robert-temple-1
This is a spectacular achievement, of a perfectly-judged fable whose every moment and every detail is successful. It was made on a shoestring (they even had to wheel the camera in a supermarket trolley because they could not afford a dolly), but the production values look like and feel like a big-budget movie. The cinematography is deeply intriguing, partially due to the use of a highly light-sensitive digital camera, which is able to film in dark and moody places by natural light. Davide Ferrario, the writer, producer and director, is a unique cinematic artist. It is insufficient to call him brilliant, and even the word 'inspired' seems too tepid to do him justice. I would prefer to call him 'a force', like the wind or the waves. This magical film captures a kind of metaphysical power of the imagination, which transforms reality in front of our eyes. All except one member of the cast were unknowns. The project was a huge risk. But the result is a complete triumph. The casting was perfectly judged, and the performers more than delivered the goods. The only one with experience, Giorgio Pasotti, says little because he plays a silent character, but evokes the character's inner being with total success. Even more astounding is the performance by Francesca Inaudi, and she is more than 'a natural', she is a 'supernatural', whose facial muscles were designed for film-making. Another star of the film is a bizarre and gigantic building in the city of Turin called 'the Mole'. It is one of the most mysterious film sets ever used, and what is more bizarre, it is all real. Nothing about this film is 'normal', thank God, since what is more boring than normality? And yet nothing is abnormal either, it is just that it is all happening in the imagination, which transcends the difference. Two stories intersect, like two intersecting light-cones in space-time, and from the crossing of their beams, brilliant and scintillating interference patterns emerge, and then the individual stories are re-directed and electrons and positrons spray out in different directions. The film is about a collision of two parallel universes. No, three. The third is us.
Dean_Moriarty
This film is a treat for all cinema lovers. This quirky comedy and love story about a modern Buster Keaton-like character takes place in the amazing Mole Museum of Cinematography in Torino, Italya place that is now on my list of places to visit. As the narrator informs us, this is story just as much about places as it is people. A sense of nostalgia weaves the film together with elements of classic silent film techniques, quirky slapstick comedy and expressionism. 3 different film formats are used in shooting this film. The combination of 35mm, digital video and 9.5mm make this film a feast for the eyes. Ferrario utilizes the ever-classic iris in and iris out transition effect as a delightful homage to Keaton and other classic filmmakers of the day. He cleverly draws parallels between the characters in the film and characters in the classic films by cross-cutting between clips of Keaton and a German expressionist film (i don't believe i can't remember which one) and the main characters Martino (Giorgio Pasotti) and Amanda (Francessa Inaudi). The unbalanced lines in the mise- en-scene give a sort of throw back to expressionism, which works well in representing the character of Amanda.Ferrario makes many different allusions that are fun to connect, such as Fitzgerald's "eyes of TJ Eckelburg, Fibonacci's numbers, and of course the works of Buster Keaton. In and out this film is just a joy to watch. Stylistic, yet simple, and if nothing else charming.
maisannes
After Midnight (9 out of 10)Give me the Italian love of cinema and love of love over the French any day of the week, well, maybe 6 out of 7.Here we have a movie about movies shot on digital video with a genre plot and some postmodern reflexivism thrown in. In the hands of a certain French New Wave director whose name I refuse to type, who in fact has used all of these devices himself, these tactics would be used at times to alienate, to smirk, to nudge-nudge-wink-wink, and to create narrative distance or irony. Ferrario uses them for all their worth, but with a consistently joyful embrace of both his characters and his audience. It's as if all 95 minutes of Band of Outsiders were running through the Louvre and dancing the Madison.Any movie that keeps a smile fixed on my face from start to finish deserves a superior mark, even if it doesn't have the depth or reach of other movies I rank as highly.
smdusk
The 2004 new movie by one of the most intriguing Italian directors. Despite of a low budget and a not-famous cast (except for the narrating voice), this movie is purely entertaining and involving: fascinating sequences inside the Turin's wonderful Mole, actual venue of the most important Italian cinematographic museum. Not-so-profound characters and dialogs, and sometimes a bit of inaccuracy in playing, but a sincere view in the struggle for love, solitude and boredom. Very nice editing with sequences of early cinema movie clips, especially by Buster Keaton.
AD
