"The Furniture," by Daniel Walber. (Click on the images for magnified detail)
Jack London was befuddled by the reception of Martin Eden. He intended the novel to be a sharp critique of individualism and was surprised when the public took his protagonist as something of a libertarian hero. Though as J. Hoberman points out in his extremely perceptive reading, the novel is more of a “tragic celebration” than a bitter condemnation. And perhaps the “misreading” of an antihero is always inevitable, the unintended seduction of an unexpected contingent of the audience.
This tension has followed Martin Eden into the 21st century. Pietro Marcello’s new adaptation moves the story from California to Italy and places it outside of time, replenishing some of the aesthetic mystery that is inevitably lost when a novel is cast, shot and projected onto a screen. The production design helps, contributing to the atmosphere at both high and low registers.
Jack London was befuddled by the reception of Martin Eden. He intended the novel to be a sharp critique of individualism and was surprised when the public took his protagonist as something of a libertarian hero. Though as J. Hoberman points out in his extremely perceptive reading, the novel is more of a “tragic celebration” than a bitter condemnation. And perhaps the “misreading” of an antihero is always inevitable, the unintended seduction of an unexpected contingent of the audience.
This tension has followed Martin Eden into the 21st century. Pietro Marcello’s new adaptation moves the story from California to Italy and places it outside of time, replenishing some of the aesthetic mystery that is inevitably lost when a novel is cast, shot and projected onto a screen. The production design helps, contributing to the atmosphere at both high and low registers.
- 10/21/2020
- by Daniel Walber
- FilmExperience
It feels like some lost Italian masterpiece from the 1970s. unearthed from a locked vault after decades of gathering dust and slotted into the middle of a late De Sica/ mid-period Francesco Rosi triple feature. The score borrows bits of classical music, Sixties Euro-pop and Eighties Italo-disco — perfect for a period piece rife with both vintage signifiers and modern anachronisms. All the talk of socialism vs. staunch individualism could have come straight from a beer hall in 1920 or a presidential town hall in 2020. It’s a last-century tale whose preoccupations with ambition,...
- 10/19/2020
- by David Fear
- Rollingstone.com
Quite like the scorpion that stings the frog that’s offered to transport it to the other side of the river, simply because it’s in its perverse nature to do so, so does Martin Eden offer up an ultimately caustic view of human endeavor that gives the heave-ho to constant striving and the best intentions.
This vividly rendered Italian take on Jack London’s 1909 novel brandishes a cutting intelligence and a powerful star turn by Luca Marinelli, whose performance earned him best actor kudos at last year’s Venice Film Festival, and who launched his American career earlier this year with The Old Guard.
Pietro Marcello’s second feature film is shot through with vibrant imagination and a lively intelligence, but the way the story turns on itself and, ultimately, on the viewer as well, is disconcerting to the point of betrayal.
London was an agitating political socialist and...
This vividly rendered Italian take on Jack London’s 1909 novel brandishes a cutting intelligence and a powerful star turn by Luca Marinelli, whose performance earned him best actor kudos at last year’s Venice Film Festival, and who launched his American career earlier this year with The Old Guard.
Pietro Marcello’s second feature film is shot through with vibrant imagination and a lively intelligence, but the way the story turns on itself and, ultimately, on the viewer as well, is disconcerting to the point of betrayal.
London was an agitating political socialist and...
- 10/17/2020
- by Todd McCarthy
- Deadline Film + TV
Martin Eden Kino Lorber Reviewed for Shockya.com & BigAppleReviews.net linked from Rotten Tomatoes by: Harvey Karten Director: Pietro Marcello Writer: Maurizio Braucci, Pietro Marcello, novel by Jack London Cast: Luca Marinelli, Jessica Cressy, Denise Sardisco, Vincenzo Nemolato Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 10/2/20 Opens: October 16, 2020 In the forceful prose that is the backbone […]
The post Martin Eden Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post Martin Eden Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 10/11/2020
- by Harvey Karten
- ShockYa
An official selection at the Venice, TIFF (where it won the top Platform prize), and the New York Film Festival last year, Pietro Marcello’s stunning adaptation of Jack London’s Martin Eden was picked up by Kino Lorber and the road to release has been a long one––but the wait is worth it. After the pandemic curtailed plans for an April bow, then a September date, it’ll now arrive both in theaters and in virtual cinemas on October 16. A new trailer has now arrived ahead of this U.S. debut.
Kyle Pletcher said in our review, “American novelist Jack London was an active proponent of socialism, his writing offering self-reflexive deconstructions of their values within distinct, incongruous, futuristic worlds, temporally far-flung but with technology and attitudes contemporaneous to the turn of the century. These qualities are prevalent throughout Martin Eden, Pietro Marcello’s fantastic second fiction feature...
Kyle Pletcher said in our review, “American novelist Jack London was an active proponent of socialism, his writing offering self-reflexive deconstructions of their values within distinct, incongruous, futuristic worlds, temporally far-flung but with technology and attitudes contemporaneous to the turn of the century. These qualities are prevalent throughout Martin Eden, Pietro Marcello’s fantastic second fiction feature...
- 9/21/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
"I'd rather drink poison than break my back for you." Kino Lorber has released an official US trailer for the Italian drama Martin Eden, which first premiered at the Venice Film Festival last year to tons of acclaim. It also played at the Toronto & New York Film Festivals last year. The film is adapted from Jack London's 1909 novel of the same name, but recreated as a very Italian story. Italian actor Luca Marinelli won the Best Actor prize in Venice for playing Martin, then went on to co-star in Netflix's The Old Guard this year. Martin Eden struggles to rise above his destitute, proletarian circumstances with an intense and passionate pursuit of self-education, hoping to achieve a place among the literary elite as a famed writer. The film also stars Jessica Cressy, Vincenzo Nemolato, Marco Leonardi, Carlo Cecchi, Pietro Ragusa, Denise Sardisco, Carmen Pommella, Elisabetta Valgoi, & Savino Paparella.
- 9/21/2020
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
More than a year after the film premiered at the 2019 Venice Film Festival, Pietro Marcello’s masterful Italian drama “Martin Eden” finally is coming to U.S. shores. Opening in select theaters and in virtual cinemas on October 16 from Kino Lorber, “Martin Eden” stars Luca Marinelli as a disaffected working-class man with dreams of being a writer who is caught up in a politically fractious moment for his country. IndieWire shares the exclusive full U.S. trailer for the film below.
Here’s the official synopsis: “Adapted from a 1909 novel by Jack London yet set in a provocatively unspecified moment in Italy’s history, Martin Eden is a passionate and enthralling narrative fresco in the tradition of the great Italian classics. Martin (played by the marvelously committed Luca Marinelli) is a self-taught proletarian with artistic aspirations who hopes that his dreams of becoming a writer will help him rise above...
Here’s the official synopsis: “Adapted from a 1909 novel by Jack London yet set in a provocatively unspecified moment in Italy’s history, Martin Eden is a passionate and enthralling narrative fresco in the tradition of the great Italian classics. Martin (played by the marvelously committed Luca Marinelli) is a self-taught proletarian with artistic aspirations who hopes that his dreams of becoming a writer will help him rise above...
- 9/21/2020
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Pietro Marcello in front of an Andrei Tarkovsky Stalker and Satyajit Ray Apu Trilogy posters: “For me Martin Eden is a very contemporary character. So my objective was to span over the entire 20th century …” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Pietro Marcello’s Martin Eden star Luca Marinelli (Andrea in Paolo Sorrentino’s Oscar-winning The Great Beauty) in the title role won the Best Actor Volpi Cup at the Venice Film Festival where the film had its world première. Based on the 1909 novel by Jack London, with a screenplay co-written with Maurizio Braucci, Martin Eden, shot by Alessandro Abate and Francesco Di Giacomo, represents the 20th Century unlike any other film. Jessica Cressy, Vincenzo Nemolato, Marco Leonardi, Carlo Cecchi, Denise Sardisco and Carmen Pommella feature in the excellent ensemble surrounding our troubled hero.
Pietro Marcello on Luca Marinelli in Martin Eden: “We do love Martin Eden in the first part of the film because he's authentic,...
Pietro Marcello’s Martin Eden star Luca Marinelli (Andrea in Paolo Sorrentino’s Oscar-winning The Great Beauty) in the title role won the Best Actor Volpi Cup at the Venice Film Festival where the film had its world première. Based on the 1909 novel by Jack London, with a screenplay co-written with Maurizio Braucci, Martin Eden, shot by Alessandro Abate and Francesco Di Giacomo, represents the 20th Century unlike any other film. Jessica Cressy, Vincenzo Nemolato, Marco Leonardi, Carlo Cecchi, Denise Sardisco and Carmen Pommella feature in the excellent ensemble surrounding our troubled hero.
Pietro Marcello on Luca Marinelli in Martin Eden: “We do love Martin Eden in the first part of the film because he's authentic,...
- 10/11/2019
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
American novelist Jack London was an active proponent of socialism, his writing offering self-reflexive deconstructions of their values within distinct, incongruous, futuristic worlds, temporally far-flung but with technology and attitudes contemporaneous to the turn of the century. These qualities are prevalent throughout Martin Eden, Pietro Marcello’s fantastic second fiction feature that stands as a spellbinding synthesis of both London’s speculative ideas and Marcello’s documentarian instincts, capturing the clairvoyance and spirit of London’s writing via Marcello’s sensibilities as a predominantly non-fiction filmmaker.
Eden follows the eponymous protagonist through pre-World War II Italy, changed from the novel’s pre-wwi America. Despite his undereducation, the young sailor—imbued with wily charm by a mesmerizing Luca Marinelli—is a promising writer, though he’s constantly struggling to make ends meet, frequently unemployed because of firm commitment to his rights as a worker. When not at sea, he’s either...
Eden follows the eponymous protagonist through pre-World War II Italy, changed from the novel’s pre-wwi America. Despite his undereducation, the young sailor—imbued with wily charm by a mesmerizing Luca Marinelli—is a promising writer, though he’s constantly struggling to make ends meet, frequently unemployed because of firm commitment to his rights as a worker. When not at sea, he’s either...
- 10/1/2019
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
An official selection at the Venice and Tiff (where it won the top Platform prize), The Match Factory has released the first international trailer for Pietro Marcello’s adaptation of Jack London’s Martin Eden ahead of its North American premiere at this year’s New York Film Festival. The first preview also comes on the heels of Kino Lorber picking up the film for a U.S. release.
The film transplants Jack London’s seminal semi-autobiographical novel from early 20th century Oakland, California to Naples, Italy while keeping the engrossing plot intact. Luca Marinelli stars as the handsome sailor Martin Eden, who aspires to become a writer to rise above his station and earn the affection of a young university student Elena (Jessica Cressy). We follow him from lowly sailor to published author who eventually grapples with philosophically based political upheaval and destructive anxiety over his newfound circumstances.
Jay Weissberg...
The film transplants Jack London’s seminal semi-autobiographical novel from early 20th century Oakland, California to Naples, Italy while keeping the engrossing plot intact. Luca Marinelli stars as the handsome sailor Martin Eden, who aspires to become a writer to rise above his station and earn the affection of a young university student Elena (Jessica Cressy). We follow him from lowly sailor to published author who eventually grapples with philosophically based political upheaval and destructive anxiety over his newfound circumstances.
Jay Weissberg...
- 9/20/2019
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
The film won the Coppa Volpi in Venice and the Platform award at Tiff.
The UK’s New Wave Films and Germany’s Piffl are among the international distributors to have snapped up rights to Pietro Marcello’s award-winning Jack London adaptation Martin Eden from leading German sales outfit The Match Factory.
Sales on the Venice and Toronto favourite have also been secured to Japan, (Mimosa), Benelux (Imagine), Bulgaria (Art Fest), Hungary (Cirko Film), Baltics (Kino Pasavaris), Greece (Weird Wave), Taiwan (Swallow Wings), Spain (Wanda) and Israel (Lev Cinemas). They follow the recently-announced North American sale to Kino Lorber.
Martin...
The UK’s New Wave Films and Germany’s Piffl are among the international distributors to have snapped up rights to Pietro Marcello’s award-winning Jack London adaptation Martin Eden from leading German sales outfit The Match Factory.
Sales on the Venice and Toronto favourite have also been secured to Japan, (Mimosa), Benelux (Imagine), Bulgaria (Art Fest), Hungary (Cirko Film), Baltics (Kino Pasavaris), Greece (Weird Wave), Taiwan (Swallow Wings), Spain (Wanda) and Israel (Lev Cinemas). They follow the recently-announced North American sale to Kino Lorber.
Martin...
- 9/17/2019
- by Geoffrey Macnab
- ScreenDaily
"Fight for them, Martin." The Match Factory has debuted an official promo trailer for the Italian drama Martin Eden, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival just recently. It also played at the Toronto Film Festival, and will next stop by the New York Film Festival this fall. The film is adapted from Jack London's 1909 novel of the same name, but recreated as a very Italian story. Italian actor Luca Marinelli won the Best Actor prize in Venice for playing Martin. Martin Eden struggles to rise above his destitute, proletarian circumstances through an intense and passionate pursuit of self-education, hoping to achieve a place among the literary elite as a writer. The film also stars Jessica Cressy, Vincenzo Nemolato, Marco Leonardi, Denise Sardisco, Carmen Pommella, Carlo Cecchi, Elisabetta Valgoi, Pietro Ragusa, & Savino Paparella. This film will appeal to cinephiles the most, as it's extra artsy and dense, but still worth a look.
- 9/17/2019
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Towering proud and glorious above the Lido’s shoreline, a few meters away from the Adriatic and the red carpets sprawling right behind it, the Hotel Excelsior shimmers like a majestic giant, the last surviving emblem of a golden past. It’s the Venice Film Festival’s most iconic building, a triumph of Moorish domes and skylights opened in 1908 and crystallized in celluloid some seventy years later by Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America. It was here, in August 1932, that the festival’s first edition kicked off, back when the event was yet to be regarded as a competitive review, and the first program promised fifteen nights of screenings. Eighty-seven years and seventy-five editions later, I am sitting at the hotel’s terrace, waiting for my turn to interview director Pietro Marcello on his official lineup entry, Martin Eden. A documentarian by training, Marcello bowed on the...
- 9/9/2019
- MUBI
Kino Lorber has picked up the North American rights to Martin Eden, Italian director Pietro Marcello's period drama based on Jack London's 1909 novel and set in 20th century Naples.
Martin Eden bowed in competition in Venice and the North American distribution deal comes before its screening in Toronto on Sept. 11 and it playing at the New York Film Festival. Marcello's film stars Luca Marinelli, Jessica Cressy, Denise Sardisco and Vincenzo Nemolato.
"At Kino Lorber, this is the kind of film that we aspire to deliver to our North American audiences — not just a sprawling, era-spanning ...
Martin Eden bowed in competition in Venice and the North American distribution deal comes before its screening in Toronto on Sept. 11 and it playing at the New York Film Festival. Marcello's film stars Luca Marinelli, Jessica Cressy, Denise Sardisco and Vincenzo Nemolato.
"At Kino Lorber, this is the kind of film that we aspire to deliver to our North American audiences — not just a sprawling, era-spanning ...
Kino Lorber has picked up the North American rights to Martin Eden, Italian director Pietro Marcello's period drama based on Jack London's 1909 novel and set in 20th century Naples.
Martin Eden bowed in competition in Venice and the North American distribution deal comes before its screening in Toronto on Sept. 11 and it playing at the New York Film Festival. Marcello's film stars Luca Marinelli, Jessica Cressy, Denise Sardisco and Vincenzo Nemolato.
"At Kino Lorber, this is the kind of film that we aspire to deliver to our North American audiences — not just a sprawling, era-spanning ...
Martin Eden bowed in competition in Venice and the North American distribution deal comes before its screening in Toronto on Sept. 11 and it playing at the New York Film Festival. Marcello's film stars Luca Marinelli, Jessica Cressy, Denise Sardisco and Vincenzo Nemolato.
"At Kino Lorber, this is the kind of film that we aspire to deliver to our North American audiences — not just a sprawling, era-spanning ...
Jack London is one of those writers who lost their place in the pantheon of greats at home but remains a major early 20th-century author in Europe. Though best known in the States for his wilderness novels, London’s key novel is “Martin Eden,” a semi-autobiographical work tracing his background from unschooled sailor to celebrated writer, encompassing all his class anger, political musings and intense dissatisfaction with the life he created. It was made into a forgotten 1942 film starring Glenn Ford and then adapted for TV in the 1970s by the Germans, the French and even the Soviets, all of whom undoubtedly tempered London’s entrenched libertarianism to suit their purposes. Now Pietro Marcello (“The Mouth of the Wolf”) has made it the subject of his sprawling first full-fiction film, sticking close to the narrative while setting it in an undefinable 20th-century moment to make his own statements about the creative process,...
- 9/2/2019
- by Jay Weissberg
- Variety Film + TV
Jack London — an avowed socialist who found himself struggling to reconcile his political ideals with his personal success — intended for “Martin Eden” to be a damning critique of the individualism that spurred his fame. “White Fang” and “The Call of the Wild” had earned the low-born writer an invitation into high society, but he struggled to square the untamed working man he was with the celebrated author he’d suddenly become; still at heart the same person he had always been, London was disgusted to see how differently the ruling class now looked at someone they once despised. What self-serving bullshit! Why should anyone beg for a member of the elite to throw them their own private lifeline when all of the workers could band together and raise everyone to the same level?
And so London scraped out a book about a scruffy wanderer who falls in love with a rich girl,...
And so London scraped out a book about a scruffy wanderer who falls in love with a rich girl,...
- 9/2/2019
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
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