by Elisa Giudici
Today we have on our menù four movies so different one for the other there's no point in trying to find common ground or a theme. Let’s begin with the surprising and very good Penélope Cruz film...
L’IMMENSITÀ by Emanuele Crialese
This Italian director of Respiro and The Golden Door (an Oscar submission in its year), hasn't made a movie since Terraferma eleven years ago which Italy also submitted to the Oscars. I distinctly remember conversations here on the Lido about what happened to him, so news about this movie was welcome indeed. As a director he's made arthouse movies that have been well loved by festival programmers. He's also historically been very attentive to stories of migrations in different times and places.
Rumor had it that his newest movie intended to premiere at Cannes, but since Penélope Cruz was in discussion to be on the jury (it didn't happen) they moved plans to a Venice bow. Hot off her Volpi Cup win here just last year for Parallel Mothers, expectations were high for the followup. She plays an abused wife in 1970s Rome who is deeply connected to her three children. The role is actually quite Almodóvarian so Cruz must have felt like the only choice. Though she can master this type of role in her sleep by now, she's amazing yet again. L’immensità proves a major comeback for the missing director and, as it turns out, a deeply personal movie.
For the real surprise of L’immensità is not Cruz (who we expect greatness from) but the sudden coming-out of the director himself. Emanuele Crialese, who has been a famous director here in Italy for some time, has revealed to the press that he is a trans man. The movie, set in the 1970s, is partially autobiographical. The young protagonist of the movie is Andrea/Adria (Alvia Reale) who desperately wants people to consider him a boy despite appearances. Andrea is attracted to a lovely Jewish gypsy girl who lives beyond the reeds in his backyard, and explores love for the first time. Meanwhile he is dealing with the increasingly volatile relationship of his parents.
L'Immensita is quite good but at the same time, I can't help but note that at times it feels like a sort of desaturated, less energetic version of an Almodóvar movie. Still, you don't want to miss Cruz's performance or a reenactment of two famous songs performed on Italian TV in the ‘70 by Raffaella Carrà and Patty Pravo. It'll surely be the queerest scene in this edition of the Venice Film Festival.
OTHER PEOPLE'S CHILDREN by Rebecca Zlotowski
I share with Nathaniel the belief that Virginie Efira is a gift from the Gods of Cinema -- we spoke about this last year right here at Venice. In fact, I don’t think we truly understand or deserve her! In this new drama she plays Rachel, a gorgeous childless schoolteacher who starts a relationship with a divorced man, Ali (Roschdy Zem). (There are a couple of really good sex scenes.) Ali has a four year old daughter who Rachel bonds with becoming a sort of second mother to her. Rachel's biological clock is ticking and she knows there's not much time to have a child of her own, but does she want one? The movie places her in scenarios with other people's children (hence the title). In one subplot she's helping a troubled adolescent in her class prepare for his future. She is also the eldest sister in a family where another baby is coming.
In a powerful monologue, Rachel states that she quite likes being childless and is proud of being a part of this particular group of adults. On the other hand, more privately, she fears she's missing out. What makes Other People's Children so meaningful is that Rachel is fairly rare as movie characters go. She's an emotionally mature, intelligent, and loving person, and not the hysteric desperate childless woman so many other movies have depicted. Rachel is able to face painful moments where she is reminded she is but a stranger to the various children she helps as they grow up. Zlotowski shines a light on Rachel's efforts with other women's daughters in resonant, simple, and effective ways, never pitting the women against each other, At a certain point there's a confrontation with her lover's ex (Chiara Mastroianni) and Rachel says "I am in no way mad at you. He is the one to blame." Other People's Children is exquisitely written and Virginie Efira is phenomenal.
LOVE LIFE by Kōji Fukada
At first, everything is very delicate, very sweet, and perfectly fine. Then after warming up your heart, Love Life stabs it mercilessly, with a tragedy involving a young couple. It is heartbreaking to see good ordinary people face one of the greatest pains someone can suffer. In Love Life, this extreme sense of loss is used to reveal the complex dynamics of a marriage in which both wife and husband had very meaningful relationships with other people before their union. Kōji Fukada expertly explores this romantic relationship in ways that feel both universal (relationships are relationships, after all), but unique and complex to this marriage. I don’t want to spoil anything, but if you like slice of life films, or Hirozaku Kore-eda’s Japenese family dramas, this sad but moving film is definitely for you!
PADRE PIO by Abel Ferrara
I swear sometimes they program movies in order to make me explain some very Italian things to all of you. So, who is Padre Pio? And why on earth is Shia LaBeouf playing him? I can only answer the first question because the second is beyond me. Padre Pio is a very very famous friar who was proclaimed a saint by the Catholic Church in 2002. He is hugely popular in the Southern regions of Italy and was considered a mystic well before the Church canonized him. Like so many similar figures throughout history, there are people who were then and are now skeptical about the miracles he performed during his life and the stigmata on his hands.
Unfortunately Abel Ferrara's movie doesn't offer an interesting take on Padre Pio, and often feels like an excuse to shoot a movie about tragic events in San Giovanni Rotodo (Pio's home village) after the first World War. After the awful Zeros and Ones, I expected a much worse movie. To be fair, this isn't terrible. It's just inconsequential. Everything is unremarkable except for the very odd casting. It's not just Shia Labeouf who appears as a young Pio here and there throughout the film but also a cameo from actress/director Asia Argento. She plays, for no apparent reason, a father who confesses to Padre Pio his desire to have sex with his teenage daughter. Why this scene? Why Asia Argento as a husband, father, and pedophile? It’s completely beyond me!
Banshees of Inisherin tomorrow
Also...
#1 - Tár, White Noise...
#2 - Bardo False Chronicle of...
#3 - Bones and All, Monica, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
#4 - The Whale, Argentina 1985, Master Gardener