It’s almost that time of year for those “best of lists” and initial thoughts reveal an even better year than 2011; I think that only a truly obstinate person would not agree that 2012 has seen Italian directors breaking new ground in very creative and entertaining ways. But while I’ll give this year’s comedies A’s for effort, I can’t say I enjoyed many of them very much. A couple were brilliant, but a couple other were practically the worst I’ve ever seen.
I missed my January Rome movie trip this year, but I was able to attend two important film festivals for Italian movie lovers – New York City’s Open Roads: New Italian Cinema and The Venice Film Festival. So while I wasn’t at the movie theaters seeing things as they were released to the public, I got to see a lot of things in advance. What I didn’t catch at the festivals I’ve just had to wait for the DVD release.
There were comedies, some that I’ve loved and some (well, one, anyway) that I actually urged you all not to watch. I don’t really feel like rehashing why I Soliti Idioti – The Usual Idiots is an atrocious waste of time except to say that it is offensive on too many levels and actually made me sad. At the other end of the spectrum, Ferzan Ozpetek’s Magnifica Presenza is smart, funny, has a great cast.
In Magnifica Presenza, Elio Germano plays Pietro, an aspiring actor who works in a bakery and goes on auditions. When Pietro moves into a new house he finds that the old inhabitants have not quite moved out; it’s haunted by a group of glamorous actors from the past. Magnifica Presenza is available on DVD for region 2 players and it includes English subtitles.
I watched Carlo Verdone’s Posti in Piedi in Paradiso (A Flat For Three) and couldn’t have been more out of sync with the rest of the audience in New York. Most everyone around me laughed and had a great time, but I left early. It’s just not my thing, I guess. The premise of A Flat for Three (3 divorced guys sharing an apartment) is tired, the look is dated, and the acting surprisingly weak. I’ve always been a big Verdone fan, and so it was extra disappointing.
One that I watched in 2012 actually came out in 2011, Kryptonite Nella Borsa, is one of my favorites in a long time. In it, when little Peppino’s mom takes to her bed with depression he gets a little help from his aunt, uncle, and an imaginary friend that thinks he’s Superman (the Italian Superman). Starring Valeria Golino and Cristiana Capotondi this one is directed by a guy we got to meet at New Roads:New Italian Cinema and I hope we see a lot more as a director, Ivan Cotroneo. He writes for the Italian Rolling Stone and he’s worked on the screenplay for lots of really successful movies like I Sono L’amore (I Am Love) and Mine Vaganti (Loose Cannons).
In 2012 Sergio Sastellitto’s son Pietro starred in Lucio Pellegrini’s È nata una star?, (A Star is Born?), not the best comedy of the year but not the worst either. This comedy asks parents to consider something that they probably never have: What would you do if you found out that your teenage son was a porn star?
The story is from the book written by an author I’m very fond of, Nick Hornsby (About a Boy, High Fidelity) and now I’m going to have to read it to find out if this movie is a little boring because of the author or the director. There’s just something missing in this film and I’m not sure who or what to blame. Maybe Hornsby’s British humor just doesn’t translate well into Italian.
And then there was the very disappointing Com’è Bello Far L’amore – Love Is In The Air, starring Fabio De Luigi, Claudia Gerini and Filippo Timi. In it, Andrea and Giulia, who’ve gotten a little boring in the bedroom get a visit from Giulia’s (Gerini) college friend, Max, played by Filippo Timi. Max is famous, a fame earned from being a “porn divo” in America, and is a somewhat self-taught sex expert. When Giulia confides to Max that her sex life needs help, he attempts to help spice things up with his hours and hours of experience. It’s just not funny, and it’s the script’s fault, not the actors.
I didn’t believe Claudia and Andrea as a couple. I didn’t believe Max as a porn star or a college friend, and I didn’t believe that the relationships between any of them made any sense.
But don’t be discouraged; with this list I’ve gotten most of the bad news out of the way and tomorrow I’ll tell you the good news about the dramas of 2012.
I Love Italian Everything 