A controversy between the Venice Film Festival and the upcoming Roma Cinema Festival, which I mentioned in my last article, has been left out for the moment, and there haven’t been many other events to gossip about. The only extra noteworthy incident to talk about was the cast from The Black Dahlia arriving at the opening ceremony with a delay of one hour because of a precious brooch that didn’t want to have anything to do with Scarlet Johansson’s hairdo. So, after four days from the official opening and three days packed with films, we can finally talk about cinema.
All the films shown since the Festival’s opening, or rather, all those that were eagerly expected by public and journalists, were not, in fact, fully convincing.
Brian De Palma’s Black Dahlia, too predictable; Allen Coulter’s Hollywoodland, scholastic; Douglas McGrath’s Infamous, superfluous; Santiago Amigorena’s Quelques jours en septembre, unintentionally comical and boring; Vincenzo Marra’s L’udienza è aperta, provincial; Marina Spada’s Come l’ombra, feeble and pretentious; Verhoven’s Zwartboek sordid and stale; Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center, too predictably moving.
Well, wasn’t there really any movie deserving praise?
Sure there was.
You people should really have attended the screening of Alain Resnais’ absolute masterpiece: Coeurs. At no less than eighty-four, this Director gives us a movie that is a gentle and melancholy portrait of human loneliness and the fragility of feelings. Without stage tricks or happy endings, Coeurs is a bitter although not cynical consideration on men and women, brought to us with that naturalness that only great artists have. Italian actress Laura Morante’s great starring must also be pointed out.
More: if you want to go to the movies next winter, and see a film about young people’s issues, take note of Reitz’s Heimat-Fragmenteche or Ethan Hawke’s Th
e Hottest State. Noteworthy are also: Apichatpong’s Sang Sattawat, which is dreamy and enchanting; Kon Satochi’s anime Paprika; Seung-wan Ryoo’s western Jjakpae; Spike Lee’s documentary When the leeves broke: a requiem in four acts about the Katrina hurricane; Stephen Frears’ The Queen, not just for lady D lovers.
We must admit that new Italian cinema hasn’t given us much satisfaction up to now during this Festival. Just to give you an example, all applause has been for great stars of the past, like Anna Magnani in Roma, città aperta.
But the Festival is in progress, and who knows if an Italian still holds the trump card?
More coming, so stay tuned!
Before leaving you, there is a sad last news item from Italy: the Italian comic actor Francesco Nuti has been hospitalized tonight due to a cerebral hemorrage. Doctors say there is still hope for his recovery, and we wish him the best. I will write more about him after the Festival is over.