official (voice)
Theodore McNabney
Esteban Meloni
Gianfranco Miranda	...	Italian emigrant (voice)
Gabriel Molinelli
Maiorino Monica	...	Italian emigrant (voice)
Alexia Murray	...	American official (voice)
Miriam Odorico
Enrique Papatino	...	Translator
Enrique Paratino
Juan Pascarelli
Gustavo Pastorini	...	Italian emigrant
Massimiliano Plinio	...	Italian emigrant (voice)
Mimi Rivera
Natale Russo	...	Examiner (voice)
Sandra Sandrini
Vincent Schiavelli	...	Marriage Broker - on board ship
Giancarlo Scrocco
Martin Seldes
Joshua Stafford	...	American official (voice)
Antonio Tallura	...	Italian emigrant (voice)
Mohamed Zouaoui	...	Foreign emigrant (voice)

Directed by
Emanuele Crialese

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Emanuele Crialese

Produced by
Michael André	....	associate producer
Bernard Bouix	....	executive producer
Tommaso Calevi	....	executive producer
Diana Frey	....	line producer
Alexandre Mallet-Guy	....	producer
Fabrizio Mosca	....	producer
Laura Adriana Nicotra	....	production delegate
Luc Besson	....	associate producer (uncredited)
Pierre-Ange Le Pogam	....	associate producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Antonio Castrigano

Cinematography by
Agnès Godard

Film Editing by
Maryline Monthieux

Casting by
Norma Angeleri

Production Design by
Carlos Conti

Art Direction by
Laurent Ott
Filippo Pecoraino
Monica Sallustio

Costume Design by
Mariano Tufano

Makeup Department
Marta Blanco	....	makeup artist
Stefano Ceccarelli	....	key hair stylist
Alberto Moccia	....	hair stylist
Víctor Muñoz	....	hair stylist
Barbara Pellegrini	....	makeup artist
Aniello Piscopo	....	hair stylist: Sicily
Alejandro Staricco	....	hair stylist
Michele Vigliotta	....	hair stylist
Anabel Álvarez	....	hair stylist

Production Management
Alessio Angelucci	....	unit production manager: Italy
Marcantonio Borghese	....	production manager
Sean Cooney	....	post-production executive
Silvana Di Francesco	....	unit manager
Monica Giuliani	....	administrative manager
Abraham Goldblat	....	post-production manager
Laura Greco	....	unit manager
Jackie Ingberg	....	production manager
Nicoletta Maggi	....	assistant production in charge
Alejandra Marchioli	....	assistant production manager
Patrick Millet	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Barbara Bevacqua	....	assistant director
Nicolas Cambois	....	first assistant director
Christian Peritore	....	second assistant director
Marcello Pozzo	....	trainee assistant director
David Maria Putorti	....	first assistant director
Emiliano Torres	....	assistant director

Art Department
Marcello Di Carlo	....	set dresser
Pilar Peredo	....	assistant art director
Ana Piaggio	....	graphic designer
Fred Remuzat	....	storyboard artist

Sound Department
Paolo Battisti	....	dubbing sound
Nicolas Becker	....	foley artist
Angelo Bonanni	....	boom operator
Guadalupe Cassius	....	assistant dialogue editor
Boris Chapelle	....	assistant sound editor
Marc Doisne	....	foley engineer
Marc Doisne	....	sound re-recording mixer
Michel Filippi	....	adr supervisor
Jean-Paul Hurier	....	sound re-recording mixer
Florent Lavallée	....	foley recordist
Pierre-Yves Lavoué	....	sound mixer
Johann Nallet	....	sound recordist
Christophe Penchenat	....	first assistant sound
Caroline Reynaud	....	assistant sound editor
Velislava Stoyanova	....	second boom operator
Marco Streccioni	....	sound engineer
Jean-Alexandre Villemer	....	sound recordist
Francis Wargnier	....	sound editor

Special Effects by
Stefano Corridori	....	special effects technician

Visual Effects by
Laurent Brett	....	digital compositor
Stephanie Broussaud	....	Lustre assistant
Bastien Chauvet	....	digital compositor: L'EST
Nicolas Daniel	....	Lustre assistant
Berengere Dominguez	....	visual effects supervisor
François Dupuy	....	digital intermediate technical director
Sébastien Fauchère	....	digital compositor
Justine Gasquet	....	digital compositor
Mathilde Germi	....	digital compositor
Christian Guillon	....	visual effects producer
Sabine Lineres	....	digital compositor
Basile Maffone	....	digital compositor
Christian Rajaud	....	visual effects
Julien Rousseau	....	digital compositor
Lee F. Sullivan	....	pre-visualization technical director
Olivier Veau	....	digital compositor

Camera and Electrical Department
Aníbal Cattaneo	....	key grip
Luisa Cavanagh	....	second assistant camera
Daniele Dessena	....	grip
Stefano Di Pasquali	....	grip
Tommaso Lusena	....	second assistant camera
Stefano Marino	....	gaffer: Italy
Tommaso Mele	....	key grip

Casting Department
Silvana Lopa	....	casting assistant
Santiago Masip	....	casting assistant
Diego Morel	....	casting assistant

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Nora Lia Alaluf	....	assistant costume designer
Soledad Cancela	....	assistant costume designer
Fernanda Molfese	....	costume assistant
Natalia Vacs	....	costume assistant

Editorial Department
Elisa Aboulker	....	editor trainee
Stephanie Broussaud	....	digital intermediate editor
Rod Dean	....	editorial consultant
Élodie Ichter	....	digital intermediate editor
Aurélie Laumont	....	color timer
Charlotte Mazzinghi	....	intermediate color grader
Fabien Pascal	....	colorist
Giulia Rodino	....	assistant editor

Music Department
Davide Palmiotto	....	music scoring mixer assistant
Marco Streccioni	....	music scoring mixer

Transportation Department
Leonel Armeri	....	transportation assistant
Diego Igartua	....	transportation captain

Other crew
Eugenia D'Alessio	....	location assistant
Ignacio Di Bitonto	....	production assistant
Alice Filippi	....	set production assistant: re-shoots
Fabian Gabelli	....	animal wrangler
Maria Rita Gagliano	....	bookkeeper
Laurence Granec	....	press attache: France
Marcello Lanza	....	production accountant
Jacopo Lo Faro	....	production assistant
Natalia Martin	....	location manager
Karine Menard	....	press attache: France
Silvia Menozzi	....	assistant dubbing director
Pablo Morgavi	....	production coordinator
Luca Padrini	....	production assistant: Catania
Laura Saurini	....	production assistant
Fernanda Selvaggi	....	script supervisor: Sicily
Elisabetta Tomasso	....	production coordinator
Fabrizio Corallo	....	press and publicity (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Rai Cinema
• Respiro
• Memento Films Production
• arte France Cinéma
• Titti Film
• Wild Bunch (in association with)
• Canal+ (participation)
• TPS Star (with the support of)
• Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) (with the support of)
• Eurimages (with the support of)
• Programme MEDIA de la Communauté Européenne (with the support of)
• Centre National de la Cinématographie (CNC) (with the support of)
• Arte Cofinova (in association with)
• Cofimage 16 (with the support of)
• Soficinéma (with the support of)
• Banque Populaire Images 6 (with the support of)
• Sofica Europacorp (with the support of)
• Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali (MiBAC) (with the support of)

Distributors

• 01 Distribuzione (2006) (Italy) (theatrical)
• A-Film Distribution (2007) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Budapest Film (2007) (Hungary) (theatrical)
• CDI Films (2008) (Argentina) (theatrical)
• Camera Film (2007) (Denmark) (theatrical)
• Cine Video y TV (2007) (Mexico) (theatrical)
• Cinema Mondo (2007) (Finland) (theatrical)
• Eco Filmes/Prisvideo (2007) (Portugal) (theatrical)
• Front Row Distributors (2007) (United Arab Emirates) (theatrical)
• Imagem Filmes (2007) (Brazil) (theatrical)
• Independenta Film (2007) (Romania) (theatrical)
• Memento Films International (2006) (France) (theatrical)
• Memento Films (2007) (France) (theatrical)
• Miramax Films (2007) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Monolith Plus (2007) (Poland) (theatrical)
• Optimum Releasing (2007) (UK) (theatrical)
• Oro Film A/S (2007) (Norway) (theatrical)
• Primer Plano Film Group (2008) (Argentina) (theatrical)
• Prokino Filmverleih (2007) (Germany) (theatrical)
• Triangelfilm (2007) (Sweden) (theatrical)
• Wild Bunch (2006) (worldwide) (theatrical)
• 01 Distribution (2007) (Italy) (DVD)
• 01 Distribution (2008) (Italy) (DVD) (special edition)
• A-Film Home Entertainment (2007) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Front Row Filmed Entertainment (2007) (United Arab Emirates) (all media) (Middle East)
• Golem Distribución (2007) (Spain) (all media)
• Pan Vision (2007) (Sweden) (DVD)
• Transeuropa Video Entertainment (TVE) (2008) (Argentina) (DVD)

Special Effects

• L'Etude et la Supervision des Trucages (L'E.S.T.) (visual effects)

Other Companies

• Ci.Ti.Emme Cinetel  Italian dubbing
• Cinecittá Studios  dubbing sound
• L.V.T.  French subtitles
• Neuflize  bank
• OBC  bank

Also Known As:

"Nuovomondo" - Italy (original title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for brief graphic nudity

Runtime:

118 min

Country:

Italy | France

Language:

Italian | English | Sicilian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

Argentina:Atp | USA:PG-13 | Italy:T | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | Netherlands:12 | Ireland:PG | Singapore:NC-16 | Germany:12 | Portugal:M/12 | Finland:K-3 | Taiwan:R-12 | Sweden:7 | New Zealand:PG | UK:PG | France:Unrated | Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Buenos Aires, Federal District, Argentina

Company:

Rai Cinema

Trivia:

'Giuseppe Paternò Raddusa' auditioned to play Pietro Mancuso, the role went to Filippo Pucillo.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Che saccio (2008)

Soundtrack:

Feeling good

A magical, mystery tour

Enhanced by the expressive cinematography of Agnes Godard (Beau Travail), Golden Door is a visually striking tone poem that follows the journey of a peasant family from their primitive home in Sicily to Ellis Island in New York at the turn of the century. It is a surreal, enigmatic, often strange, but ultimately deeply rewarding experience. Interweaving dreamlike and symbolic imagery with gritty realism, the latest film by Emanuele Crialese (Respiro) is like an impressionistic painting - a cinematic artist's rendering of what the immigration process may have been like for our parents and grandparents. Crialese's "magical, mystery tour" came about as a result of his visit to the museum on Ellis Island, the looks on the faces of the immigrants depicted in photographs he saw, and his research into the harsh policies and procedures used during the admission of immigrants.

Guided by letters he read of immigrants sent to relatives who remained at home, Crialese identifies with those impoverished immigrants who were able to see the positive side of things beyond their ordeal. To Salvatore Mancuso (Vincenzo Amato) and his older son Angelo (Francesco Casisa), America is a distant dream that they know nothing about. After climbing a rocky mountain to pray to the saints for a sign, they are rewarded when they are shown post cards by Salvatore's younger son, Pietro (Filippo Pucillo), a deaf mute, that depict the new world as a land where they can bathe in rivers of milk, sit under a money tree, or harvest giant onions and carrots.

After disposing of their animals in exchange for shoes and suits, Salvatore, his two sons, and his elderly mother Fortunata (Aurora Quattrocchi) set out on their adventure with more hope than trepidation but the equation soon shifts the other way. As they board the boat and settle into their crowded third-class steerage compartments, the most-talked about scene in the film takes place. Using an overhead camera that shows masses of people standing, as the ship pulls away, the frame is divided into those aboard the ship and those waving goodbye from the dock and the way they are separated implies they are being torn asunder from everything familiar.

Aboard the ship is a mysterious English woman named Lucy (Charlotte Gainsbourg). Crialese does not reveal her past or the reason she is traveling to America but she seems to stand for the onset of the modern world they are entering. Though they eye each other cautiously, Lucy becomes interested in Salvatore and asks him to marry her in order to allow her to enter the country. The voyage is treacherous with a violent storm buffeting the ship. Shot in almost complete darkness, passengers in steerage are tossed against the side of the boat and, afterward, bodies lie tangled and twisted on the floor as if in a macabre Totentanz. The rite of passage through immigration processing at Ellis Island does not become any easier and Crialese attacks the way illiterate peasants, in the name of preserving "civilized" society, are forced to put puzzles together, perform mathematical tasks, and undergo humiliating medical examinations to prove they are "fit".

A marriage brokering ceremony feels like an auction block and the young women look despondent when they are matched with overweight middle-aged men. This is the only way they can enter the "Golden Door", however, since single women are rejected unless they have partners, ostensibly to prevent the threat of prostitution. Through the fog the immigrant's can barely see the land of milk and honey and there is no Statue of Liberty asking for the tired and the poor, the humbled masses yearning to breathe free. In their imagination, however, the river is still flowing, waiting for them to jump in. Though the ending is ambiguous and one door opens on to a blank wall, another door symbolizes a rebirth of the soul and the passage we must all take from the old world to the new.