Francesco Munzi’s ‘Anime Nere’ (Black Souls) is such a success, I decided to take a look at his earlier film, Il Resto Della Notte.
In a story about immigration, money, and Italy’s increasingly multi-cultural face, Munzi weaves together the lives of a wealthy Italian family, a Romanian ex-con and his girlfriend, and a drug addict that’s lost custody of his son.
Sandra Ceccarelli plays Silvana Bourin, an unhappy, nervous, but affluent housewife who lives in fear of the eastern Europeans that are flooding in to her northern Italian city. When her pearl earrings are nowhere to be found it’s a great excuse to fire Maria (Laura Vasiliu), the Romanian maid, but her husband and daughter are sure that Silvana is just being her usual unpleasant self.
Turns out that even though it’s true she’s unpleasant, she’s also right; Maria did take the earrings and with them she returned to her ex-boyfriend, Ionut, who is fresh out of prison and intrigued with the possibility of getting more from Maria’s former employers.
In a sea of recent filmmakers making movies about the problems of immigration, legal and otherwise, in Italy today, Munzi stands out for a few reasons.
As he’s done, even better in the more recent Anime Nere, Munzi tells a great story, with complex, empathy-worthy, and well-drawn characters. In some ways, a “message” is secondary, because the narrative is so compelling, but if there is a message to be found, his is not obvious or clichéd.
I say “if”, because I’ve not yet decided what it might be, since Munzi has looked beyond the obvious and clichéd conclusion that rich Italians misjudge poor immigrants.
And on the other hand, the absence of even the hint of conclusion might be the biggest weakness in Il Resto Della Notte, that along with weak links between the character’s lives until the last few minutes of the film.
Munzi’s a talented director, that’s for sure, and his growth as a filmmaker is clear in the more recent Anime Nere.
READ MY REVIEW OF ANIME NERE.
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