Filming on Marco Chiappetta’s first work, a Teatri Uniti and RiverStudio production, has wrapped in Naples. Shooting has wrapped on Santa Lucia, the debut work by the 29-year-old Neapolitan screenwriter and director Marco Chiappetta. Led by Renato Carpentieri and Andrea Renzi who are cast as two brothers, the film is produced by Teatri Uniti – the long-standing theatre company directed by Toni Servillo which has supported cinema productions such as Morte di un matematico napoletano and L’amore molesto by Mario Martone, as well as One Man Up and The Consequences of Love by Paolo Sorrentino – together with RiverStudio. The film recounts the return to Naples, following forty years spent in Buenos Aires, of Roberto, a writer who is now blind, of his meeting with his brother Lorenzo and of the troubling past which emerges from their childhood memories, set against the backdrop of the city as we’ve never seen.
Over the top, excessive, too much reliance on anonymous sexy young women for thrills…definitely an inferior work! Let’s hope it is not a trend.
I have been one of Sorrentino’s greatest fans. As I wrote in the review of A Great Beauty “I could watch this film over and over again and still be inspired by the beauty of Rome and the depth of its flaneur, the hero of this film, journalist Jep Gambardella as played by the incomparable Toni Servillo.”
Well Toni Servillo is still incomparable. His face is a smiley face mask which can momentarily change into the face of a tired old man. But he is a cardboard figure as he plays Berlusconi in his last days before his current resurrection as a member of EU Parliament. His wife Veronica Lario, played by Elena Sofia Ricci was the only real character with any depth.
I have been one of Sorrentino’s greatest fans. As I wrote in the review of A Great Beauty “I could watch this film over and over again and still be inspired by the beauty of Rome and the depth of its flaneur, the hero of this film, journalist Jep Gambardella as played by the incomparable Toni Servillo.”
Well Toni Servillo is still incomparable. His face is a smiley face mask which can momentarily change into the face of a tired old man. But he is a cardboard figure as he plays Berlusconi in his last days before his current resurrection as a member of EU Parliament. His wife Veronica Lario, played by Elena Sofia Ricci was the only real character with any depth.
- 8/21/2019
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
This weekend is shaping up to mirror early fall, when specialty distributors packed theaters with new titles. Many of those disappeared quickly, and this weekend could be similar as companies usher in about a dozen limited-release theatrical newcomers. Focus Features’ The Theory Of Everything, however, has amassed a good amount of attention. Directed by Oscar winner James Marsh (Man On Wire), the Stephen Hawking biopic is opening two months after its Toronto debut. Two notable nonfiction titles also join the fray this weekend: Cinema Guild’s Actress, from director Robert Greene, and Zipporah Films’ National Gallery by nonfiction maverick Frederick Wiseman. Both deserve attention as the awards-race heats up. Two years after the theatrical bow of Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, the 16th U.S. President is the focus of Amplify’s The Better Angels — though it focuses a very different phase of his life. Distrib Films is opening Italian political...
- 11/7/2014
- by Brian Brooks
- Deadline
Strand Releasing
An occasionally moving if ultimately familiar soap opera, this film from Italian-Turkish director Ferzan Ozpetek ("Steam: The Turkish Bath") concerns a man's secret gay life uncovered by his grieving widow.
The middle-aged Antonia (Margherita Buy) is happily living with her handsome doctor husband Massimo (Andrea Renzi) in a suburb of Rome when he is killed in a car accident. Recovering his possessions from his office, a romantic inscription on the back of a painting clues her in to the fact that he had a secret lover. When she attempts to confront the person in question, she discovers, much to her shock, that the lover, Michele, is actually a handsome young man (Stefano Accorsi) who lives with a large makeshift family in a crowded apartment in a working-class district.
Not particularly welcomed by a resentful Michele, the shocked Antonia attempts to come to grips with this revelation, and she doesn't find much sympathy from her less-than-tactful mother. But she quickly finds herself drawn to her late husband's alternate household, forming friendships with its various inhabitants, which include a flamboyant transsexual and a young man dying of AIDS. She and Michele become close as well, with more than a hint of romantic sparks between them.
The film's messages of tolerance and diversity aren't particularly original, but one can't help but be drawn in by the sympathetic characters, who are given life by the superb performances by the two leads and the supporting cast. Buy is deeply moving as the emotionally confused widow, and Renzi is greatly appealing as the secret lover. Filmmaker Ozpetek never overemphasizes the story line's more melodramatic aspects, and the sensitive dialogue and characterizations largely ring true, even if the latter occasionally border on stereotype.
An occasionally moving if ultimately familiar soap opera, this film from Italian-Turkish director Ferzan Ozpetek ("Steam: The Turkish Bath") concerns a man's secret gay life uncovered by his grieving widow.
The middle-aged Antonia (Margherita Buy) is happily living with her handsome doctor husband Massimo (Andrea Renzi) in a suburb of Rome when he is killed in a car accident. Recovering his possessions from his office, a romantic inscription on the back of a painting clues her in to the fact that he had a secret lover. When she attempts to confront the person in question, she discovers, much to her shock, that the lover, Michele, is actually a handsome young man (Stefano Accorsi) who lives with a large makeshift family in a crowded apartment in a working-class district.
Not particularly welcomed by a resentful Michele, the shocked Antonia attempts to come to grips with this revelation, and she doesn't find much sympathy from her less-than-tactful mother. But she quickly finds herself drawn to her late husband's alternate household, forming friendships with its various inhabitants, which include a flamboyant transsexual and a young man dying of AIDS. She and Michele become close as well, with more than a hint of romantic sparks between them.
The film's messages of tolerance and diversity aren't particularly original, but one can't help but be drawn in by the sympathetic characters, who are given life by the superb performances by the two leads and the supporting cast. Buy is deeply moving as the emotionally confused widow, and Renzi is greatly appealing as the secret lover. Filmmaker Ozpetek never overemphasizes the story line's more melodramatic aspects, and the sensitive dialogue and characterizations largely ring true, even if the latter occasionally border on stereotype.
- 10/7/2002
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
'Tokyo Eyes'
Slick and stylish, intriguing at first but ultimately unsatisfying, French director Jean-Pierre Limosin's "Tokyo Eyes" (Un Certain Regard) is an end-of-the-century love story between a bespectacled young rebel who calls himself K (Shinji Takeda) and the younger sister, Hinano (Hinano Yoshikawa), of a police inspector on the trail of a mysterious shooter who randomly confronts people on the streets of Tokyo but misses his targets even at close range.
A happy teenybopper just beginning to pay serious attention to boys, Hinano recognizes K as the unpredictable "virtual killer" in the news and at first wants to help her brother catch him. But once she gets to know the spacy video-game maker, she comes to sympathize with his instant rages at prejudiced, intolerant and callous people who cross his path. While Limosin's technique draws one into the convoluted mystery-thriller-romance and the performances are solid, the film's appeal is limited to younger audiences and U.S. distribution is a long shot.
'Teatro Di Guerra'
A small theater company in Naples struggles to mount a production of Aeschylus' "Seven Against Thebes" in 1994, intending to present the grim drama of war and fratricide in disintegrating Sarajevo. Unfortunately, this frustrating Italian Un Certain Regard offering from acclaimed avant-garde writer-director Mario Martone is too choppy and uninvolving except for the most patient cineastes, with most of the characters remaining sketchy and distant despite a nearly two-hour running time.
Rehearsing in a ramshackle theater in a rough neighborhood, the group of pro and tyro thesps led by Leo (Andrea Renzi) manages to stay afloat despite lack of funding and the disinterest of more successful comrades. Last-minute support comes when Leo agrees to hire a drug-taking star (Anna Bonaiuto), while the situation outside the stage door becomes more ominous with the gunning down of the local Mafia boss. The film builds to an ironic conclusion that underscores the war everywhere between artistic conscience and indifference.
'Divine'
With the unholy ghost of Luis Bunuel hovering over this Un Certain Regard entrant -- iconoclastic Mexican auteur Arturro Ripstein was mentored by the great Spanish surrealist -- "Divine" (El Evangelio De Las Maravillas) is a millennial allegory about a bizarre religious cult with a movie-loving priest, self-proclaimed prophetess and dozens of sheepish followers. Unfolding as more than a dozen "mysteries," the non-linear structure is the most interesting aspect of the storytelling that is driven by the arrival of a reformed prostitute (Carolina Papaleo) and sinful teenager Tomasa (Edwarda Gurrola) in the shut-off community.
Veterans Francisco Rabal (Bunuel's "Nazarin") and Katy Jurado (an Oscar nominee in 1954 for "Broken Lance") are the leaders preparing the flock for the coming of a new messiah, and the latter before dying proclaims Tomasa the new prophet. But the youngster rewrites the rules and commands every male to have joyless sex with her. It sounds racy and relevant, but it's ponderous and far from a divine viewing experience.
David Hunter...
Slick and stylish, intriguing at first but ultimately unsatisfying, French director Jean-Pierre Limosin's "Tokyo Eyes" (Un Certain Regard) is an end-of-the-century love story between a bespectacled young rebel who calls himself K (Shinji Takeda) and the younger sister, Hinano (Hinano Yoshikawa), of a police inspector on the trail of a mysterious shooter who randomly confronts people on the streets of Tokyo but misses his targets even at close range.
A happy teenybopper just beginning to pay serious attention to boys, Hinano recognizes K as the unpredictable "virtual killer" in the news and at first wants to help her brother catch him. But once she gets to know the spacy video-game maker, she comes to sympathize with his instant rages at prejudiced, intolerant and callous people who cross his path. While Limosin's technique draws one into the convoluted mystery-thriller-romance and the performances are solid, the film's appeal is limited to younger audiences and U.S. distribution is a long shot.
'Teatro Di Guerra'
A small theater company in Naples struggles to mount a production of Aeschylus' "Seven Against Thebes" in 1994, intending to present the grim drama of war and fratricide in disintegrating Sarajevo. Unfortunately, this frustrating Italian Un Certain Regard offering from acclaimed avant-garde writer-director Mario Martone is too choppy and uninvolving except for the most patient cineastes, with most of the characters remaining sketchy and distant despite a nearly two-hour running time.
Rehearsing in a ramshackle theater in a rough neighborhood, the group of pro and tyro thesps led by Leo (Andrea Renzi) manages to stay afloat despite lack of funding and the disinterest of more successful comrades. Last-minute support comes when Leo agrees to hire a drug-taking star (Anna Bonaiuto), while the situation outside the stage door becomes more ominous with the gunning down of the local Mafia boss. The film builds to an ironic conclusion that underscores the war everywhere between artistic conscience and indifference.
'Divine'
With the unholy ghost of Luis Bunuel hovering over this Un Certain Regard entrant -- iconoclastic Mexican auteur Arturro Ripstein was mentored by the great Spanish surrealist -- "Divine" (El Evangelio De Las Maravillas) is a millennial allegory about a bizarre religious cult with a movie-loving priest, self-proclaimed prophetess and dozens of sheepish followers. Unfolding as more than a dozen "mysteries," the non-linear structure is the most interesting aspect of the storytelling that is driven by the arrival of a reformed prostitute (Carolina Papaleo) and sinful teenager Tomasa (Edwarda Gurrola) in the shut-off community.
Veterans Francisco Rabal (Bunuel's "Nazarin") and Katy Jurado (an Oscar nominee in 1954 for "Broken Lance") are the leaders preparing the flock for the coming of a new messiah, and the latter before dying proclaims Tomasa the new prophet. But the youngster rewrites the rules and commands every male to have joyless sex with her. It sounds racy and relevant, but it's ponderous and far from a divine viewing experience.
David Hunter...
- 5/21/1998
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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