Chris Knipp Writing: Movies, Politics, Art


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PostPosted: Sat Jun 14, 2008 7:05 am 
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My impression is that this was a considerably stronger set of selections than last year's. Though it's severe and not very appealing, over time Andrea Molaioli's much-awarded-in-Italy The Girl by the Lake does impress with its subtlety and control and good acting. For me the winner was Andrea Porporati's The Sweet and the Bitter Its appearance of a conventional gangster story is misleading. Luigi Lo Cascio turns in a superb performance as a carefully constructed composite portrait of a mafioso "pentito," a "turncoat" soldier of the syndicate who turns state's evidence in despair and anger after a life of insecurity and betrayal, in return for a pretty thin leval of "witness protection." Of course there's plenty of violence here but that's essential to show how the life was lived. The outlook isn't thrills and chills but a portrait that's contemporary and accurate. The Sweet and the Bitter is also a movie with flair and a sense of drama. Nothing wrong with that either.

More in the order of pure entertainments are Night Bus, a slightly discheveled but very enjoyable comedy/thriller/romance, and the murder mystery//coming of age story The Right Distance, where a young journalist solves a crime involving a man of North African origin living in a rural part of the Po Valley.

More serious and admirable in their way are Piano Solo, the biopic about a doomed jazzman that's a superb vehicle for the talented Kim Rossi Stewart, and a beautiful looking film; and the turbulent and well-meaning if imperfectly constructed Ms. F, about the Turin Mirafiori FIAT strikes that shook Italy in the early 1980's, told a bit too much in terms of conflicting personal passions and a whirlwind romance. Silvio Soldini's Days and Clouds is another serious and very watchable piece of work about how a marriage and an upper-middleclass family are shaken to the core by a corporate downsizing.

That's already a good solid handful of very watchable stuff. There was nothing outlandish like Tornatore's The Unknown Woman of last year, and nothing so forgettable as 2/3 of the other selections. But The Unknown Woman was recently showing in a New York theater--so, go figure.

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