italian films – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

L’IMMENSITA – Review by Jennifer Green

May 7, 2023May 7, 2023 Jennifer Green Emanuele Crialese, italian films, L’Immensità, Luana Giuliani, penelope cruz, Penélope Nieto Conti, Vincenzo Amato

Emanuele Crialese’s L’Immensità (which translates as The Immensity) memorably captures the look and feel of 1970s Roma with this family drama, which stars a magnificent Penélope Cruz in the role of a loving mother but suffering wife who eventually collapses in a mental breakdown. Her slow decline is witnessed by the vigilant eyes of her pre-teen daughter, Adri (Luana Giuliani), who goes by ‘Andrew’ and feels she (he, from here on out) was born in the wrong body, a reality unacceptable in that time and place.

Reviews

IL BUCO – Review by Diane Carson

July 19, 2022July 21, 2022 Diane Carson Bifurto Abyss, documentary, Il Buco, italian films, Michelangelo Frammartino

Young speleologists in Turin organize their October 1961 campaign to map the Bifurto Abyss in Italy’s Calabrian region. Europe’s deepest cave, the third largest on Earth, reaching seven hundred meters in depth, the Bifurto Abyss appears like a yawning cavern in the unnamed shepherd’s neighborhood. Cross cutting between Abyss’ nearby, isolated village and the cave explorers’ tent camp, Il Buco, meaning The Hole, casts its spell with few words, the sounds of nature defining the vividly vibrantly environment. This meditative, deeply moving film is pure poetry.

Reviews

THE TALE OF KING CRAB – Review by Jennifer Green

April 20, 2022April 23, 2022 Jennifer Green Alexandra Lungu, Gabriele Silli, italian films, The Tale of King Crab

The Tale of King Crab is a moody Italian drama that weaves a wandering narrative of misfortune, desperation and redemption. It could potentially be read as a treatment on mental illness and alcoholism, or perhaps on the imprecision of oral histories. Either way, it is at its core a story of, by and for men split into two very different chapters, one shot in Italian and the other in Spanish.

Reviews

THE HAND OF GOD – Review by Susan Granger

February 14, 2022February 20, 2022 Susan Granger Filippo Scotti, italian films, naples, Paolo Sorrentino, Teresa Saponangelo, The Hand of God, Toni Servillo

Oscar-nominated as Best International Film, Italy’s The Hand of God is Paul Sorrentino’s intensely personal coming-of-age story, set in Naples in the 1980s.
That’s when Argentina’s Diego Maradona was worshipped as the best soccer player in the world; the title comes from a controversial goal scored by Maradona in the 1986 FIFA World Cup quarterfinal against England.

Reviews

THE HAND OF GOD – Review by Jennifer Green

December 10, 2021December 21, 2021 Jennifer Green Filippo Scotti, italian films, naples, Paolo Sorrentino, Teresa Saponangelo, The Hand of God, Toni Servillo

Italy’s 2021 submission for the International Oscar is a beautiful coming-of-age story and a love letter to both director Paolo Sorrentino’s native Naples and the art of filmmaking. There are many memorable images in The Hand of God, mostly involving a contrast of dark interiors with the sapphire Mediterranean and the blinding sun of southern Italy. Likewise, the film’s characters and scenarios are extremely evocative.

Festivals Reviews

SMALL BODY (TIFF2021) – Review by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

September 16, 2021September 18, 2021 Alexandra Heller-Nicholas Celeste Cescutti, italian films, Laura Samani, Ondina Quadri, Small Body, TIFF, toronto international film festival

In the introduction to the screening of her feature debut Small Body, Italian filmmaker Laura Samani reveals its origins were in 2016 when a man told her about a local legend that held stillborn babies could be brought briefly back to life long enough to be baptized. Instantly fascinated by the story, Samani learned that official history frequently put men in the center of these stories and – as is her nature – she was willfully drawn to find the cracks in that assumption, and to discover where women fit.

Reviews

MY HOUSE IS FULL OF MIRRORS – Review by April Neale

July 14, 2021July 16, 2021 April Neale bio[ics, italian films, Margareth Madè, Maria Scicolone, My House is Full of Mirrors, Romilda Villani, sophia loren, Vittorio Sindoni

Rags to riches stories with a side of betrayal never whetted the appetite like My House is Full of Mirrors does. Like a bowl of endless pappardelle smothered in a tasty ragu, screen legend Sophia Loren stars in the lengthy and satisfying two-part miniseries, playing her own mother, Romilda Villani. It’s a glimpse of Loren’s family life based on her sister Maria’s eponymous memoir.

Reviews

MARTIN EDEN – Review by Sarah Ward

December 2, 2020December 3, 2020 Sarah Ward italian films, jessica cressy, Luca Marinelli, martin eden, Pietro Marcello

Luca Marinelli’s expression changes many, many times in Pietro Marcello’s bold and bewitching version of Martin Eden. You don’t receive acting awards for emotion-filed eyes alone, but Marinelli certainly earned his 2019 Venice Film Festival Best Actor award several times over. His is a performance that a filmmaker can build a feature around, as Marcello has.

Reviews

THE LIFE AHEAD – Review by Diane Carson

November 16, 2020November 27, 2020 Diane Carson 0 Comments Abril Zamora, Edoardo Ponti, ibrahim Gueye, italian films, netflix, sophia loren, the life ahead

The Life Ahead features a compelling Sophia Loren. Set in the midst of dire circumstances, the film dramatizes the evolving relationship between Holocaust survivor Madame Rosa and young Senegalese refuge Momo. It’s star is 86-year-old Sophia Loren who enlivens this compelling adaptation of Romain Gary’s The Life Before Us, here co-written and directed by Loren’s son Edoardo Ponti.

Reviews

MARTIN EDEN – Review by Diane Carson

October 22, 2020October 24, 2020 Diane Carson 0 Comments italian films, jack london, Luca Marinelli, martin eden, Pietro Marcello

Martin Eden offers a creative adaptation of Jack London’s novel. Italian director Pietro Marcello transplants the story from Oakland, California in 1909 to Naples, Italy after WWII. It is beautifully shot and superbly acted throughout.

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