Of particular Catholic interest are two films, Kidnapped, the story of a Jewish boy adopted by Pope Pius IX, and Caravaggio’s Shadow, the artist accused of and tried for murder. But other movies to watch out for are:
THE EIGHT MOUNTAINS/ LE OTTO MONTAGNE, Italy, 2022. Starring Luca Marinelli, Alessandro Borghi, Elena Lietti, Filippo Timi. Directed by Felix van Groningen, Charlotte Vandermeersch. 147 minutes.
This is a drama about friendship. It is also a drama about the different paths that life takes. While the setting is the Italian Alps, filmed spectacularly in the mountains, the valleys, the lakes, in the variety of seasons, the title does not just simply refer to these locations. Rather, there is a drawing, echoes of Eastern mysticism, a circle, lines of division across the circle forming different sectors, but a central point, a peak. The explanation is that one can go to the centre, the peak, remain there or, rather, one can travel about the different sectors, the eight mountains. Which is the template, so to speak, for the two characters in this film. They are Pietro and Bruno.
The two meet as 11-year-old boys. Pietro comes from Turin with his parents for the summer holidays in the Alps, Bruno is a boy at home in the mountains. They share a number of adventures during the holidays. This childhood section of the film is very engaging.
Pietro narrates the film, and he reveals to us that several years pass and the two teenagers paths cross, Pietro recognising Bruno coming into a bar, Bruno nodding but then leaving with his fellow workers. And then, with some dismay, Pietro reveals that they did not see each other for 15 years. In the meantime, Pietro has clashed severely with his father.
It is Bruno who makes the move after the 15 years, listening to Pietro, then revealing the Bruno has been in touch with Pietro’s father over the years and had received a bequest from him, asking him to build a house high in the mountains. The invitation is for Pietro to work with him.
This gives Bruno a sense of direction, handling his bricklaying skills, reminding him of his love for the mountains, is deciding to stay, cattle, milking, cheesemaking, eventually marrying one of Pietro’s friends, a daughter, prosperity, financial difficulties . . .
While Pietro values connecting with Bruno and also the achievement of building the house, his life in Turin seems to have little value. Bruno reminds him he once thought to be a writer and Pietro travels, visiting and settling in Nepal, becoming in touch a deeper sense of himself and his abilities, writing and publishing.
And so it goes over the years, Pietro in Nepal establishing a life there, returning to Italy and bonding with Bruno and his family, with his mother.
This is a film of a long-time friendship, bonding, sharing, absences, encouragement, achievement, failures, sadness. Bruno has stayed at the centre in his mountain while Pietro has travelled and experience the wider range of the eight mountains.
IL CERCHIO/THE CIRCLE, Italy, 2022. Directed by Sophie Chiarello. 108 minutes.
A significant documentary about primary school children, it was filmed over a period of five years, beginning when the children at the centre of the film were five and six, moving through each year until they came to the end of the primary school period, aged 11 to 12.
This is a film for parents and teachers. It is an opportunity to listen to the children, the issues they raise, their interactions with one another, the growing sense of responsibility . . . But the film would also be very interesting to children, for parents and teachers to gauge the children’s response, empathies, critiques.
The film was made in Rome in a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic neighbourhood. Some of the children remain at the same school over the period of the five years, while others come to the school after being bullied at another school, and some are the children of migrants.
And the title? The basic idea is for the children to meet regularly, supervised by the teacher, but not in a formal classroom situation, a free circle where topics are raised, questions asked by the teacher but the camera not on the teacher, an opportunity for children to act their age. The camera is firmly focused on the children, a great number of close-ups, extreme close-ups of faces, gathering the range of expressions, spontaneous responses.
STRANEZZA, Italy, 2022. Starring Toni Servillo, Salvatore Ficarra, Valentino Picone, Luigi lo Cascio. Directed by Roberto Ando.
A mainstream audience may find the strangeness of this story difficult to enjoy – and, sometimes, to follow. However, it is a film much for an Italian audience – but also for an audience interested in theatre, the history of theatre, Italian theatre and the playwright and author, Nobel Prize for Literature, Luigi Pirandello.
The setting is 1924, and Pirandello visits his home city Agrigento, Sicily. His nanny from the past has died and he wants to be present for the funeral. But, this is Sicily. There is bureaucracy, mislaid papers, delays – all leading to the presentation of a bribe.
The two men involved in the funeral arrangements and grave digging are comedy duo Salvatore Ficarra and Valentino Picone. Not only do they do the funeral arrangements, they are putting on the play in the local theatre, writing, producing, acting. Pirandello is invited to the performance. There are glimpses of rehearsals, the local amateur actors and their eccentricities, and then the performance. Pirandello is in a box, somewhat detached, but amused. The audience participates, often and loudly. And part of the performance is a satire on the money-grabbing bureaucrat and his relationships, denounced by his wife from the audience.
While the funeral eventually proceeds, Pirandello returns to Rome and draws on the Sicilian experience for his classic play, Six Characters in Search of an Author. The two Sicilians have been invited to Rome, an exciting train expedition, amazed at the city, the theatre, puzzled by the performance. However, the new player has drawn very much on Pirandello’s Sicilian experience and the characters. The play is denounced, booing from the audience, projectiles. However, there is also acclaim for it and it becomes a classic and, in 1934, Pirandello wins the Nobel Prize.
BURNING HEARTS/TI MANGIO IL CUORE, Italy, 2022. Starring Elodie, Francesco Patane, Lidia Vitale, Francesco Di Leva. Directed by Pippo Mezzapeso. 115 minutes.
This is a striking drama but also a grim story from southern Italy about traditional families who work the land but harbour deep-seated rivalries. It is a story of rage, vengeance and violence. The Italian title suggests that a vengeful heart will gnaw at us. And, again very strikingly, it is filmed in black and white.
The opening sequence sets the tone of the film. There is a massacre on a farm with one family destroying the other. A little boy survives hiding in the shed. When he comes out with a huge herd of pigs emerging with him, we see a close-up on his face – the face of vengeance. It is 1960.
The action then moves to 2003. The little boy is now the Don Michele, married with grown-up sons, working the farm, but still in competition with the opposing family. There is also a third family in the region which seems to act as a buffer between the two rivals – but, as we finally see, that is the surface appearance.
The screenplay suggests to us that we think about the Montagues and the Capulets, but not quite in the Romeo and Juliet romantic perspective. Here, there is a tense sexual relationship between one of Don Michele’s sons, Andrea, and Marilena (popular Italian model and singer, Elodie), the wife of a son of the other family who has had to disappear, and hides in a cave.
There are tensions when lovers meet. Don Michele commands his son to break the relationship – and his son swears he will but immediately meets Marilena again. We know that where this will lead – and it does. Except that there is the surprise killing of Don Michele but vengeance tells his family that all the generation of their opponents must be eliminated in compensation. And, with varying degrees of grimness, this happens.
But the film moves in developments we might not have anticipated. Marilena seeks refuge with Andrea’s family, which they accept, reluctantly. Especially severe is Andrea’s mother, and outspokenly vengeful matriarch. Complications, pregnancy and Marilena becomes part of the family. But, the expectation is that Andrea will be the executor of the vengeance. He has never killed, finds himself in a situation where he shoots. Audiences who remember Al Pacino has Michael Corleone in The Godfather and his descent into assuming the Godfather role, will follow Andrea’s decline with the same interest and revulsion.
Italian Film Festival dates
Sydney: 19 September – 18 October
Canberra: 20 September – 18 October
Adelaide: 20 September – 15 October
Melbourne: 21 September – 18 October
Brisbane: 27 September – 25 October
Perth: 28 September – 25 October
Byron Bay: 28 September – 18 October