Blocco 181 is a crime story which also contains a passionate menage à trois. It is the story of emotional, sexual, criminal and family emancipation, set in a Milan whose roiling suburbs are ripe for plundering by gangs fighting for power, against the backdrop of the so-called “Blocco”, an imposing residential complex on the edge of the city, created for the screen by combining buildings and roads from other parts of the city’s suburbs, actually very distant from each other. These included the Barona neighbourhood, in the sixth municipality in the south west of Milan. There are, naturally, some prison scenes, shot in the recognisable San Vittore prison.
The Milan on show here is not the capital of fashion and finance often seen in films but a place of burning suburbs, an image not generally associated with the city. Over 100 locations in Milan were used (for interiors and exteriors); but the images of the fictional suburbs and centre in Blocco 181 were created specifically to be less recognisable. A believable collage of different areas where, for example, centre and suburb seem closer geographically than they are in reality.
“A city where the geography is upturned but believable, both geometric and graceful, a city which presents only reference points inherent to the story or the lives of the series’ protagonists”, explains Marco Bergamaschi, location manager. “A Milan in movement, roiling with different communities, each with its own culture and background, thereby avoiding the cliché of the postcard city often seen in the past. The result of this intense research is that the urban fabric is not simply a background for the events of the story but is a part of them, sparking various levels of interpretation.”
Other locations used, including those that contribute to the suburbs of Milan, include some in Genoa.
Blocco 181 is a crime story which also contains a passionate menage à trois. It is the story of emotional, sexual, criminal and family emancipation, set in a Milan whose roiling suburbs are ripe for plundering by gangs fighting for power, against the backdrop of the so-called “Blocco”, an imposing residential complex on the edge of the city, created for the screen by combining buildings and roads from other parts of the city’s suburbs, actually very distant from each other. These included the Barona neighbourhood, in the sixth municipality in the south west of Milan. There are, naturally, some prison scenes, shot in the recognisable San Vittore prison.
The Milan on show here is not the capital of fashion and finance often seen in films but a place of burning suburbs, an image not generally associated with the city. Over 100 locations in Milan were used (for interiors and exteriors); but the images of the fictional suburbs and centre in Blocco 181 were created specifically to be less recognisable. A believable collage of different areas where, for example, centre and suburb seem closer geographically than they are in reality.
“A city where the geography is upturned but believable, both geometric and graceful, a city which presents only reference points inherent to the story or the lives of the series’ protagonists”, explains Marco Bergamaschi, location manager. “A Milan in movement, roiling with different communities, each with its own culture and background, thereby avoiding the cliché of the postcard city often seen in the past. The result of this intense research is that the urban fabric is not simply a background for the events of the story but is a part of them, sparking various levels of interpretation.”
Other locations used, including those that contribute to the suburbs of Milan, include some in Genoa.
