‘Elsinore’ Producer Andrea Occhipinti on Bringing Ian Charleson’s Story to the Screen and His Personal Connection to the AIDS Crisis: ‘I Lost a Lot of Friends’

By Nick Vivarelli

Nick Vivarelli

International Correspondent

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For Italian producer and distributor Andrea Occhipinti, shepherding “Elsinore” to the big screen carries a significance that transcends being lead producer of the buzzy movie that last night opened the London Film Festival to a standing ovation, with few dry eyes in the Royal Festival Hall, after making a major splash in Telluride and Toronto.

This moving but also very funny film about Scottish “Chariots of Fire” actor Ian Charleson who gave a triumphant final performance as Hamlet at London’s National Theatre in late 1989, shortly before dying of AIDS at the age of 40, germinated from an encounter in Rome between Occhipinti and Charleson in 1987.

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