La felicità non costa niente

Mimmo Calopresti was born in 1955. In 1985 he won the first prize at Festival Cinema Giovani in Turin with the video A proposito di sbavature. For Italian State TV he has made “Paolo ha un lavoro” (1991), “Paco e Francesca” (1992) and Remzjia (for television feature “Storie vere”). He realized, for the audio-visual archives of the Workers’ Movement, the videos “1943 – La scelta” (1994) and “’43 – ’45 Pane e libertà.”. Many of his works have been shown at international film festivals.
In 1995 he directs and writes the film La seconda volta (officially selected for Cannes Film Festival in 1995) and winner of the Solinas Prize for best screenplay. In 1997 he writes and directs La parola amore esiste (Cannes Film Festival, 1997 – “Quinzaine des Réalisateurs”). In 1998 he directs the documentary Tutto era Fiat. In 2001 he directs, co-writes the film Preferisco il rumore del mare, where he also stars. In 2002 he directs and co-writes and also acts in the film La felicità non costa niente. He has won several prizes at the Chicago International Film Festival, and the “Ciak d’oro” for best debut film.Sergio (Mimmo Calopresti) is a successful architect, with a loving wife (Fabrizia Sacchi), a young lover (Valeria Solarino), good friends (Vincent Perez and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi), a leading building firm. His life is wealthy and desirable. One day a car accident forces him to stop and think about his life’s contradictions.

Out of the blue Sergio leaves everything and everyone behind, slowly sinking into a completely different and lonely life. The urge for answers makes him wander in a maze suspended between dreams and reality, from his now almost empty apartment to Rome’s streets at night.
In his wandering he comes across Sara (Francesca Neri). Sergio will mistake the intense but short-lived feelings for Sara for true love, ending up alone again, trapped inside his fruitless quest. His only link with the past and only road companion will then be Gianni (Peppe Servillo), one of his employees. Gianni, a simple man at heart, will be Sergio’s guide to the true end of his long journey: happiness.