Reviews

A Hollywood production for a film director that delivered remarkable love stories with his past works. This is just to leverage on that to make money.

Some slow motion scenes (successfully adopted in In the mood for love and 2046) are re-proposed here as a sterile attempt to impress or give character to the stream. It just does not work.

The film is empty there is nothing behind, the facts are boring and the acting is mediocre.Norah Jones is a remarkable singer but cannot play as an actress, I think it was quite a mistake to have her as main character.

This is the evidence of how money can spoil the workflow of an artist.

This movie puts on screen what all Italians know since decades: directly or indirectly Andreotti is behind all major events happened in Italy in the last 45 years. This is what we know, as we all knew that virtually all politicians at all level were (and are) robbing the public funds and make private deals with business men.

The movie shows exactly this: we know it but we do not have the evidences.

Sorrentino tries to bridge this gap by putting together a lot of informations that make a pretty clear scenario, but without evidences. The result is a portrait of a divinity: you know that is there, you know that everything happens because of his will, but on earth everything happens by chance so that the fact that Andreotti is the mastermind of everything becomes a matter of divine faith.

The strength of the movie rests on the capacity to describe a personality that is so powerful that does not need to speak, does not need to go on TV, he is able to make things happen in a way that only Andreotti knows. Andreotti is above the politics, above the Church, above finance, above mafia, he is depicted as a power that stands on its own, someone who uses all the different leverages to rule.

Andreotti got it away with his trials and only Andreotti knows how. For a man of his power, it was the least you could expect.

At the end, Italians have to acknowledge that in the 20th century Italy was ruled by the King (shortly), Mussolini and Andreotti. But if you remember the Glossary shown at the beginning of the movie, through the Loggia P2, Sorrentino suggests that Berlusconi could be the person in charge to continue the job. Whether this is the will of Andreotti or not is a matter of faith.

There is no plot, there is no story, we are just witnessing a few days of life of Rosetta. A tough life. Despite the young age of the actress, she seems older and you can read from her face that something unpleasant is going on. An alcoholic (and maybe prostitute) mother to take care of, a life in a campground, no friends, nobody that seems to be vaguely sympathetic with her, the need to work in order to survive and (probably) a poor schooling education. Brothers Dardenne do not give anything from granted: the unease of Rosetta's life is given by the continuous repetition of daily acts that in a "normal life" nobody has to do. Rosetta does not have access to hot water, she does not have a tap water in the van, she dresses with only few pieces of clothing, she always change her shoes with rubber boots before passing through the bush that leads to the campground ,etc. The movie is filled with normal acts that are not skipped or just summarized by the directors. When shutting down the hut where she sells muffins (job stolen to her friend), the directors let you see the entire procedure. The same when Rosetta drags her mother (completely drunk) in the van, or when she goes to get a new gas tank. The strength of the movie is represented by all of these scenes that make a life hard to live.

This movie, if it can be defined neorealistic, differs a great deal, for example, from the Italian neorealism of the late '50. Despite all the difficulties of the Italian society after WW2, it appears that at least the family or the solidarity among desperate people is there. Rosetta seems to be an alien, one of the few people remained at the outskirts of a wealthy society. She cannot rely on other people like her, all the environment around her is not in tune, she is alone, she has not a chance to change her life.

NOTE FOR SOME US AUDIENCE: despite Europe is quite far away and therefore it can be difficult to appreciate difference between countries, I would like to remember that Belgium is not France. This is a Belgian movie.

I saw the movie with its original soundtrack: English. This choice was a great mistake.

The stars that I have awarded to the movie are mainly due to the performance of Anna Magnani.

It was surreal and at times disturbing to see the movie hearing all characters speaking in a perfect English: because of the language everything looked like a tale without a precise geographic location. This element detracts a lot of charm to Anna Magnani's performance and to the atmosphere in general.

For instance, Maria was the most surreal character of the tale: a young, fresh and beautiful young girl that with her perfect English seemed closer to the Princess Sissy on holiday than a girl grown up on that island. This added to the story a certain aura of tale, but, in my view, absolutely avoidable and not credible.

For non Italian native speaker, this movie can still have a certain effect, but for an Italian it can be a severe disappointment.