Rev Stan's film blog

Review: from gangs to reality TV Matteo Garrone's Reality

Synopsis: At the behest of his family fish monger and sometime entertainer Luciano (Aniello Arena) auditions for the Italian equivalent of Big Brother and quickly becomes obsessed with getting on the show and what it would mean for him and the family.

Stan's thoughts: Very different to Garrone's gritty gang tale Gomorrah Reality is in many way a far more uncomfortable watch. Luciano's steady decline into destructive obsession is a modern morality tale on celebrity culture.

It is beautifully and subtly done and as a result is devastatingly affecting succeeding in serving up a mixture of emotions from sympathy to anger for the central character and his family.

Visually its stunning too from the dramatic opening sweep of a horse drawn Cinderella coach that could have been plucked from a children's fantasy to the crumbling, faded grandeur of the family's apartment home - there is symbolism everywhere.

Ratings

• Stan's 79%
• IMDB 66%
• Metascore 75%
• Rotten Tomatoes 80%

Recently seen

Jack the Giant Killer

Beyond the Hills

The Paperboy

Side Effects

Oz the Great and Powerful

 

Angels of Evil: The Italian Mesrine?

This film has been marketed as the Italian answer to the French ganster films Mesrine: Killer Instinct and Mesrine: Public Enemy No 1. I really enjoyed the brace of Mesrine films - Vincent Cassel had such charisma on screen in the title role he made for a compelling gangster.

So would Angels of Evil, like Mesrine based on a real person, live up to the comparison?

For a gangster film to work for me, there needs to be some depth to the baddie's characters or a least charm to win me over to their side. If I don't care whether they get caught or not - which is, in essence what most of these films boil down to - then they don't work.

Angels of Evil's lead crim is Renato, played by the almost giggle-inducingly handsome Kim Rossi Stuart. Renato was a Milanese mobster, famous in the 1970s for a spate of robberies, kidnapping and murder.

Renato is not so much drawn into but drawn to a life crime as a child, stealing and selling on the swag with a gang of friends. He doesn't see himself doing anything else.

The film follows his rise to notoriety and power battles with a rival mob. He is a charmer, audacious in his crimes and escapes, sometimes recording interviews with local radio stations while on the run. Part of the charm, and ultimately his weakness, is an intense loyalty towards his gang for whom he will take the fall when mistakes are made.

Lebanon wins over Vincere and gets an award for disturbing film of the year (so far)

Don't think I've seen two films at the cinema in one day before but needs must when there is just too much tempting fodder for the eyes.

First up at the Curzon Mayfair was Vincere an Italian film about Ida Dalser who was an early lover of and mother of Benito Mussolini's first child and possibly his first wife. The couple became estranged while she was pregnant with baby Benito and he married a nurse and had three children with her fervently denying any marriage with Ida and rejecting her completely for the rest of his life.

Ida (played beautifully by the equally beautiful Giovanna Mezzogiorno) was put under surveillance and then in a mental institute for her continual claim to be Mussolini's wife although no paper evidence was ever found of the marriage. Her son was adopted by a fascist but also never gave up using the Mussolini name. (Filippo Timi plays Mussolini the dad and grown up son.)

The film is told from Ida's viewpoint starting with how they met and their relationship through to him going off to fight in first world war. It then concentrates on her internment and continual battle to be believed.

While the film resists taking too much artistic license with the gaps in the story is does make it a little disjointed in places. The breakdown of the relationship seems to happen very abruptly for example with little in the way of exploration of why that might be other than the appearance of another woman.

Nonetheless it is an intriguing story. Ida's continual refusal to deny the marriage at the expense of possible release and being reunited with her son can be a little frustrating but on the other hand in denying it she would lose the last thread of connection she has with the man she loved.

Acted scenes are inter cut with real life footage of events of the time and Mussolini giving it a certain amount of authenticity. Overall an interesting and satisfying film. (Trailer at the end of the post and Lebanon post follows on just click continue reading)

So many films, so little weekend (with post script)

It's not often there is nothing on that I want to see at the cinema - I've already clocked in 26 films this year. But then there are occasions like this weekend when there are just too many films being released that I really want to see and not enough viewing hours (or finances to see them all).

So which to choose from this bunch?

Robin Hood

Well Robin Hood for me, is like a vampire to a goth. I'm always curious to see what they do with such a well worn tale. Will there ever be a Sheriff of Nottingham as good as Alan Rickman? Will there ever be such a lack of attempt at an English accent as Kevin Costners? Will Robin Hood ever be as gorgeous as the Michael Praed/Jason Connery telly combo of my teen years? Indeed will Robin Hood be lapsed gentry or from the mean streets of Nottingham? Will Marian kick-ass or be a damsel? You get my drift.

And it's got Russell Crowe whom I have a reluctant admiration for, Cate Blanchett and the lovely, lovely Matthew MacFadyen who I'm really curious to see play baddie Sheriff of Nottingham as he is usually the good guy. (PS tick yep, did this one. Views here)

Vincere

This Italian film has been all over the trailers at the Curzon and looks really interesting. It's about Mussolini's secret lover with whom he had a child and then rejected and I know nothing of the era.

And it feels like Italian film making is warming up to something outstanding this year after one or two disappointments last year. So it has the potential to be very good. (Seen and reviewed here)

Talented Tilda in I Am Love

I think it was Mark Kermode who said that if you have to say a film was beautifully shot then it wasn't very good. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I Am Love is an achingly beautiful film and it is a very good film but not quite a great film.

And the reason? It is just too beautiful for it's own good.

Tilday Swinton's character Emma takes centre stage as the Russian wife in a powerful and rich Italian family, the Recchi's. There home is all elegance and sophistication with family dinner celebrations run with the sort of precision and food you'd expect in a Michelin starred restaurant.

But so much of the family life, like Emma's perfect attire, coiffed and manicured appearance is all surface. Underneath there is a love rebellion going on. Daughter Elizabeth ditches her perfect upper class boyfriend to secretly date her female tutor. Son Edoardo marries beneath him and hangs out with Antonio a chef with whom he may or may not have feelings for (there are undertones of a devotion and jealousy in Edoardo's friendship that I didn't feel were wholly hetrosexual). And Emma, well Emma and Antonio fall in love and embark on a passionate affair.