by Elisa Giudici
THE HAND OF GOD
The Italian longlist for the 2021 Oscar submission is very long and much better than usual, quality-wise. Although if the Italian Cinema Academy appointed by ANICA really wants to give Italy a chance to make the finals,the choice is obvious: Paolo Sorrentino's The Hand of God.
Unfortunately, in the last decade, the Italian film commission's rulings on this matter have not proved to be that smart. I mean, how can you send Marco Bellocchio's The Traitor (as beautiful and important as it was domestically) when The New York Times states that Pietro Marcello's Martin Eden is the best movie of 2020? Our only solace was that that was the year of Parasite, so there was no room for a real contender to Bong Joon-ho's victory in Best Internatural Feature Film...
Last year the designation of Gianfranco Rosi's documentary Notturno stirred some protests among Italian cinephiles and an interesting answer from Piera Detassis, the president of the Italian Cinema Academy and former head of CIAK Magazine. She explained that choosing the Italian submission for the Oscar is one of the most stressful events of her year, implying that sorting out the best candidate is only one of the jury's priorities. Rai Cinema, the cinematic branch of the Italian national broadcaster, wields a lot of influence too. A huge portion of Italian movies are co-produced by Rai, making them a powerhouse in the domestic cinematic landscape.
In my opinion, the only real obstacle for The Hand of God to win this competition and become the Oscar submission is ironically what might help it at the Oscars; it's produced by Netflix. Generally speaking, that's a plus for non English language films because Netflix has both the money and the interest in supporting its awards hopefuls. In Italy, though, the big red N might jeopardize everything. In the last decade, the only Italian Oscar submission that was not co-produced by Rai was Sorrentino's own film, The Great Beauty (2013). That Oscar winning movie was produced by Medusa Film, a branch of Silvio Berlusconi-owned Mediaset television group.
I think the key name that could save Sorrentino is Lorenzo Mieli, an Italian producer attached to The Hand of God. He has worked with Rai before on the HBO adaptation of Elena Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend and he is a member of Sorrentino's entourage: he is in the right place to provide mediation if needed. Or maybe I am just overestimating Rai Cinema's influence on the final decision. One fact is sure: IF Paolo Sorrentino represents Italy in the upcoming Oscar race, The Hand of God will be the first-ever Netflix-produced Italian submission.
THE HAND OF GOD
Despite all of that, I still think Sorrentino will be chosen and there are plenty of good reasons. First of all, he is the most famous director on the list and he has already won an Oscar (not technically since it officially goes to the country but you know what I mean): chances are Academy members will be inclined to see the movie for this reason alone. The Hand of God also won the Grand Jury Prize in Venice. Plus, it's a deeply autobiographical story of how Paolo faced a terrible tragedy as a teenager in '80's Naples and decided to become a director making it moving and emotional in the best possible way. The new film is less of an homage to Fellini than The Great Beauty was and more approachable, too, even joyful at times. It is also one of Sorrentino's very best films, the director bouncing back after a couple of real letdowns.
A last piece of gossip: some consider Piera Detassis a sort of fairy godmother to Paolo Sorrentino. Before The Consequences of Love's critical success in 2004 made Sorrentino popular among Italian cinephiles (he became quite famous to the general audience only with the 2008 film Il Divo) CIAK Magazine gave his movies wide coverage. I think Detassis, one of his earliest boosters, will be on his side.
In the unlikely event of Sorrentino's rejection, there are a couple of dark horses to keep an eye on. We are in the realm of speculation, mind you: the real game of Italian cinema is played entirely in Rome's small cultural circles (as seen in The Great Beauty) and unfortunately I have not been invited (yet). I am afraid I am not such a fine connoisseur of Italian cinema's "backstage".
L'ARMINUTA
In my opinion, Jonas Carpignano's A Chiara would be an excellent choice. International critics praised this movie at Cannes and Carpignano's former title A Ciambra was the Italian submission in 2017. A Chiara is truly a gem, the last installment of a trilogy set in a small Calabrian town.
One of the finest movies on the list is L'arminuta by Giuseppe Bonito. Based on a 2017 bestseller novel by Donatella Di Pietrantonio, it's the story of a girl growing up in a city as a fine young lady and good student who is abruptly sent back to her birth family by her adoptive parents. Her new impoverished reality in the countryside hits hard and she has to learn how to interact differently with the world. In another year it would be a perfect submission.
KING OF LAUGHTER
If we consider Tony Servillo as the lucky charm of Italian cinema - he is surely the most famous living Italian actor after Roberto Benigni - he has three movies on the flnalist list. The strongest is The Hand of God where he plays the father to Sorrentino's proxy and teen protagonist. Servillo gives an amazing performance in Mario Martone's The King of Laughter and I've heard good things about his performance in Leonardo Di Costanzo's prison drama Ariaferma too.
The most palatable movie on the list for Academy tastes is probably The Hand of God, but Freaks Out has some appeal, too: really bad nazis! Lovable children running away from nazis while being adorable! Some clear Rome Open City Anna Magnani running scene references! Fun fact: both The Hand of God and Freaks Out have -- how can I phrase this - very peculiar and unconventional sex scenes that will probably cause some discomfort to the most conservative members of AMPAS. Freaks Out is an impressive tentpole for Italian standards and a sort of Italian (Rome-based) companion of Jojo Rabbit, so it is surely worth a mention.
Why am I not listing Nanni Moretti's Three Floors too? He is the only director on the list who has won a major European festival (sorry Paolo for the involuntary shade). Well, I quote the title of Le Monde's Three Floors review again:
I was able to review both Catholic School and The King of Laughter here at The Film Experience during Venice. The former has stirred controversy in Italy because of its "not suitable for minors" rating (the Italian version of Rated R), due to the extremely violent scenes in the last part of the movie. People started screaming about censorship and director Stefano Mordini and his cast were quick to turn the whole marketing campaign into a sort of "we just wanted to share this true crime story with the younger audience that doesn't know it!". Unfortunately, there is not a single shot in the movie to make it appealing to a young audience, or different from any other Italian movie based on a really famous and terrible murders. Perhaps I'm being a cynic here but I am not buying it.
PARSIFAL
The worst film on the list (according to my taste of courset) is I Giganti. I reviewed it here during Locarno and the courage to even suggest showing this movie outside the Italian border again. The courage!
The film on the list that I haven't seen that I'm most curious about is Parsifal by Marco Filiberti. In the year of The Green Knight, someone in Italy dared to direct and produce an adaptation of the Arthurian legend about the homonymous knight! In Italy, where genre movies are so rare.
The remaining films being considered that I haven't mentioned: Silvio Soldini's 3/19, Gianluca Jodici's The Bad Poet, Giuseppe Tornatore's Ennio, Sergio Rubini's I fratelli de Fillipo, Pupi Avati's Lei mir Parla ancora, Alessandro Celli's Mondocane, Allesandro Rak's Yaya e Lennie - The Walking Liberty, and Paolo Geoneve's Supereroi.
Do you think Italy will send The Hand of God and... if so... do you think it will be nominated?
More on International Feature Film submissions and the Oscar Race.