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C'è ancora domani (2023)
An engaging and well-told story
The film describes the life of a lower middle class family in a neighborhood on the outskirts of Rome, just after the liberation of the capital. We have the husband ( Valerio Mastandrea ), the wife Delia ( played by Paola Cortellesi ), the father of Delia's husband and father-in-law ( Giorgio Colangeli ), we have a grown-up daughter, perhaps eighteen ( Romana Vergano ), who is unusually mature for the age and with a strong and determined character, we then have 2 young children aged 7/8, full of life and healthy selfishness, carefree, who are always playing. There are also neighbors gossiping in the courtyard where they sit to chat and do small jobs
Almost the entire first part of the film is dedicated to describing Delia, the mother of the family, who is always active: she gets up first and prepares breakfast for everyone; she then goes for injections, she does some sewing and mending work, she makes her own clothes at home, works in an umbrella factory, then she goes shopping, and prepares lunch.
However, we don't know much about the husband, for example we don't know his profession, we only know that he enters the house to criticize or beat his wife, then goes out and goes to have fun with friends at the bar, or elsewhere
I really liked the description of neighborhood life, for example you see Delia walking on a wide sidewalk and as she walks you see many other activities that are carried out outdoors: for example we have people cutting hair, or shaving, people selling baskets of flowers, people doing small jobs or small repairs. The description of the environments and the climate of those years is perfect and thanks also to the "black and white" the film recalls and is linked to the neorealist tradition of post-war Italian cinema
Scenes of violence within the home are always announced as thunder announces a storm; in this case children are removed, the windows are closed and the curtains are drawn, a sort of isolation is created, and then a dance begins between the husband and wife filled with acts of violence towards the woman. The slow motion ballet makes the scene grotesque and tries to represent the gesture in a less brutal way, which however remains extremely serious.
The "clue" scene is the invitation of the future in-laws to an official lunch; the tone of the narrative always remains very light and comical "gags" are often included, for example the scene of the meatballs being hard and almost inedible for the future son-in-law's family
In conclusion, a lower middle class family on the outskirts of Rome in the post-war period is described; with great realism, rather than thinking or talking about politics, this family thinks above all about scraping together the means of sustenance; I think the choice by the Italian ruling class of those years to avoid extremist turns and to try to recreate a nucleus of national cohesion was very wise
They were restless years, people often kept their weapons from the civil and partisan war and there was a strong tendency to take justice into their own hands; at the same time there was the disintegration of the institutional apparatus, of the police and public order forces whose functions were carried out by American soldiers; however, there was also a great desire to do, to rebuild and improve, a great desire for freedom, peace, hope for a better future. In that same period and still in Rome, Rossellini filmed "Roma, open city" on the last acts of the Nazi occupation in Italy; there were no means of public transport such as buses and rail connections were poor; the grain, the main source of sustenance, had to arrive by ship from the United States and was stored in port silos, in the cities many houses had been destroyed, the streets were full of rubble and many people lived in wooden shacks
The empathy that the spectator feels towards the female character, that is Delia, is remarkable and the emotional involvement in the story is pleasant; we have the pleasure of witnessing the reconstruction of a period of our history and above all, an extremely positive fact, it is the images that tell the story, as it must be when the expressive medium is cinema.
Comandante (2023)
A good idea done badly
The film does not deserve a rating of 5/10 and is saved above all thanks to the good acting of the actors and the excellent interpretation of Favino, Commander Todaro; I give the screenplay a much, much lower rating because you can't see scenes like those in the film:
- A twenty-year-old sailor who light-heartedly goes to his death to free the submarine from a mine and acts as if he were going to meet his girlfriend
- Another sailor with a mangled leg who stays on deck because he wants to see the ship sink
-- The recipe for french fries in one of the final scenes is one of the most unlikely things to imagine, given the circumstances; and there is no shortage of parmesan, gnocchi, pizza and mandolin either
-- the description of the living conditions of the people on board as worse than those of the slaves who worked in the lead mines in Roman times
-- the scene of a sailor praying and fighting with another who shows him a blasphemous object
All this nonsense is described and on the contrary the passion and pride of being a submariner is not described, a deadly, avant-garde weapon for those years. Submariners are highly specialized technicians in their sector, prepared, with nerves of steel, capable of adapting, improvising and solving difficult and complex situations. Not everyone is able to work and live in a submarine and of all the various sectors and technical departments of the highest level of a submarine: sonar, radio, weapons, engines, electricity, navigation, route, attitude, etc. The only one considered in detail and almost exclusively is that of the kitchen, as if the submarine were in essence an underwater restaurant
It is said that only Americans are capable of making good war films, perhaps arrogant and superficial films, but which highlight the audacity, courage and preparation of the soldiers There is none of this in this film, and in the end perhaps the main merit of the film is precisely that of highlighting the ugliness and stupidity of war, of every war
The film completely lacks the tension, audacity and courage that you expect in the scenes of a war film and this is a real shame because, in my opinion, one of the "missions" of cinema is precisely to emotionally and completely involve the viewer; so I reiterate that this is a theater work more than a film; and it's a shame because the idea was good, that is to recall a military event that actually happened; in the credits we read that of the 112 submarines that had been launched since the beginning of the war only 19 returned to their homeland, and so it is clear the film was intended to be a tribute to Italian submarine sailors.
Gûzen to sôzô (2021)
I haven't liked it too much
There are three stories, basically three dialogues and in the first two stories the topics of discussion are also trivial if not boring: the first dialogue deals with emotional misunderstandings between young couples, the second is the story of a masturbation of no interest.
The third story, albeit unlikely, is the most interesting: a young woman lived an intense love affair with a high school friend and regrets not being able to express the importance and greatness of her love to her partner when she left her to get married. This story makes us understand how in today's world great importance is given to material well-being and economic conditions and, on the contrary, so little importance is given to our deepest feelings and passions. And so one of the questions the girl asks the other woman is: "Are you happy? Is this the life you dreamed of when you grew up?"
The director, Hamaguchi, defines himself as a "narrator" but the director of a film has many means and tools at his disposal to tell a story and to involve the viewer: the description of the unfolding of the narrative, the dialogues, the photography, the sounds, the music, the charisma of the actors, acting skills, etc., while this film is mainly based on dialogue and above all it lacks the emotional involvement of the viewer.
Supernova (2020)
great film
The merit of this film lies in the dialogues and the acting of the two leading actors.
I thought, until I saw the photo of the author / director, the photo of a young man, that the story was based on a true story, on a direct experience.
Many films have been made about senile dementia and for Tusker the whole point is that he wants to keep control of his life; I think instead that it is possible to live well even without the rational side and therefore basing our life on the feelings / emotions side; however, it is necessary to have a close person who can fully trust us. Many children with intellectual disabilities live well the same and are the joy and fill the life of their parents.
One of the most significant phrases of the film is "if you love me you have to let me go" and this concept is not easy to accept and yet it is right: "each of us must find in himself the reasons to live".
This film teaches a profound moral: man's life is short and full of ailments. We must fully enjoy and treasure those few happy moments and not let our days be ruined by trivial issues and hassles "
The music is very beautiful, classical music pieces with strings and cello, and so are the landscapes of the natural parks in autumn.
Martin Eden (2019)
A small but nice Italian film - I'm biased because I'm Italian - with the added bonus of make you think about so many things
The story is quite simple: a young sailor - who represents the writer himself, namely Jack London, being the novel largely an autobiographical one- he falls in love with a young, beautiful and educated girl of a bourgeois family
The book is set in the San Francisco of the early 1900s , while the film is set in Naples and surrounding Campania in an indeterminate age , even if there are so many references to reconstruction of Italy after the www2
Martin, engrossed in knowledge, starts reading mountains of books and begins to write stories with the intention of elevating his social status and thus being able to marry Ruth His novellas are published, he achieves success, money, recognition as a writer, Ruth who had left him begs him to forgive her, ... but at the height of success instead of being one happy and accomplished person he becomes a cynic man, no longer believes in his passions and loses his enthusiasm. What happened ?
To understand this turning point it is necessary to know the political / social thought of Jack London; the history of love between the two young people is only a pretext, while the intention of the writer is to put in highlight and criticize other ideas and values:
- individualism is the first one; it is certainly a good thing to be able to rely on yourself, but if you are driven to excesses produces people who completely lose interest in the needs of the others and who are not able to see beyond their own personal interest
- The capitalist system, in the beginning of the 1900s in the hands of a minority of people, creates masses of low-paid workers, subjected to arduous work and in practice reduce people to a fate of slavery
- We also have a criticism of the educational system whereby knowledge is reduced to "status symbol ", while on the contrary culture should help people to improve and grow themselves
The soundtrack is very beautiful and suggestive: these are light music songs in vogue in Italy in the '50s and '60s , while the photographic narration of the story borders on poetry; often the main narrative is interspersed with old documentaries or clips of amateur videos that give the sense of poverty and of the hard life of the post-war years in Italy, the years that represent our roots, the basis of our current development