Directed by Alex Infascelli (Almost Blue) and written by Niccolò Ammaniti and Antonio Manzini, Il siero della vanità (The Vanity Syndrome) begins with a riot on a TV show called The Sonia Norton Show. As the show's psychologist leaves the studio, he is knocked out and disappears. He's not the last Italian TV celebrity to go missing and Sonia Norton (Francecsa Neri) declares that whoever is taking them is in the midst of "an unprecedented attack on the heart of the nation."
Police detectives Lucia Allasco (Margherita Buy) and Franco Berardi (Valerio Mastandrea) are assigned the case. Allasco is barely recovered from a past investigation in which a colleague was killed and she nearly lost the ability to walk, surviving with a limp.
Those who have been kidnapped - psychologist Michele Benda (Marco Giallini), a fallen Miss Italy named Azzurra Rispoli (Barbora Bobulova), transsexual Rocco Piccolo (Luis Molteni), the singer of the one-hit wonder "Il cuore in soffitt" ("The Heart In the Attic") Ester Bonanni (Maddalena Maggi), ostrich breeder Domenico Calaciura and a magician named Daniel (Rosario J. Gnolo) who claims to be the son of Houdini - were all on the same episode of The Sonia Norton Show ten years ago.
It turns out that Daniel had taken all of these people hostage and staged an entirely repeated episode of the show so that he can perform Houdini's Torture of the Chinese Pagoda without a mistake. Somehow, Rocco escapes but is hit by a subway train, which shows Lucia where Daniel is hiding. She barely escapes with her life when he drugs her.
When he does succeed in the performance, he's caught by Franco, who is followed by Sonia Norton and crew who are doing the show live. They start a whole new episode with the survivors of Daniel's revenge, all except for Lucia, who limps away from the spotlight.
Sonia's show is based on one of Italy's most popular - and trashiest - TV shows, Uomini e Donne (Men and Women). Like The Bachelor, contestants try to find their true love over a three month process. Contestants are called tronistas and the competitions for their love must put on extravagant demonstrations of their character. They are graded and then selected or denied a private date with the tronista. After a series of private dates, each date is played back for the men and women to confront each other in front of a live studio audience, mediated by host Maria De Fillipi.
As much an indictment of Italian pop culture as a giallo, this second effort finds Infascelli moving away from the wild visuals of Almost Blue and working to tell a more understandable story. It's interesting, but I miss the strangeness of his first effort.
Police detectives Lucia Allasco (Margherita Buy) and Franco Berardi (Valerio Mastandrea) are assigned the case. Allasco is barely recovered from a past investigation in which a colleague was killed and she nearly lost the ability to walk, surviving with a limp.
Those who have been kidnapped - psychologist Michele Benda (Marco Giallini), a fallen Miss Italy named Azzurra Rispoli (Barbora Bobulova), transsexual Rocco Piccolo (Luis Molteni), the singer of the one-hit wonder "Il cuore in soffitt" ("The Heart In the Attic") Ester Bonanni (Maddalena Maggi), ostrich breeder Domenico Calaciura and a magician named Daniel (Rosario J. Gnolo) who claims to be the son of Houdini - were all on the same episode of The Sonia Norton Show ten years ago.
It turns out that Daniel had taken all of these people hostage and staged an entirely repeated episode of the show so that he can perform Houdini's Torture of the Chinese Pagoda without a mistake. Somehow, Rocco escapes but is hit by a subway train, which shows Lucia where Daniel is hiding. She barely escapes with her life when he drugs her.
When he does succeed in the performance, he's caught by Franco, who is followed by Sonia Norton and crew who are doing the show live. They start a whole new episode with the survivors of Daniel's revenge, all except for Lucia, who limps away from the spotlight.
Sonia's show is based on one of Italy's most popular - and trashiest - TV shows, Uomini e Donne (Men and Women). Like The Bachelor, contestants try to find their true love over a three month process. Contestants are called tronistas and the competitions for their love must put on extravagant demonstrations of their character. They are graded and then selected or denied a private date with the tronista. After a series of private dates, each date is played back for the men and women to confront each other in front of a live studio audience, mediated by host Maria De Fillipi.
As much an indictment of Italian pop culture as a giallo, this second effort finds Infascelli moving away from the wild visuals of Almost Blue and working to tell a more understandable story. It's interesting, but I miss the strangeness of his first effort.