- Vittorio Mezzogiorno, La lune dans le caniveau (US: The Moon in the Gutter), France-Italy, 1982. Searching for Nastassja Kinski’s brother, French casting icon Dominique Besnehard went through Helmut Berger, singer Massimo Ranieri – and his producer’s husband, Zanetti. He was hired, instead, to give French lessons to Diahnne Abbott as Depardieu’s lover. Their lessons switched to sex, so she was dropped fast and they decamped to the US where she was not Mrs Robert De Niro for much longer. Besnehard knew Mezzogiorno from one of his copine Marlene Jobert’s Italian films, Il giocattolo, 1978. And so, the Italian actor suddenly had two films competing in Cannes – baffling for festival audience, as he spoke passable French opposite Depardieu in the morning screening, and next with his morning co-star Depardieu’s (dubbed) voi e dubbed during L’homme blesse in the afternoon!!!
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 1