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Film: A Perfect Day
Release date: 4th October 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 101 mins
Director: Ferzan Ozpetek
Starring: Valerio Mastandrea, Isabella Ferrari, Monica Guerritore, Nicole Grimaudo, Valerio Binasco
Genre: Drama
Studio: Vita
Format: DVD
Country: Italy
Based on Italian writer Melania Mazzucco’s popular novel of the same title, A Perfect Day is a powerful feature from distinguished director Ferzan Ozpetek. The film features a strong ensemble cast spread across several narrative threads, including a 2008 Venice Film Festival Best Actress winning turn by Isabella Ferrari.
In the city of Rome, Antonio (Valerio Mastandrea) is a bodyguard for a high ranking Italian MP. He has been separated from his wife Emma (Isabella Ferrari) for about a year, yet refuses to accept that his marriage is over. Antonio’s increasing desperation following the seeming loss of his family embroils Emma and their innocent children in his destructive descent, characterising the breakdown of a family unit in an occasionally violent and shocking manner.
In a parallel plot point, Antonio’s boss Elio Fioravanti (Valerio Binasco) tries frantically to save his political career, unaware that his young trophy wife is falling in love with his own son from his first marriage. Then there is Mara, a lonely and complicated teacher who re-discovers her long lost love…
A Perfect Day is a film about relationships, or, more to the point, the often strained and difficult relationships between family members who have grown apart. Director Ozpetek focuses mainly on the story of the estranged Antonio and Emma, and it is this plot strand that sustains the film.
In the central female role, Isabella Ferrari excels in her portrayal of Emma and indeed was a deserved recipient of the Venice Festival Best Actress award. Ferrari conveys subtle heartbreak and growing despair in her performance as the film progresses, especially as Mastandrea’s Antonio increases his desperate attempts to win back his spouse in damaging psychological and physical ways (including a brutal attempted rape).
In the role of Antonio, Mastandrea is both suitably menacing and emotionally troubling in his portrayal. His character’s progression in the 24 hour setting of the film, from a psychological perspective, is a classic case of ‘from bad to worse’, where Mastandrea does an effective job of showing the heightened danger of a man who feels he has nothing more to lose. Equally, special mention must be made of the central child performances in the film. Valentina (Nicole Murgia) and Kevin (Gabriele Paolino) are the pawns in Antonio’s deranged attempts to regain Emma’s trust, where the innocence of the children (particularly in the spirited and upbeat case of Kevin) contrasts greatly with their father’s distorted sense of marital injustice.
Yet part of the problem with A Perfect Day lies in the effective (if occasionally slipping into melodramatic) performances of the main family unit plot thread. The film is perhaps too ambitious in following different narrative threads, and therefore the subplots involving Antonio’s boss Elio Fioravanti (Binasco) and family, in addition to another separate subplot relating to Valentina’s school teacher Mara, aren’t anywhere near as compelling as the tribulations of Emma and Antonio. While the subplots do have some clever interweaving narrative elements, and similarities with the main plot alongside similar familial themes, they are on the whole rather forgettable and somewhat pointless when they move away from the most gripping central relationships.
Ozpetek’s film is an extraordinarily bleak look at 24 hours in the relationships of two families in crisis, with Antonio’s violence towards his estranged wife and manipulation of his children highly disturbing. While this is undoubtedly effective in showing the strains of a broken relationship and the menace of a man clearly on the edge of a breakdown, it does make the film somewhat tough to watch. Additionally, the drama of the events in the 24 hours covered in the film does slip into melodrama in an almost TV soap opera way. The much heralded explosive ending (foreshadowed at the beginning of the film with a dazzling Hitchcockian tracking shot of the winding stairway to Antonio’s flat) is unfortunately rather predictable, although it successfully underlines the film’s overwhelmingly bleak tone.
With some fine central performances from Valerio Mastandrea and the award-winning Isabella Ferrari, Ferzan Ozpetek’s film adaptation of A Perfect Day is an interesting if overambitious film that just doesn’t quite work as a whole. Redundant subplots and a relentlessly bleak outlook make this a tough watch even during its most interesting central focus of a family in meltdown. DB
Film: The Past Is A Foreign Land
Release date: 4th October 2010
Certificate: 18
Running time: 127 mins
Director: Daniele Vicari
Starring: Elio Germano, Michele Riondino, Chiara Caselli, Valentina Lodovini, Marco Baliani
Genre: Crime/Drama/Thriller
Studio: Vita
Format: DVD
Country: Italy
Although still in the fledgling era of his directorial career, Daniele Vicari takes on a challenging narrative in the form of the classic good-guy-meets-bad-crowd in The Past Is A Foreign Land. Despite a not so original premise, Vicari endeavours to explore the dishonesty of the subterranean gaming world, and the moral abandonment of the players involved.
Set in the southern Italian city of Bari, the film follows the story of Giorgio (played by the compelling Elio Germano), a straight-up law student from a well-off family who support his ambitions to the full, forever throwing money at him, whether he requests it or not. With girlfriend in tow, Giorgio appears readymade for greatness.
Giorgio’s life takes a turn when he meets Francesco (Michele Riondino) at a party. Francesco lives a charmed life as a swindling card-sharp, having learnt various twists and tricks to assist in conning fellow poker players out of vast amounts of cash. “We challenge fate and we beat it,” is Francesco’s retort of rationality when Giorgio becomes aware of his dark intentions.
Like clockwork, and perhaps as expected, a downward spiral is just around the corner, as Giorgio’s priorities switch from the pursuit of academic success to chasing the quick buck. Loved ones fall by the wayside as the new version of Giorgio begins to take hold, but the extent of the havoc Francesco wreaks stretches far deeper than dodgy card games and flash cars, towards an astonishing and disturbing drug-fuelled climax…
Rather commendably, Vicari employs only characters that are paramount in telling the story. From Giorgio’s mother, and her disappointed parent routine, to the tempestuous nature of his indignant father, through Francesco’s multiple-personality disorder, and ultimately, the psychological breakdown of Giorgio - every character; every look; every conversation has a purpose. Nor does Vicari waste any time with unnecessary scenes or dialogue, refusing to pay any homage to Bari as a setting, instead diving unapologetically into the narrative from the first minute to the very last.
Elio Germano and Michele Riondino deserve much credit for bringing the script to life. The two anti-heroes bond like long-lost brothers, with conversations regarding morality of particular focus throughout. As Francesco slowly manipulates Giorgio’s previously honest demeanour into something far more menacing, and, more importantly, into someone he can use for his own financial benefit.
The methods utilised to con fellow poker players at the table, coupled with the constant danger of someone discovering what they are up to, raise the level of intrigue, and make the opening hour of the film slightly more compelling than the second. However, one minor complaint is Vicari’s reluctance to really focus on the card games. Too often Giorgio and Francesco come away from games with several thousand Euros, but we have witnessed only one key hand, and in too many cases we only hear the characters talking about the cards or the winning hand, rather than being shown.
The second half of the film, whilst devoting itself entirely to the psychological and moral breakdown of the two leads, is more than watchable, but it is clear that we are not supposed to be comfortable with what we see. Whereas earlier in the film, Giorgio’s conscience would often pipe up at any sign of trouble, Francesco is able to stretch the boundaries of morality much further, while Giorgio remains worryingly quiet. As Vicari takes the film to the point of no return, it becomes clear that fans will be won and lost in the final shocking twenty minutes.
Atmospherically, Vicari has constructed something impeccably eerie, particularly in the latter stages, as he toils with the darkest aspects of the human psyche. Although it is arguable that The Past Is A Foreign Land ends up in a slightly far-fetched place, the two leads succeed in maintaining our interest in their final fates. MC
Film: Cosmonaut
Release date: 8th November 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 85 mins
Director: Susanna Nicchiarelli
Starring: Claudia Pandolfi, Sergio Rubini, Angelo Orlando, Susanna Nicchiarelli, Miriana Raschillà
Genre: Comedy/Drama
Studio: VITA
Format: DVD
Country: Italy
Susanna Nichiarelli accentuates her growing reputation for eye-opening direction as she delves into the communist-dominated world of the ‘50s and ‘60s, through the coming of age story of central character Luciana, played by Marianna Raschillà, who delivers a suitably hormonal performance, fuelled by her larger-than-life experiences as a teenager.
Having lost her father long before she developed any awareness of the world around her, much of Luciana’s ideology has been shaped by her older brother, Arturo, whose mind has been partially distorted by the drugs he takes to control his epilepsy. Arturo’s universe revolves around the Soviet Union’s exploration of space, and this universe becomes Luciana’s over the course of her childhood.
As her hormones begin to take their hold, Luciana takes a fancy to Vittorio, the leader of the Italian Federation of Young Communists (FIGC), and the dreams she has shared with her brother fully become her own. She endeavours to impress Vittorio by displaying her ambitions of becoming the first woman into space, although whether or not these ambitions are merely a means of impressing a boy is not initially clear.
With her father’s legacy a prominent feature throughout, she struggles for someone to turn to in her times of need, and in her father’s absence, Luciana’s personal life begins to unravel…
The ideals of communism are what unite the film’s central characters, and footage of early Soviet missions help set the scene throughout Cosmonaut. Early on, we witness a number of FIGC meetings, which assist in demonstrating the importance of the communist values not just to Arturo, but also to Vittorio and many of the other members, as they strain to be heard over one another. What is rarely apparent, particularly in the opening stages, is how invested Luciana is. With one lustful look after another at Vittorio, we see little evidence of anything other than the seeds of first love, along with some thinly veiled attempts at displaying this love.
One area in which Nichiarelli excels is in developing empathy with her protagonist. As it is relatively difficult to develop understanding in the outdated values of communism, instead she concentrates much of her attention on Luciana’s woes as a teenager. In giving the audience scenarios they can identify with; fighting over a boy, pining for someone, and watching that person fall into the arms of someone else, Nichiarelli subtly introduces emotional crutches throughout.
It must also be said that the cast does imperious justice to the story. Marianna Raschillà does the simple things well, and contrasts fleeting moments of happiness with Vittorio and her, at times, tempestuous home life to such degree that the characters surrounding her cannot help but follow suit. Never is this more compelling than in the scenes with Sergio Rubini, who portrays the wealthy stepfather to perfection, constantly striving to accomplish the semblance of familial aura that Luciana never quite allows him to.
Despite a slightly short running time, Cosmonaut endeavours to resolve every strand of narrative, and achieves this successfully, drifting away from its communist overtures just in time to conclude the fate of each character. The audience comes away sensing that not only Luciana, but also her friends and family, have come through a personal test in one form or another. These character arcs are ultimately the fulcrum of Nichiarelli’s story.
Another aspect Nichiarelli deserves credit for is developing the mise-en-scène without becoming overbearing. By electing to simply scatter footage of various space missions throughout, Nichiarelli does not see the need to take this any further; we just know the film is set in ‘50s and 1960s Rome. This allows the characters to stay at the focal point of the film, where they can make the utmost impact. Even the soundtrack is moving but never distracting, as Nichiarelli utilises the crisp sound of revamped songs from the era, the emotive twangs of which sit in the background and subtly accentuate the events of the film.
With the help of a tremendous cast, Susanna Nichiarelli conjures a simplistic yet intriguing story which documents teenage melodrama on the subtle background of the Soviet technological advances of the period. By peeling away any potential complications, Nichiarelli allows the audience to concentrate its attention on the complex human emotions portrayed throughout. MC
Emma and Antonio, married with two children, have been separated for about a year. Antonio now lives alone in the house where they had previously lived together. Emma has gone with the children to live with her mother. Then, one night like any other, the police are called to the apartment block and are getting ready to break down the door of the flat where someone says they heard shots.
In a fast-moving chain of events, A Perfect Day recounts the 24 hours leading up to this moment, as we follow the every move of a group of characters leading their simple and yet ‘unique’ lives: Camilla’s 7th birthday, her brother Aris sitting for an exam at university, Emma losing her job in a call centre, her daughter Valentina meeting a boy she likes, the MP Elio Fioravanti on the election campaign trail, his beautiful wife Maja discovering she is pregnant, young Kevin being invited to a sumptuous party, Mara the teacher getting ready to meet her lover, and Antonio seeing his wife for the last time. Their stories intertwine on the great stage of a frenetic and disturbing Rome, their simple gestures and words change the course of fate and lead them towards tragedy.
On this perfect day, Emma, Antonio, Elio, Maja, Aris and Mara challenge the cards which they have been dealt, and try to regain control of their lives. Even if it means performing an unspeakable act of betrayal against those they love the most.
Film: A Perfect Day
Release date: 4th October 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 101 mins
Director: Ferzan Ozpetek
Starring: Valerio Mastandrea, Isabella Ferrari, Monica Guerritore, Nicole Grimaudo, Valerio Binasco
Genre: Drama
Studio: Vita
Format: DVD
Country: Italy
Law student Giorgio is a fine young man, with nice friends and good parents who give him everything he needs. But why for some is that never enough?
One night at a party he befriends a mysterious guest, Francesco. Francesco is cool, handsome and trouble. He invites Giorgio to join him for a poker game, and Giorgio, looking for a bit of kick in his life, goes along, and to his amazement wins. But it was inevitable - Francesco, a cardsharp, is in control.
They start entering big games with high rollers and lowlifes, playing for big money and getting away with it every time, taking bigger risks, until they finally enter the big league - drugs.
Frighteningly in thrall to Francesco, a trip to Barcelona to buy cocaine to sell takes Giorgio over an invisible internal line. No longer a fine boy. No longer a dutiful son. No longer hanging out with nice friends. The extent of Francesco’s influence is brutally revealed putting at risk Giorgio’s future, security and freedom.
The Past Is A Foreign Land is the slacker movie updated for the generation who want luxury without working for it, thrills without consequences, and responsibility for no-one except themselves. It’s a cautionary tale of how the weak are consumed by the strong, seduced by the aura of danger and left for dead in the endgame. Only the very lucky find their good side again.
Film: The Past Is A Foreign Land
Release date: 4th October 2010
Certificate: 18
Running time: 127 mins
Director: Daniele Vicari
Starring: Elio Germano, Michele Riondino, Chiara Caselli, Valentina Lodovini, Marco Baliani
Genre: Crime/Drama/Thriller
Studio: Vita
Format: DVD
Country: Italy
