sarianim

Director: Gabriele Salvatores
Runtime: 1h 38 min
Language: Italian (English hard subs)
Country: Italy
Color: Colour
IMDb Link: Cast:
Angela Baraldi ... Giorgia Cantini
Gigio Alberti ... Andrea Berti
Claudia Zanella ... Ada Cantini
Elio Germano ... Lucio

Description: A noir of the soul so to say. That's how I would define Salvatores' latest movie.

Giorgia is a detective without a gun, but she shoots at the people she investigates with a camera. As she points the camera, she wounds. And a camera turned on her own life hurts as much as a bullet.

I loved the character of Giorgia, that non-politically correct 40 years old lady who smokes, drinks, is single and tries to live through her past and fears. She's a private investigator and her hardest task is to investigate into the suicide of her sister Ada, 16 years earlier. Salvatores enters the heart of both women and let us see their dreams, fears and lies around the death of one of them. Angela Baraldi (Giorgia) is particularly brilliant and astonishing. You can't take your eyes off of her.

The atmosphere is very intense and that is emphasized by the excellent soundtrack of the movie. Even music becomes a point of view of what is happening. The soundtrack made by four saxophones, a piano and a cello – recorded at the Philip Glass’ Looking Glass Studios in NY – belongs to the dark, noir world of the film, to the blue of the movie. Very poignant.

As with DENTI, this movie seems to have been mostly overlooked and largely misunderstood (note the relatively low ratings on IMDb... but since when has IMDb's ratings been representative of good taste?). But if you're a fan of modern surrealism, check it out. (By "modern surrealism", I'm not referring to Buñuel (what I call "absurdist surrealism") but rather Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Tom Tykwer or Jim Jarmusch--directors who create vivid, dreamlike visuals while staying rooted in a rational plot. I'd even include Hitchcock in the list.)

It also has a particular narrative structure. It's inward looking, and self-referential. The plot uses references to other films throughout (Quo Vadis, Baby? is a line from Last Tango in Paris). "It's like a puzzle," agrees Salvatores, "that was already in the novel, a puzzle that you solve, like some sort of detective story. The story isn't recounted from start to finish in a chronological sense, but the detective receives a series of clues and it's for him/her, if capable, to close the story and arrive at the truth." Warming to his theme he continues, "This task, in this book is left to the audience: it's the public that will be the investigator, and the audience that will create the story from a series of clues that we throw here and there. In fact, the last piece of the puzzle, the final clue, the one that can close the case, is trusted only to the audience, that is none of the characters in the film know it, or get to see it, other than the audience. We trust the audience in the end."

That Baraldi is a singer, rather than an actress, may have just been a coincidence, but the Director is quick to point out that this is his most 'rock' film. "It's a film full of music [PMF, Talking Heads, Ultravox amongst others], but also because at its heart there's a bit of that rage, that instability, and at the same time those dreams, and the sense of losing yourself that rock has given us. Actually”he says, with a mischievous twinkle in his eye, “I would have really loved to have been a rock star, rather than a director. Unfortunately the premature loss of hair [points to his youthful but sparse hair style] forced me to give up the idea!".

Awards:
Flaiano Film Festival
2005 Won Best Actress, Best Acting Debut in a Motion Picture - Female
Angela Baraldi

Best Director
Gabriele Salvatores

Best Film Score
Ezio Bosso

Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists
2006 Nominated Silver Ribbon Best Cinematography (Migliore Fotografia)
Italo Petriccione

Best Score (Migliore Musica)
Ezio Bosso

Best Screenplay (Miglior Sceneggiatura)
Gabriele Salvatores
Fabio Scamoni

Best Sound (Miglior Sonore in Presa Diretta)
Mauro Lazzaro











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One link Direct Download: Quo Vadis, Baby? (2005)