Scarpedicemente is a love letter to the American gangster story as interpreted by dozens of classic films from the early sound era to contemporary times. The driving force to this independently made film are the husband and wife acting/writing team John Vamvas and Olga Montes, who first wrote and starred in the stage version of this film over 25 years ago. The film takes place in a singular location, a modest Las Vegas hotel room called ‘Lost Vegas Motel’, where mobster Luigi Scarpedecimente (John Vamvas) and his wife Holly (Olga Montes) are reuniting to celebrate their one year anniversary where they honeymooned.

The film opens dramatically with Luigi giving his rendition of the opening wedding scene monologue in The Godfather directly to the camera surrounded in darkness. The opening line of The Godfather, delivered with a heavy Italian accent, speaks volumes about the ethos of the American Gangster film: “I believe in America….” We may falsely remember this line as being spoken by Marlon Brando but in fact it is delivered by Italian actor Salvatore Corsitto as the character of the Italian immigrant Bonasera. Marlon Brando as Don Vito Corleone is of course offscreen, in the place of the camera, who Bonasera is delivering the line to. In Scarpedicemente John Vamvas as Luigi delivers the opening line, “I believe in America,”  with his own Italian accent (as a Greek-Canadian Vamvas performs a convincing Italian-American accent), but the line is essentially a voice-over as the screen is all black. When the image fades in Luigi is sitting in the same screen position as Bonasera, but begins to speak in a paraphrased variation of Don Corleone’s lines (“Why did you go to the police, why didn’t you come to me first?”). In The Godfather the camera dollies out slowly from Bonasera. Likewise here the camera dollies out slowly from a close-up of Luigi. What this tells us is that in his mind Luigi is playing both characters, Don Corleone and Bonasera, which reflects his character’s ability to replay dozens of movie characters he has consumed and digested to form his identity.

When the scene cuts to a reverse angle we see that Luigi has been talking to a blank television screen, his face clearly reflected in the glass of the television screen. The reflection of Luigi on the television screen is a wonderful hint at the many allusions and references to gangster films that shaped John Vamvas as an actor and by extension the character Luigi Scarpedecimente. For film buffs this is one of the enjoyable offerings this film has: trying to guess all the gangster characters and films that the script invokes, alludes to and quotes. And the film references are varied, including classic gangster films (The Godfather, Prizzi’s Honor, Goodfellas, Taxi Driver,  the original run of 1930s classics like Little Caesar, Public Enemy) but also non-gangster films like Indecent Proposal and the Italian post-neo-realist classic, The Tree of Wooden Clogs, which factors in during an emotional subjective flashback to Luigi as a boy that is filmed in faux home movie style.

As in the latter example, these are not fanboy easter eggs planted for gangster genre fans to notice, but an absorbing aspect of the script and the personas of the two leads. For example, the film becomes doubly enjoyable (literally!) once Holly arrives about eight minutes in, excited to meet up with her tough guy husband. Olga Montes lights up the screen with her exuberance and apparent daffiness. Montes is channeling one of the greatest comic performances of all-time, Judy Holliday’s Billie Dawn in George Cukor’s Born Yesterday (1950). Holliday invented the archetype of the ‘dumb blonde’ with this role and if you know the character arc that Billie Dawn goes through in that film, it is a clue to Holly’s performance and character arc in Scarpedicemente.  The performance by Broderick Crawford as Harry Block, Billie Dawn’s blustering, ‘uncouth’ junk tycoon husband is also present in Vamvas’ Luigi, if in more subtle ways. While Block is not a gangster in the conventional sense, his tete â tete’s with Billie Dawn serve as a template for the volatile repartee between Luigi and Holly.  Not forgetting a closer, more obvious reference point, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor’s husband and wife sparring partners in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf.

The chemistry between John Vamvas and Olga Montes is palpable, nurtured over a thirty-plus year long personal and professional stage and screen relationship. The plot which involves other incidental unseen characters such as Luigi’s top boss Uncle Charlie and twin goons, Ricco and Rocco (seen briefly in a closing credit photograph), will keep you guessing about the true intentions and allegiances of the characters. The script is funny, unnerving and playfully reflexive but also contains more than a few pointed stabs at contemporary politics.

While the single set nature of the script leans naturally into claustrophobia, the film never feels theatrical or restrictive thanks to a varied visual approach taken by the creative team, including director of photographer René Arseneau, to the lighting and the choreography of the camera and the character movements. Even during extended dialogue scenes visual interest is maintained through compositions with unusual framing and lens choices, such as disorienting split diopter shots and images distorted through special lenses or mirrors.  The film is designed in black & white and color, not as an arbitrary aesthetic choice or novelty, but to enrich narrative meaning (playing to notions of fantasy and reality). Editor Jean-Denis Rouette contributed to the film’s dynamism with inventive split screens that condense narrative action and suggest character parallels, elliptical flash frame edits and moments of subjective flashbacks. Even the recurring hum of the motel room air conditioner is integral to the film’s ambience and becomes a sonic character in the film. The tightly structured plot blends the charm of classic cinema with a dash of contemporary cynicism, with twists and turns that will keep audiences on their collective toes.

To learn more about the production history and development of the film Offscreen spoke to co-writers, co-producers, stars Olga Montes and John Vamvas (co-director).

Interview:

Offscreen: Let’s start from the beginning. Can you remember the opening night of the play version of Scarpedicemente?

John Vamvas, Olga Montes: We sure do! We were living in Winnipeg when we wrote Scarpedicemente back in 1996 and that’s where we started our Cross Canada Fringe Tour. We did not have a rehearsal space, so we just ran lines at home until we found a large space for a few hours where we decided on the blocking. Then, a few days before opening night, we found out that we were going to be performing on a thrust stage (audience on three sides). Most of the play took place center stage as we used the fourth wall as a mirror through which the characters mostly interacted. As is the Fringe, we didn’t step onto the stage until the day before the performance (to run a cue-to-cue). We only had 45-minutes/an hour, so we flew through the space, running the lines at a thousand miles an hour, hoping to get a good sense of the stage. The next day: Bang! Lights up! It was a sold-out house, and Johnny was sitting facing one of the biggest critics in Winnipeg (albeit Canada), Robert Enright, from CBC Arts Tonight National. Nervous? A little. He locked eyes with the critic (as he does with the camera in the film) and began delivering his monologue. Then—and that’s the magic of theatre—in the back of your brain, you feel the audience around you and there’s a profound respect where you want to connect with everyone and the play just takes you. Once we were both on stage, the whole world practically disappeared, and we quickly adapted to the space without even realizing it. It was an incredible show! (we got a fantastic review!) Scarpedicemente went on to play in 4 different Canadian cites to sold-out audiences, on 4 completely different stages. One of the best things about Fringe theatre is that you learn to be versatile and adapt to anything and everything. It’s great for teaching spontaneity and focus and keeps the work fresh. That has also been a tremendous help throughout our careers and especially during the film shoot as we shot 114 pages in 10 days. There was little room for retakes, so we had to be at our best at all times while remaining focused and spontaneous.

Offscreen: As a follow-up, what was the most challenging thing about adapting the play to the screen more than 25 years later?

JV, OM: There was no big challenge, really. We were told by many to cut dialogue, so we added more dialogue to bring the play to date. Keeping the narrative intact was very important to us. Most of the blocking was the same as the stage version—except for some quick changes Johnny made to make the scenes flow better for the camera or to adapt to the lighting. Being movie buffs, we knew the look we wanted to achieve cinematically, and we were lucky to find the right people that could work and be in tune with us.

Offscreen: I know this film was conditioned by the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions. Can you talk about how difficult it must have been making your first feature under COVID guidelines?

JV, OM: It wasn’t so much difficult as it was tedious, somewhat stressful and more costly. Everything had to be constantly sanitized, everyone’s temperature taken every morning, CNESST forms had to be filled out every day, masks had to be worn (we only found out what the 1st AD, Naomi Silver-Vezina, looked like months after the shoot!), we were limited to 10 people in the room at all times so the crew had to be very small—the boom kid also had a camera hung around his neck to take Behind the Scenes shots whenever possible. Catering was very costly. We were on edge every day dreading someone would catch COVID and the film would suffer.

Post-production was somewhat of a challenge, though. The editing process had to be done via Zoom shared screens as we weren’t allowed to be in the same room and there were curfews in place. Besides giving Jean-Denis [editor] the hard drives, we didn’t see him in person until we all went to the post-production house 8 months later for the online editing.

Offscreen: Did the narrative structure change at all from play to film?

JV, OM: No. The story takes place in one room in real time, and we kept it that way. People always told us that watching us perform was like looking through a peephole, unable to walk away. We wanted to try to give film audiences the same thing—the feeling that they are right there in the room with us—so we thought it best to keep the same structure.

Offscreen: Can you talk about the decision to mix black & white and color, without getting into spoiler territory?

JV, OM: Originally, we wanted to shoot it with different lenses to establish Luigi’s delusional state. But one day, Johnny had the idea that since Luigi lives out of movies, and many of his favorite gangster films are in black & white, it might work if Luigi saw his “perfect world” in black & white. We expanded on that and think it turned out great.

Offscreen: How was this achieved technically? Was it shot in color and the color removed in post-production?

JV, OM: It was shot in color but lit for black & white for the b&w sequences. Our Cinematographer, René Arseneau, did an incredible job prepping with his team and Gaffer, Claire Giblet. They came up with a whole binder on how to light every scene, with example images from other films, to achieve the look we were hoping for. We were really blown away with their effort and believe that it translated beautifully onto the screen.

Offscreen: How did you come to find some of the key creative personnel, like the DP René Arseneau, editor Jean-Denis Rouette, music composer Sandra Chechik, and sound designers Albert Chambers and Matt R. Sherman?

JV, OM: We had a notice put on FaceBook that we needed a crew. And that it was a paying gig. We received countless incredible demos but when we came across René’s, we knew he was the right fit for this project. We were very impressed with his lighting and framing. René agreed to come on board, and we were beyond lucky that he requested we hire his team. That saved us having to look for half the crew. As for the editor, he was referred by a friend who sent us his demo. Many editor demos later, none stood out as much as J-D’s. He is great at quick-cutting dialogue-heavy material, and we thought that would work well with our rapid-fire acting style. As for the music, you may be surprised to learn that once you set your film as being in post-production on the IMDb, you will receive dozens of demos from composers from all over the world. Most were great, but they all had that “Hollywood” feel. We were looking for something more raw…organic. We knew Sandra Chechik a little—our kids played little league together. We had used one of her pieces a few years back for a trailer for our novel, Wherewolves. We listened to more of her work on Spotify and felt she was the right one. It was incredible working with her. Finally, when it came to the sound design, we got road blocked. We had paid a (reputable) post-production house in advance to do our sound but at the last minute they backed out and we had a tough time getting our money back (lesson learned: never pay in advance!). It was very difficult to find someone because of COVID, so Olga reached out to a high school friend, Albert Chambers, who owned Base Bin Studios at the time. We hoped Albert could recommend someone. After seeing the film, Albert said he wanted to work the sound himself, as he loved it. He did an excellent job cleaning up and separating all the sound and adding some sound design. He gave us a beautiful Stereo version that we then wanted to elevate to 5.1. We know Albert’s studio couldn’t give us that, so we started looking around weeks before Albert was done. As luck would have it, we heard that Matt R. Sherman, whose outstanding reputation precedes him, broke his foot and had to step down from a gig. We jumped on top of that opportunity. Matt added more foley and put the finishing touches while creating the 5.1 version.

Offscreen: There is a pretty rich tradition of single set films. Were there any single set films that were a particular influence on you? And was the influence from a performance standpoint or from a cinematic standpoint (how the single set limitation was dealt with)?

JV, OM: Yes, Tape, directed by Richard Linklater, showed us that as long as the performances are great, you don’t need fancy camerawork. And Bug, directed by William Friedkin, which is mostly set in one room, further proved that as long as performances are strong and the story is engaging, one room can absolutely work.

Offscreen: Can you talk about your love of classic gangster films. So many of these great films are remembered for their powerful performances, going back to James Cagney, E.G. Robinson, Paul Muni, to Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci. What is it about these films that has impacted you as performers?

JV, OM: First of all, when writing Scarpedicemente, we had no idea we would be paying homage to these films. Luigi took on a life of his own—we just listened to him mix his world with the movie world and typed away. Maybe the reason Luigi quoted all these films with powerful performances was the fact that he doesn't want to be a gangster, he wants to be a great actor. It didn’t matter that Johnny didn’t know how to do any of these impersonations at first. They didn't need to be perfect—although we realized that the more perfect the impersonation, the more tragic Luigi would be.

John Vamvas: I guess the more I embodied the performers during the impersonations, the more I felt the magic of cinema—that feeling you can only get from the movies, where all your senses are transposed, and you’re carried off to another place and time.

Offscreen: This is a question for Olga. Unlike the male characters, there are far less major roles for women in the gangster film. I know you channeled Judy Holliday’s ground-breaking performance from Born Yesterday because I love that film and know it very well. Were there any other acting influences you can mention for the role of Holly?

OM: Besides Judy Holliday’s Billie, my biggest acting influence was taken from a documentary on Mafia wives we watched during the research phase of the writing back in 1996.

Offscreen: You never feel the weight of the single set story because of the varied visual approach. Can you talk a little about the visual style of the film, which gives the film a vibrancy that can be missing from dialogue heavy films. Was the style a design of that desire to add a visual flair to the script?

JV, OM: Definitely! We absolutely did not want the movie to feel like a filmed stage play. Once we had decided on the black & white and color, the film style started snowballing. We made it clear that we wanted to have a Film Noir, David Lynch feel, and that we were open to suggestions. We owe a lot too to our Cinematographer, René, as he came up with shots like the split diopter: “Hey, guys, I have this lens I’ve been wanting to use for a long time…” Luigi lives out of movies, so we started letting movie influences seep in cinematically, hence the close-ups and extreme close-ups, the sepia, split screen, etc. We made many of those decisions in post-production, though. Post took us almost a year and a half nonstop to complete. It was here that we were able to correct many mistakes we made as first-time filmmakers.

Offscreen: The sound design is also an important tool for making a single set film feel richer and ‘bigger’.  Which is the case here with the music and sound effects. How much time was spent on the sound in post-production?

JV, OM: Sandra, the composer, got on board as soon as we had the first rough cut. She worked on the score for a little over 3 months. Sound mixing/design, foley, etc., i.e., Albert and Matt together, took over 5 months. We worked very closely with everyone. But again, because of COVID, for Sandra and Albert, a lot if it was done via email and phone.

Offscreen: I see that the film has been sold to some streaming services. What was the path like from finishing the film to getting the film sold to these streaming services?

JV, OM: That’s a big question! We will try to be as brief as possible. The biggest shock was the lack of support from Canadian festivals. It was truly heart-breaking, especially since we had such a remarkably successful theatrical run across Canada in 1996, that all but one festival turned down the film. 26 festivals turned us down in the beginning. We really started to question if the film was any good. Then, we got accepted and nominated (and ultimately won a Jury Award) at the Paris Independent Film Festival. Next, we were selected by the Skiptown International Film Festival in Hollywood, CA. And then it was like a domino effect, we got accepted at one after another. Americans and Europeans really seem to click with this film. And we started winning award after award worldwide. We decided to attend the Cannes Film Festival in 2024 and that’s where we were offered three distribution deals. We went with All Channel Films, and they are great! Scarpedicemente is now available on Amazon Prime Canada, US, France, Spain, England, Tubi where available worldwide, Plex, and Fawesome, so far.

Offscreen: Do you have any advice for young filmmakers about to launch on their own similar path?

JV, OM: Learn to say NO. If you truly believe in your project, stick to your guns and your vision. Yes, this is a collaborative process, but too many cooks and you will end up with slop. Draw up CONTRACTS – they may save you. Try to make/get made an incredible trailer. Take the first step, others (the crew, actors, etc.) will come along and you will get your project made. The festival circuit is expensive but it will get you noticed – make sure you take that into account as it’s sure worth it!

Offscreen: They say that digital cinema has made it so much easier and cheaper for filmmakers. What has your experience been with the impact of digital technology?

JV, OM: Thanks to digital technology, we were able to take our paltry life savings and make a feature film that looks beautiful! We feel so blessed and grateful that this technology exists!

Offscreen: I can see from your website that the film has played many festivals and won many awards. How satisfying is that for first-time filmmakers?

JV, OM: Obviously, it feels pretty incredible! Every award feels like the first one, though. We are so grateful and humbled. It’s very inspiring and just makes us hope that we can make another film.

Offscreen: Are there any memorable moments from these festival appearances that you can highlight?

JV, OM: There are too many to count! The festival circuit brought us all over the world for a year and a half! Maybe the first in-person festival we attended, though, The Skiptown International Film Festival in Hollywood, CA… it really stands out. It felt like a dream. We knew no one. There were so many amazing films competing. And on awards night, we were called to the podium 7 times: Best Costume, Best Comedy Duo, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Screenplay, Best International Film, and Best of the Fest! We still pinch ourselves over that one.

Volume 29, Issue 3-5 / May 2025 canadian film   comedy   covid   gangster   independent cinema