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Reviews
The Room Next Door (2024)
Good but not completely
Pedro Almodóvar's latest film, "The Room Next Door", is a poignant and visually stunning exploration of friendship, mortality, and dignity in the face of death. Adapted from Sigrid Nunez's novel *What Are You Going Through*, the movie marks Almodóvar's first foray into English-language cinema and features Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore in deeply compelling roles.
The story revolves around Ingrid (Moore), a writer, and Martha (Swinton), a former war correspondent facing terminal cancer. Martha asks Ingrid to be present in the adjoining room as she plans to end her life through euthanasia, setting the stage for a reflective, intimate narrative. Almodóvar skillfully avoids making the film a polemic on euthanasia, instead focusing on the emotional layers of their friendship, filled with shared memories, unspoken tensions, and moments of humor. Swinton embodies Martha's serenity and acceptance of her fate, while Moore captures Ingrid's anxiety and inner turmoil as she grapples with the reality of Martha's decision.
The film balances heavy themes with moments of levity and beauty, showcasing Almodóvar's signature visual style, from bold color palettes to evocative, intimate framing. The performances are to be praised, and Swinton and Moore's chemistry is riveting as their characters navigate the complexities of life and death. Still I have hard time to believe their friendship beacuse there is something contrived and forced.
Anyway the director's exploration of mortality is as rich and thought-provoking resonating with themes from his earlier films like *Pain and Glory* and the film is an unforgettable meditation on what it means to truly show up for someone in their final moments, making.
The Substance (2024)
an interesting mix
The Substance is a film that tackles a pressing issue in our society: aging, particularly in the entertainment industry, where staying perpetually young and attractive is almost a prerequisite. This modern form of enslavement affects everyone to varying degrees, depending on one's moral compass. Director Coralie Fargeat, part of an intriguing wave of French filmmakers exploring horror (think of Julia Ducournau's Titane), crafts her narrative around an actress who has risen to fame and now hosts a successful morning show. However, she's unceremoniously replaced by a younger newcomer.
Elisabeth (an extraordinary Demi Moore) spirals into despair and turns to shadowy figures promising to restore her beauty and youth. She succeeds, but at a steep cost, creating a doppelgänger-Sue (Margaret Qualley, previously seen in Yorgos Lanthimos's films)-who is as successful as she is sinister.
Without giving away spoilers, the film shifts into splatter territory towards the finale, but along the way, it draws from a rich tapestry of references: Cronenberg's body horror, Wilde's *The Picture of Dorian Gray,* and Wilder's *Sunset Boulevard.*
This isn't a film for everyone-those with weak stomachs might want to steer clear-but it's a work that will endure. It serves as a powerful commentary on the spectacle-driven society Guy Debord critiqued, a world now amplified by social media, where the relentless pursuit of appearance consumes us all.
Giorni Felici (2023)
Happy Days are never gone forever
Simone Petralia's film addresses an important theme: the story of a love affair in a sober and poetic manner, without excesses, with a clear demarcation between the "happy days" of a couple lived outside, in freedom, and the present days that take place inside a house.
The female protagonist, an actress (Anna Galiena), speaks, recites, gestures, and takes the stage, while the male protagonist, a director (Franco Nero), is silent and moody. These two roles reflect the fiction of cinema and the reality of life.
An illness brings the two closer in a different way than in the past; love becomes the intangible touch between two hands, care, and a final gesture of love that cannot help but touch the heart.
The film indirectly cites a poem by my beloved Emily Dickinson:
Those who are loved do not know death,
because love is immortality,
or rather, it is divine substance.
Those who love do not know death,
because love makes life reborn
in divinity.
A must watch for anyone who loves life.
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Le otto montagne (2022)
a deep human relationship
This is a very special film about a lifelong friendship between Bruno (Alessandro Borghi) and Pietro (Luca Marinelli). Bruno was born and raised in the mountain, while Pietro learned to love the mountain through his father (Filippo Timi) but he is from the big city, Turin.
Felix Groeningen and are people from flatlands, but sincerely fascinated by the book and learned to love high mountain. This is a film about this friendship, often silent and distant, but very deep ubreakable. It's also a film about the few Europeans who still love places of great beauty but distant from social interaction and the comfort of technology. As at one point Bruno says he is good at one thing: to live alone on the mountain. This is a quality that is more and more rare and the directors have made a great film.
Il filo invisibile (2022)
Two thumbs up!
The story is quite good and new, it's far from the usual and it's a look at how a relationship has to endure after 20 years. The war between the dads is a bit excessive, but not too much and adds to the comedy as well as the drama, the rest of story is quite realistic.
This a totally new gay movie, it addresses to both straight and lgbt audiences. A big plus are the strong lead actors - Filippo Timi, Francesco Scianna above all, but also the newcomer Francesco Gheghi, maybe not as experienced, but surely being well supported by the director, he is a rue heartbreaker.
At the end of the day it's a beautiful movie one could watch definitely more than once.
Come il vento (2013)
a powerful film
I saw yesterday at an industry screening in Los Angeles the film Come Il Vento, (Like the wind). It's a powerful film, with a strong, sorrowful character. Armida Miserere, one name two tragedies as she ironically calls herself, was a woman that was strangled by a power system (the jail) dominated by violence and corruption. She had to be strong, sometime hard, but the film shows that she tries in anyway to keep her humanity. In fact, even if the film tells a dark story, it's not heavy or hard to watch, but rather moving and engaging. Valeria Golino, this wonderful Italian actress with an extensive American film background, gives to Armida her vitality and her sensuality and makes this controversial role genuine sympathetic. The film subject could easily be made for television, and in some moment it could fall in the genre, but the director's approach has a unique style, it's always original and digs deeply into the story and the character. I was totally blown away from such a powerful film and I think this is one of those kind of film that will stay in time. The film was released only recently in Italy after screening at the Rome film festival and still waits its international premiere, I believe it deserves the best form the festival circuits and from distributors world wide.