Professicchio

This film is definitely worth tracking down for Italian cinema connoisseurs for two reasons:

1) it's the (rather decent) directing debut of Paolo Virzi', one of the most acclaimed Italian film makers of recent memory. 2) It's the first real breakthrough role, both critically and for the public, for Sabrina Ferilli, which was shortly to become the most beloved actress in her own country, the years to follow. Her talents here (both thespian and physical it has to be said) are well on display and really deserving of her first acting prize of her career (the Silver Ribbon).

The film itself is a humble and bitter/sweet tale set among the ordinary folks of provincial Tuscany. It involves a young married couple (Bruno and Mirella) and their 'maturation' process, through small ambitions, delusions, betrayals, hope and (possible) reconciliation, no 'big picture' no 'happy ending' here: just life.

Needlees to say that here you won't see the same Tuscany that you see in "Room with a view" or "Under the Tuscan sun", but a Tuscany as it is really seen by millions of its inhabitants, having too much trouble dealing with the mundaneness of ordinary life to care about big romantic affairs or strolling along picturesque landscapes and medieval towns.

The world might have Monica Bellucci, but Italians have preferred to keep Sabrina all for themselves............... and who can blame them?

This film came to me as a real surprise: I have recently been rediscovering the film career of Edwige Fenech: she has been for me, and pretty much every other boy born and bred in Italy in the 70s/80s, the prime and foremost reason for early sexual awakening.

I have earlier seen the later addition to the trilogy by Fenech/Martino: "Tutti I colori del buio" which, despite being equally stylish, I can at best describe as 'bonkers' in the script department, but that is often the case with giallo.

This film positively surprised me, all the elements of the typical giallo are there: dreamy sequences, Freudian references, strong sexual overtones, a killer all dressed in black with leather gloves in close-up and so on, but for once all the plot twists and turns that the film takes as it verges towards its ending are far more than an entertaining mechanism, the whole comes up as a rather coherent story with a bleak, credible portrait of sordid human behaviour. The film also intelligently manages to turn the misogynistic tones that are often associated with giallo right onto its head, the violence also is much less morbid than, say, Dario Argento's work of the same period.

And much of the merit goes naturally also to the splendid Edwige: she is perfection as the sensible and fragile Mrs. Wardh and not just physically as some might think, although it's impossible to take the eyes off her whenever she's on screen. Her performance manages to make her look more beautiful than ever if such thing is possible, one of giallo's truly greatest heroines. It's a shame that both her and Martino are remembered more for their sex comedies of a few years later than this gem, when both creative and money capital were rapidly running of Italian 'pulp' film producers.

Technically speaking, a film like 'Profondo Rosso' is still far superior if this is what you're after, but on a 'humane' level this is in a totally different league. I recommend to watch this and 'Cani arrabbiati' by Bava of three years later, although this is not really a giallo: they both give a good idea of the cheerful feelings that were going around in Italy in the 70s.

This is an outstanding documentary on an un-ordinary human being. Herzog competes his gallery of obsessive and self destructive characters with the story of Timothy Treadwell, an ideal heir of Aguirre and Fitzcarraldo.

This time though, having at hand several hours of real film footage shot from the man itself, Herzog decides of delivering his tale through the medium of documentary. Of his own Herzog adds plenty of interviews with both followers and detractors of Treadwell and he doesn't even shy from expressing his views while functioning as narrator at times. What we end up with is a perfect, 360 degrees portrait of a borderline insane yet totally humane character that you'll love or hate or both, but you won't be indifferent to.

Absolutely indispensable viewing for both eco-activists and their detractors; forget about "An Inconvenient Truth" and "March of the penguins", this is the markpiece from which any other modern documentary should be judged.