Tale of Tales (2015)

Directed by: Matteo Garrone
Country: Italy / others

Movie Review: Competent Italian filmmaker, Matteo Garrone, who over the last few years has been giving us memorable films such as “Gomorrah” and “Reality”, hauls us into three Baroque tales from the 17th century, in which the real and the unreal go hand in hand. The director, who exquisitely and efficaciously brings in mystical elements and dreamlike sequences, mixing them with the ethereal music by Alexandre Desplat, combines fulgurant medieval settings to host the odd stories, loosely adapted from the fairy-tale collection ‘Il Pentamerone’ by the Neapolitan poet, Giambattista Basile. The first tale tells us about an anguished queen (Selma Hayek) who can’t cope with the impossibility of having children. However, a sinister occultist offers her the solution – the king (John C. Reilly) has to kill a sea monster and rip its heart out, to be cooked by a virgin and eaten by the queen. That way, she will become pregnant immediately. The vaticination comes true, and the queen acts radiant, even losing her husband in the risky sea hunt. What wasn’t explained, was that the virgin who cooked the heart would also get pregnant of a boy who looks exactly the same as the prince, and that they will be forever inseparable. Another tale takes us to an odd king (the unique Toby Jones) who lives with his young daughter, Violet (Bebe Cave). While the daughter sings to him, his attention goes entirely to a flea that hops on his hands. Over the following years, he secretly nurtures the flea, which turns into a gigantic creature. When the flea dies, he decides to exhibit its skin and give his daughter as a bride to whoever guesses its origin. A brute Ogre was the one who wins the trophy, taking the terrified Violet to his dungeon in the highest of the mountains. The last tale is about a lustful king (Vincent Cassel) who falls in love with the angelical voice of a woman whom he has never seen the face. This woman is a wrinkled old woman who surrealistically manages to become young again, leaving her aged sister lonely and jealous. I have to admit that my enthusiasm was let a bit down by an out-of-the-blue conclusion that certainly hides inscrutable philosophical meanings. Anyway, “Tale of Tales”, the first English-language film from Mr.Garrone, bewitched me somehow with its extraordinary, recondite mood.

Mia Madre (2015)

Directed by: Nanni Moretti
Country: Italy / France

Movie Review: I’ve been following Nanni Moretti’s versatile filmmaking career throughout all these years, and he has gained my appreciation by giving a very particular vision about himself and the world that surrounds him. His work ranges from satirical autobiographical essays (“Dear Diary”, “April”), to incisive dramas (the Palm D’Or “The Son’s Room”), to entertaining comedies (“We Have a Pope”) and even political provocations (”The Caiman”). This time around, Moretti’s approach is slightly different, introducing a few new elements to a drama that tries to mirror the real life of a filmmaker who is experiencing great distress. The restless Margherita (Margherita Buy) struggles to shoot her new film about the laborers of an Italian factory demanding their rights, according to her own concept. Inflexible and difficult to get along with, she has trouble to clearly convey her confusing ideas to the actors – ‘you should play the character but also stand next to the character’, she says. The film becomes even more complicated to finish with the arrival of the American actor, Barry Huggins (John Turturro), a sort of ardent, eccentric dreamer who freaks out whenever he gets blocked in his acting. He’s by far the most interesting character of the film. Even sharing some sympathy for each other, director and actor, enter in a, sometimes freeing, course of collision. Besides work, there’s also Margherita’s personal life, which has been turned into hell since her mother was diagnosed with a terminal illness and now lives permanently at the hospital against her will. Margherita and her dedicated brother, Giovanni (Moretti), who doesn’t bring much to the story, were the ones making the decision. Also her daughter, Livia, and a former lover and actor, Vittorio, contribute to the stress, occasionally expressed through unclear dreams and futile flashbacks. “Mia Madre” advances unevenly, at a vapid pace, and only intermittently was able to enforce some emotional weight. Mr. Moretti has seen better days before, but just as his character’s mom, we’re already thinking in tomorrow because this one is middling.

Youth (2015)

Directed by: Paolo Sorrentino
Country: Italy / Switzerland / others

Movie Review: The notable Italian director, Paolo Sorrentino, has a more nostalgic come back with “Youth”, an expressionistic and unflappable poetic opus reflecting on life, work, and creativity, aspects that are differently regarded by two aging, lifelong friends who are spending a period of time in a Swiss spa located near the Alps. The retired maestro and composer, Fred Ballinger (Michael Caine), became embittered and apathetic after his beloved wife got sick, having no intention to conduct again. He often enjoys the presence of his best friend and filmmaker, Mick Boyle (Harvey Keitel) who, in turn, is overexcited with a new upcoming film that he intends to turn into a testament of life, the perfect ending for his career. The good friends like to take long walks, during which they talk about past happenings in detail, agreeing they’ve become forgetful. Occasionally, Fred and Mick have the company of a downcast Hollywood actor, Jimmy Tree (Paul Dano), and of Fred’s daughter, Lena (Rachel Weisz) who is trying to cope with the recent separation from Julian, Mick’s son, who has found in the eccentric pop-star, Paloma Faith (herself), his reason to live. Even the Argentine former soccer star, Maradona (Rolly Serrano), is present, attending to his bad shape, which also makes him wonder about the future. Apart from these secondary and yet conspicuous characters, it’s enriching to see how Fred and Mick change significantly when facing two personal challenges: the former received an invitation to play for the queen of England, while the latter gets disappointed when his first-choice actress, Brenda, refuses to participate in his film. Bringing to mind Raul Ruiz’s final work, the observant “Youth” doesn’t exhibit the same catchy sumptuousness as “The Great Beauty”, but still manages to create a salutary harmony when it puts together the diversified score, gentle pace, sturdy photography, and reliable performances. The hearty musical finale doesn’t beat Petzold’s “Phoenix”; anyhow, it’s still worthy of mention.

Pasolini (2014)

Directed by: Abel Ferrara
Country: Italy / France / others

Movie Review: After a very personal and stinging recreation of the Dominique Strauss-Kahn case in “Welcome to New York”, Italian filmmaker Abel Ferrara continues fearlessly examining lives, and giving his own vision about the relevant situations involving them. This time he has chosen the last days of Pier Paolo Pasolini, a distinctive fellow professional and poet, author of masterpieces such as: “Accatone”, “Mamma Roma” and “The Gospel According St. Matthews”. The film starts with an interview to Mr. Pasolini where he speaks about his shocking last film “Saló”, admitting that sex is politics and that he draws some pleasure in scandalizing the audience. To quote him: ‘The ones who refuse the pleasure of being scandalized are moralists’. Explaining next that since he’s not a moralist, he accepts the insults from the people who don’t understand his work. Willem Defoe is once again Ferrara’s first choice, and an assured one, even when the character is more controlled, as in this case. “Pasolini” arrives intellectually and morally defiant but leaves in the shadow, due to the incapacity of tunneling in a clear way all the episodes that were supposed to form the final picture. One of them is the short appearance of the actress Laura Betti (Maria de Medeiros), Pasolini’s close friend – in a scene that seems not to have a purpose. Nevertheless, we can still have a notion of his personality, family life, politic ideologies, work philosophy, and sexuality - witnessing furtive sexual adventures with male youngsters. The real Ninetto Davoli, who at the age of 15 became Pasolini’s lover, plays Epifanio in a film inside the film, created from an unfinished script. Visually unrefined, fuzzy, and flawed, “Pasolini” still provides a worthy experience, yet those familiar with the director’s life are better positioned to enjoy it.

Black Souls (2014)

Directed by: Francesco Munzi
Country: Italy

Movie Review: In this screen adaptation of Gioacchino Criaco’s novel, director and co-writer Francesco Munzi retrieves the essential aspects that compose the traditional Italian Mafia pictures – family, power, honor, pride, and vengeance. With some atmospheric resemblances to Francesco Rosi’s cinema, he tells the story of three brothers from rural Calabria whose choices and postures lead them to different lives. The eldest, Luciano (Fabrizio Ferracane), lives quietly on his farm but gets constantly worried about his troublesome adolescent son, Leo (Giuseppe Fumo); Rocco (Peppino Mazzotta) and Luigi (Marco Leonardi) live in Milan where they established a small illicit organization. The former is the brain of this disguised pineapple distribution company, showing a calculative and prudent posture, while the latter is carefree and shares the same sneaky way of thinking of his nephew Leo who visits his uncles, against the will of his father, to learn and earn his place and respect. Somehow, this fierce young lad will be co-responsible for the family’s decadence. Mr. Munzi takes his time to span every character, giving us the precise notion of their scope of actions. Adopting cavernous tones and comfortless images, the film appeals more to the intellect than properly to the eyes. Its narrative is solidly constructed and some details help to contextualize and understand what’s going on in the family - mostly being a film of men, there are some powerful feminine presences, especially the critical and jittery Rocco’s wife, Valeria (Barbora Bobulova). The startling finale comes to be crucial, elevating the film from its apparent languorous state. It’s an obscure and pertinent glimpse at the Calabrian Mafia known as ‘Ndrangheta.

La Buca (2014)

Directed by: Daniele Cipri
Country: Italy

Movie Review: Filmmaker and cinematographer, Daniele Cipri, is trying to find his own space in contemporary Italian cinema. That particular task is not so simple, and the truth is that by proceeding to a comparison of his two latest works, we observe a significant oscillation in quality. His more recent comedy “La Buca” adopts the same stirring posture (very Italian) as used in the accomplished “It Was a Son”, dated from 2012. Both are satires, so why the former stays a few steps behind the latter? There was a bunch of very defined factors that made that difference to loom. “It Was a Son” satirizes the greediness of a Sicilian family after the accidental death of one of their children in a shootout between Mafia gangsters. The story was sufficiently funny, straightforward and expressive in order to grab immediately our attention. “La Buca”, in turn, takes a long time chewing the adventures of a not less greedy lawyer who tries to live from monetary compensations obtained by fake injuries or accidents. The film was unable to flow accordingly, not even when Oscar, the whimsical lawyer, tries to win a genuine case for a fragile man, Armando, who was condemned to 30 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. The characters were not so interesting, and of course Oscar Castellitto and Valeria Bruna Tedeschi fall short when weighed with the magnificent Toni Servillo and Giselda Volodi, stars in “It Was a Son”. If this wasn’t enough, “La Buca” throws ungracious jokes that explains its blandness as a comedy and compromises its intentions to mock with the already ridiculous situation. Only Armando’s senile mother lets my face broke into a grin, which is meager for a comedy.

The Wonders (2014)

Directed by: Alice Rohrwacher
Country: Italy / others

Movie Review: Alice Rohrwacher is an emergent Italian filmmaker whose impressive talent could be proven in her debut “Corpo Celeste”. In her second feature-length, “The Wonders”, she keeps involving us with her powerful filmmaking, vigorously pushing us into a story that conveys as much beauty as sadness, in its own melancholic yet observant way. The characters are intriguing; it seems that there’s always something to be discovered in them. This sense of unpredictability is present throughout all the film, functioning as a secret formula to keep us pursuing a story that takes the time to evolve. With an attentive social awareness, “The Wonders” is centered on teenager Gelsomina who lives in a rural region with her parents and three younger sisters. Their house seems not to gather the best conditions to be living in but has a neat honey laboratory that mainly guarantees their livelihood. Being a real expert with bees, Gelsomina is indispensable to her father, Wolfgang, a traditional beekeeper whose stubbornness and strictness is followed by limited ambitions. Since he lacks responsibility and is a big spender, indulging himself into certain eccentricities like buying a camel to reward his daughter’s work, the family has sunk in debt. A unique opportunity to overcome the situation arises when they are invited to participate in a TV show contest for farmers called ‘The Land of Wonders’. Gelsomina, despite stuck in her family life, will also reveal an admirable maturity when deal with an emotionally insecure friend of the family, Cocó, and a quiet troubled teen, Martin, who arrived to help her father. The uncanny finale proves that this family doesn’t break, even in the worst situations. Slightly less riveting than “Corpo Celeste”, “The Wonders”, overall is a palpable, rich drama.

The Mafia Only Kills in Summer (2013)

Directed by: Pierfrancesco Diliberto
Country: Italy

Movie Review: Italian TV star, Pierfrancesco Diliberto a.k.a. Pif, has his directorial debut with the valid but not essential, “The Mafia Only Kills in the Summer”, a romantic comedy mixed with politics and crime, in which he also stars. Arturo, the film narrator and central character, is a young boy whose first word was mafia. In fact, the film shows that the Sicilian Mafia, in one way or another, always had considerable impact in his life. Since a young child, he nourished a sweet passion for his classmate Flora, but the dangerous circumstances lived in Palermo led them to lost contact for several years. Misunderstood by his father, he gains an early fascination for the chairman of the board and future president, Giulio Andreotti (amazingly depicted in the film “Il Divo” by the master Sorrentino), after listening on TV to one of his speeches. This passion for politics and the curiosity for the criminal actions lived in the city he was born, will push him into journalism. Arturo will go through some uneasy incidents before an unexpected reencounter with Flora in political circumstances. “The Mafia Only Kills in Summer” was not so funny as I was expecting, but smartly exposes in a more lighthearted than profound manner, a good slice of the agitated history of Palermo and its spirit lived in the eighties and beginning of nineties. Diliberto achieved much better results by exposing the assassinations perpetrated by the Mafiosi and how the people dealt with them, than properly in the romantic side, which required some more seasoning to better engage. Arturo’s final message was much appreciated, though.

Salvo (2013)

Directed by: Fabio Grassadonia, Antonio Piazza
Country: Italy / France

Movie Review: Winner of the critic’s week grand prize at Cannes, “Salvo”, the debut feature from Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza, tells us a standard story of crime and romance set in the torrid Palermo, presenting it in a non-standard way. Salvo (Saleh Bakri) is a quiet, determined and unmerciful hitman who works for the Sicilian mafia. When trying to ambush a traitor inside his house, he bumps into Rita (Sara Serraiocco), the blind sister of his target. Salvo, accomplishes his task, killing the man, but in a mix of pity and admiration spares Rita, keeping her hostage inside the house. An act of compassion that, going against the mafia rules, consequently puts both their lives at stake. It was interesting to notice that Salvo, visibly tired of living in the shadows, was starting to humanize himself – his love for Rita made him a better man and he seemed enjoying that beneficial effect. This notion was observable when he returns the kindness of his landlords for the first time. The film plays with a variety of atmospheres, in which the use of light, sound, and silence, have preponderant roles, at times causing claustrophobic sensations. Its minimal dialogues and decelerated pace can be an obstacle for some viewers, and the love story never transcends itself into something memorable, but in the other hand, the sensorial experience provided and the changeable moods through a different way of filmmaking, worth the ride.

Human Capital (2013)

Directed by: Paolo Virzi
Country: Italy / France

Movie Review: Solid cinematic adaptation of Stephen Amidon’s American novel of the same name, “Human Capital” was directed by Paolo Virzi (“The First Beautiful Thing”, “Every Blessed Day”), considered an effective storyteller for the screen. The film is a poignant look into a rotten society, which is capable of anything to maintain their comfort in life and avoid to be swallowed by a rampant economic recession. The contrasts between middle and high classes are well delimited, as two families cross paths to face greediness, bankruptcy, infidelity, and even deal with a death. Dino Ossola, a middle class real estate investor is determined to get ahead in life. Taking advantage of the relationship of his daughter Serena with the spoiled son of Giovanni Bernaschi, one of the wealthiest hedge fund managers of Italy, he embarks in a risky business and without moment’s notice sees his financial life completely upside down. Intriguingly, the death of a cyclist in a crash with a car drove by the discredited Luca, Serena’s true love, will serve as salvation for some and misfortune for others. The film is divided into four chapters, where the first three report on the inconvenient greedy Dino, the insecure and unfaithful Carla (Giovanni’s wife), and the passionate Serena, in a determined period of time, while the last one, entitled ‘human capital’, represents the solution adopted to solve the problem. The compelling narrative structure and flawless direction were enhanced by the splendid performances, with particular mention to Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, best actress at Tribeca Film Festival.

Honey (2013)

Directed by: Valeria Golino
Country: Italy / France

Movie Review: Italian actress Valeria Golino (“Rain Man”, “Respiro”, “Frida, “Quiet Chaos”) directs her first feature film, “Honey”, based on the novel “A Nome Tuo” by Mauro Covacich. Jasmine Trinca stars as Irene, a young woman who uses the codename Miele (Honey) when she dedicates, body and soul, to assisted suicides. Often traveling to Mexico in order to easily obtain the right drug to apply on the multi-age terminally ill patients, Irene is seen as a gift by the despaired ones, in a task she considers respectful and necessary. One day, her conscience will be violently shaken after she meets with Carlo Grimaldi, an old Roman engineer who evinces his wish to die due to simple boredom of life. “Honey” moves in the right direction, being simultaneously humane and severe in its analysis but without always show the expected intensity to involve me deeply. It showed so much potential but left me with the sensation that could be better explored in terms of ambiance. Notwithstanding, its plot brings moral and other pertinent questions to be careful examined, and its visuals are aesthetically engaging. Trinca was very appropriate for the role of an anguished woman, trying to do the right options in life and struggling to be in peace with her conscience. Golino’s “Honey” resulted more effective when compared with other films about the same topic, such as the also Italian “The Dormant Beauty”, but lacking the emotional impact of “The Sea Inside”. Choosing to die, and in which conditions – that is the question!

Viva La Libertà (2013)

Directed by: Roberto Andó
Country: Italy

Movie Review: “Viva La Libertà” is a political dramedy directed with passion by Roberto Andó, based on his own novel. The film depicts the atypical story of Enrico Oliveri, the secretary of the main Italian opposition party, who after a depressive crisis, decides to avoid responsibilities, abandoning his tiresome life and traveling to Paris where he will be received by an actress friend and former lover, Danielle, now married with a famous filmmaker. His absence will cause the chaos inside the party, which isn’t seen as a good alternative to the actual government, according to the latest opinion polls. That’s when an assistant who operates behind the scenes, Andrea Bottini, with the approval of Enrico’s wife, comes with the only possible solution: to occupy the vacant post with Enrico’s twin brother Giovani Ernani, a creative philosopher who suffers from bipolar depression. With the twins extremely well adapted to their new lives, a bunch of risky, funny, and occasionally improbable situations will take place. As usual, Toni Servillo has a superb performance, being impressive in the way he gives shape to the two twins – Enrico, more pensive and sufferer, while Giovani was more seductive and spirited. Even if the script is difficult to believe in its whole, “Viva La Libertà” put on the screen the expressive and ironic elements so characteristic of Italian cinema, whereas madness, dance, passionate romance, and fervent speeches, kept the film well alive.

A Magnificent Haunting (2012)

Directed by: Ferzan Ozpetek
Country: Italy

Movie Review: Not original in concept but depicted in agreeable tones, “A Magnificent Haunting” is a feel-good comedy without any other pretention than entertain us with the story of Pietro (Elio Germano), a homosexual croissant-maker who planned to change his life radically after the death of his father. He decides to leave his hometown, Catania, to live in Rome’s district of Monteverde. Pietro, always backed up by his inseparable and disoriented cousin, Maria (Paola Minaccioni), decides to rent a big old house in need of repair, but soon realizes that the place is occupied by amiable ghosts of several actors who belonged to a famous theatrical company called Apollonio, mysteriously disappeared during the wartime. The first signs of fear vanish when Pietro realizes that his hosts just want to leave the house for good, but also can be of great help in order to achieve his dream: to become an actor. Turkish director residing in Italy, Ferzan Ozpetek, continues to refuse stressful or disturbing plots, preferring instead charming dramas with hints of romance or light comedies as this one. Offering some good humor and bouncing performances from Germano and Maccioni, both winners of an Italian Golden Globe, “A Magnificent Haunting” is far from being essential, but provides good laid-back moments with its gentle and spirited aura. The film was well received in Moscow, winning the audience award, as well as the Russian Film Clubs Federation Award.

It Was the Son (2012)

Directed by: Daniele Cipri
Country: Italy

Movie Review: Confrontational and witty, “It Was the Son” makes a deliciously poignant look into a Sicilian family marked by the misfortune of an accidental death and its own greediness. Presented as a story inside a story, the film manages quite well in combining drama and humor, which is carry out in a subtle and peculiar manner. Toni Servillo is brilliant in the role of Nicola Ciraulo, a father who lost his young daughter, Serenella, shot accidentally by the Mafia. After the first impact, Nicola decides to ask for a State’s compensation for his loss, being granted with 220 million lire after a long wait due to bureaucratic issues. For this same reason, the money was put on hold for another eternity and Ciraulo family got almost anything to eat, sank in more and more debts. Surviving with the help of suspicious loans, Nicola becomes desperate. But right after the money has been transfered to his bank account, he came up with an ironic solution: to buy a blue Mercedes, protected with determination by all the family members. The disgrace came when Nicola’s son, the apathetic Tancredi, convinced by his exemplar cousin Masino, decides to drive the car to the local cinema. Some details in direction deserve good attention, and the same is applied to the acute cinematography given in glossy tones (Golden Osella at Venice). The identity of the man who tells the story didn’t cause any surprise but the story’s denouement created a staggering impact. An effective tale of greed based on the novel by Roberto Alaimo.

Il Futuro (2013)

Directed by: Alicia Scherson
Country: Italy / Chile / others

Movie Review: Chilean filmmaker Alicia Scherson travels to Rome, embarking in an ambitious project based on the last novel by Roberto Bolaño entitled “Una Novelita Lumpen”, dedicated to his two children and published for the first time in Spain, in 2002. The result was a powerful film that became easy to follow due to the curiosity aroused by their accurately built characters. The film is narrated by Bianca (Manuela Martelli), an orphan teenager who lost her parent’s in a car accident, has to keep an eye on her younger brother, Tomas (Luigi Ciardo), a reckless school skipper that hangs out with two bodybuilders of doubtful reputation. Not by chance, these characters installed themselves in the siblings' apartment since they had a plan to rob a blind, former actor and bodybuilder called Maciste (Rutger Hauer). For that, and with the future in mind, they persuade Bianca to act as bait, offering intimate pleasures to get access to his lugubrious mansion. A menacing sensation is constantly present, enhanced by the gloomy atmosphere and dim lights that surround the sinister character of Maciste. The confident direction can be sensed when the obscure scenarios become filled with a sort of enchantment ruled by strange forces and mixed with an absorbing psychological perversity associated to every act related to Bianca. Beautifully shot, “Il Futuro” is a confrontational coming-of-age tale about changing, where good and bad, present and future, sincerity and falseness, pureness and vice, are laid bare with purpose.

The Great Beauty (2013)

Directed by: Paolo Sorrentino
Country: Italy

Movie Review: “The Great Beauty” is a sharp, well-observed, critical portrait of contemporary Rome, created through the life of Jep Gambardella (Toni Servillo), a 65-year-old writer who doesn’t write for 40 years when his unique novel attained fame. Since that time, his life consists of interviewing some personalities, night parties, sporadic and inconsequent romances, lively chats with his literary group of friends, and lots of gossip regarding roman society. Jep confesses when he came to Rome with the age of 26 he wanted to be the king of highlife, but lately, he is feeling old and a bit tired of the city, an emptiness that starts to get worse when he observes attentively all his friends and sees old acquaintances dying. Very artistic, both in form and content, “The Great Beauty” is a Fellini-esque satire of a man and the city he lives. And believe me, there is a lot to look at here; so many meaningful scenes and important details projected this film into the limelight. The constant visual changings made by shadows and lights, reinforced the fun and sadness of Jep’s world, with all its pleasures and bohemia. Toni Servillo, who often marks presence in Sorrentino’s films (“The Consequences Of Love”, “Il Divo”), was fantastic in this role, playing with absolute commitment the man who enjoyed life looking for the great beauty to move forward. Sophisticated and elegantly presented, “The Great Beauty” is a true gem that restates Paolo Sorrentino as the most solid representative of modern Italian cinema.

Shun Li And The Poet (2011)

Directed by: Andrea Segre
Country: Italy / France

Review: Italian documentarian Andrea Segre has here a sweet-n-sour debut on fiction, with “Shun Li And The Poet”, a pensive drama that depicts immigration in its modern forms of slavery. Shun Li (Tao Zhao), is a Chinese woman who has been working for eight years in a textile factory in the suburbs of Rome, where she patiently expects the arrival of her son. Under the orders of a doubtful employment agency, she is suddenly moved to Chioggia, a small fishing town that they call Little Venice, to work temporarily in a bar. There, she will become friends with Bepi aka The Poet (Rade Serbedzija), a retired fisherman whose loneliness seems to be relieved with Shun Li’s presence. Their closeness will provoke rumors of all kinds in the town, and soon Bepi starts to realize that to be with her, might not be possible at all. With a keen cinematography, Segre creates a serene portrayal of the situation, almost without any tension. The only scene in which he explores tension had to do with the fishermen’s disagreements. This introspection and subtleness worked well in most of the situations, but there were times that the addition of some guts would have been advantageous. Awarded in Venice, “Shun Li And The Poet” is not a bad film; yet, it could have explored other ways to better denounce this sad reality, perhaps in a grittier manner rather than timid.

Siberian Education (2013)

Directed by: Gabriele Salvatores
Country: Italy

Review: Inspired by Nicolai Lilin’s biography, “Siberian Education” is the first English-language film from Italian filmmaker Gabriele Salvatores, best known through the works “I’m Not Afraid”, and especially the Oscar-winner “Mediterraneo”. Starring John Malkovich as Grandfather Kuzya, a Siberian educator and boss of crime, the film counts with a non-Italian cast, headed by two debutant Lithuanians. They play two fearless friends who since childhood, learned the rules to be part of the Siberian clan, but decided to go opposite ways after one of them has been arrested. Friendship, honor, and survival instincts, were depicted in a way that never pleased me, despite the astonishing cinematography by Italo Petriccione. The English words were pronounced with an annoying accent, and the film was never able to convey the seriousness needed for the matter, opting instead to make several attempts to create humorous situations, which fell in complete banality. Even the romance between one of the Siberians, Kolyma, and his doctor’s daughter, Xemya, was totally out of interest and depicted with a considerable amount of stupidity. Scattered and tedious, “Siberian Education” didn’t bring anything more than a dissimulated agitation that never convinced me, only increasing my disconnection with its characters and their motives.

The Best Offer (2012)

Directed by: Giuseppe Tornatore
Country: Italy

Review: Tornatore, best known for his masterpiece “Cinema Paradiso” and responsible for other remarkable films such as “Pure Formality” or “The Legend of 1900”, presents us a curious but ultimately disappointing heist thriller named “The Best Offer”, featuring a Geoffrey Rush in a very good shape. The story follows Virgil Oldman (Rush), a famous and inaccessible auctioneer of antique art, who unexpectedly becomes obsessed with Claire (Sylvia Hoeks), a mysterious client who was always absent due to suffering from agoraphobia. Tornatore shows to know how to set the right mood, filming with refinement and presenting an interesting direction, but sadly the plot revealed too obvious twists to engage. The quarrels and reconciliations between Virgil and Claire, especially before they met in person, never gave the impression of real, and after an hour of ups and downs, the boredom took care of me. I became impatient, waiting for something that could surprise me somehow, and being able to figure out all the characters’ schemes, within a plot too overcooked and often lost in flimsy situations. Even the moments of voyeurism, which usually cause expectation, were ineffective. “The Best Offer” proves a skillful Tornatore behind the cameras but in need of a more accurate and enthralling screenwriting.

Twice Born (2012)

Directed by: Sergio Castellitto
Country: Italy / Spain

Review:“Twice Born” is an Italian drama set amidst war in the Balkan Peninsula. Penelope Cruz stars in the main role, in her second collaboration with film director Sergio Castellitto, eight years after “Don’t Move”. The plot was based on Margaret Mozzantini’s novel with the same name, and describes the complex story of Gemma, whose unexpected trip to Sarajevo, will make her remind the years in which she gained a son in anomalous circumstances but failed to keep the love of her life. By diving in Gemma’s past, we get to know the difficulties she went through until go back to Rome with a child in her hands. The direction was tolerable, yet the film exhibits some senseless situations that left me perplexed. Sometimes these situations were so ridiculous or inept that I was completely left adrift, trying to seize what Castellito wanted to show with them. We have the example of a psychologist who starts to cry after a child has been refused to Gemma for adoption, or a friendly soccer game in the streets that suddenly becomes aggressive, or even some emotional bursts from the characters that seemed completely overdramatized and out of balance. This indulgent posture, even if occasional, removed any possible impact when weighty revelations were made. Despite the auspicious story, “Twice Born” was never catchy, showing lack of strength in the most fundamental moments.