Film: The Family Friend
Release date: 23rd July 2007
Certificate: 15
Running time: 96 mins
Director: Paolo Sorrentino
Starring: Giacomo Rizzo, Laura Chiatti, Luigi Angelillo, Marco Giallini, Barbara Valmorin
Genre: Drama
Studio: Artificial Eye
Format: DVD
Country: Italy/France
The Family Friend (L’amico di famiglia) is the third film by Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino. Nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes 2006, the film is a haunting and curiously humorous take on lower-working class Italian obsession with money and one other.
The antihero, Geremia di Geremei is a lonely and tight-fisted money-lender who lives a comfortable life with his elderly mother in a run-down apartment until he is approached by a desperate father wanting to borrow money to pay for his daughter’s wedding.
After meeting the father’s daughter, Rosalba, Geremia becomes entranced and obsessed with her, invading their home and private life under the guise and ominous title of the ‘family friend’…
Upon initial viewing, one may interpret Sorrentino’s style and toying of aesthetics as pretentious and somewhat irritating, but a deeper engagement with his work is what is makes them so memorable and charming. There are very few living directors whom are bold enough to take the plunge and openly link the two sensory dimensions of cinema, sound and vision, to create a cinematic world which is both surreal and wonderfully beautiful at the same time. The initial way in which this merging grabs you is through the use of contemporary popular music, particularly the choice Sorrentino made to synchronise it with on-screen action. He encourages tracks to enter once they have been signalled by not only events and glances from actors, but also from sharp and abrupt editing cuts, of which are all commonplace and are peppered throughout the film. It may sound unusual, tired and even unoriginal, but the affect is curiously breathtaking, and feels like a sincere desire to be bold and outspoken.
This coupling of constructive elements is not only limited to the sound and visual aesthetics, but is present in more specific tones, such as the cinematography and editing. Of course both are always inextricably linked, but here they are almost one and the same; when one is not transcending normal functionality, the other steps in and takes the reins. Some may argue that the best cinematography and editing must always remain invisible and not draw the audience’s attention toward it, as to break this simple rule makes us aware of the medium itself, thus becoming disorienting, but to that we must respond with approval of Sorrentino’s postmodernism - it is a remarkable attempt to develop an already established genre within Italian cinema and culture.
The genre – or more suitably, the development of the genre – is seemingly paradoxical, as it is quite overt in its use of traditional themes within Italian cinema. Loan-sharking and gangsters all dominate the film, and are all a major vein of Italian culture and cinema. However, what is so progressive here is the use of small-time and minor-league gangsters. Praise may be given to cinema which centres around the dominance and terror exuded from large, threatening gangsters and Mafioso, but it could be argued that what is more terrifying is that gangsters hide in plain sight and might not be as recognisable. Ultimately, they could be anyone and everyone. This is what The Family Friend knows, and he lets us know from the very beginning.
Perhaps the only minor criticism might be that the pacing of its narration and story is, at times, so fast that during particularly exciting moments, our emotions run away with us, and when tragedy suddenly strikes, it feels somewhat disjointing. Before one takes a breath, we are forced back into excitement. For all the admiration we can give this kind of forward-thinking filmmaking, the overall affect is a little too much, and it often leaves you feeling deflated.
On the whole, it’s wonderfully made, and Sorrentino is one of the very few contemporary filmmakers that genuinely understand the fluidity of cinema and how to effectively manipulate it. All of the films he has made toy with the medium, but this one has an extra element that is difficult to pinpoint. Arguably, it is Giacomo Rizzo’s casting and performance, as the vile loan-shark that truly makes this film so fantastic. He flows through the screen with genuine style and grace which permeates every move and line spoken - the result of which adds a disturbing realism and faithfulness to his character. More often than not it is near impossible to see where the character-acting ends and Rizzo’s personality begins.
For all its beauty and stylistic charm, The Family Friend is a film of delightful surrealist wonder, but remains fully grounded within contemporary Italian society. Perhaps this is what makes the film seem so fascinating; that the traditions of Italian society play a larger hand in contemporary Italy than would be allowed. The originality and development of form itself is what is so wonderful about the film; it envelops the spectator whole and leaves your head spinning with awe. JW
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