carladionizi

Ferzan Ozpeteck the Turkish born director is one of the most reliable Italian directors of the last few years. He visits and revisits his own personal universe like an Italian Pedro Almodovar but, not quite. His gay characters are likable but not totally credible, I wonder why. Here a beautiful cast headed by the, getting better, Riccardo Scamarccio tells us a family tragicomedy that, although set in 2010, behaves like something out of the 50's. The high moments are underline by the beautiful Ilaria Occhini as the grandmother, a character with vision and strength. The Ennio Fantastichini character is rather hard to take and the script is clunky at best. Ideas have to be nurtured but here they seem to have been removed out of the oven a bit too early. It needed more time. Pacing is always a problem in Ozpeteck films. I started glancing at my watch half way through the film and that has to do with thought or the lack of it. It's not organic enough. It feels as if the destiny of the characters was decided on the go. Pity. What's good however, it's very good and makes it a film worth seeing.

"The 6th Sense" was a big hit in 1999, Oscar nominations, the lot. Now I finally seen it and I must say that with the benefit of hindsight, the only startling thing about the film is the introduction of the sensational Haley Joel Osment. Plus, a terrific performance by Toni Collette. Other than that, the film is a mess. Am I wrong? A clever designed twist at the end seems to justify, clumsiness of major proportions. Just look at that wake where Haley reveals the message from the dead girl. Unforgivably lame. All the jolts are underline by a vulgar strike in the music score department. Really bad. Mr Night Shaymalan got very luck in 1999 and has not been able to repeat its fortune since, no matter the obvious, desperate attempts to grab another jackpot. "The Happening" was unwatchable, "Lady In The Water" the work of someone with a an alarming mounting ego. "Signs" another clumsy, half cooked semi idea. Strange, how time puts things in perspective. I was recently reminded that "The Towering Inferno" was also, in its day, nominated for an Oscar as the best film of its day.

Lovely to look at. A chunk of 1900 set in a small Sicilian town, that town where Giuseppe Tornatore, the writer director, was born. I thought it was a delightful two and a half hours of snippets between fades to black. just like memories work, a bit of this and a bit of that. A tapestry of highs and lows among the remarkably unremarkable. My only puzzlement comes with the way Italians are reacting to "Baaria" Even if it was at the top of the box office charts there is tendency to dismiss this film for not confronting this for not confronting that for being too "clean" and a lot of other absurdities like that. This is an epic, expensive looking, personal film by the anointed "best living Italian Director" which means a director that is marketable in other countries, specially USA. I can predict that Americans will love "Baaria" in spite of the red flags and the romantic view of communism. They know that school of thought is by now as anachronistic as a typewriter and just as harmless. The leads are played by two scrumptious new stars and from the collection of cameos I took away with me Angela Molina and Lina Sastri remain vividly in my mind.