Open Roads: New Italian Cinema at Lincoln Center 2018

[Chris Knipp]

THE PLACE (Paolo Genoese 2017)

An infinitely slick and engaging remake of the web-only originally FX TV series "The Booth at the End," where a mystery may grants wishes in exchange for assigned tasks that can be as extreme as blowing up a restaurant. Eleven characters, played by some well-known actors. The fun is in the overlapping of the situations, the surprises. But one can't help thinking, is this what the best and brightest of Italian cinema must do now?

[Chris Knipp]

RAINBOW: A PRIVATE AFFAIR/UNA QUESTIONE PRIVATA (Paolo Taviani 2017)

Paolo finished this literary adaptation alone, and his brother died last month at 88; they made movies together for 62 years. And this one, about partisans and fascists fighting in the Piedmont hills in the mid-Forties, goes back to the time of their first inspiration. This is a story about a man searching for a fascist captive to trade for a best friend just caught by them, for personal reasons, involving a woman they both love. The story and the execution seem oddly detached from the wartime hostilities. But there are some arresting moments.

[Chris Knipp]

DIVA (Francesco Patierno 2017)

Patierno crafts an adaptation of longtime actress Valentina Cortese's autobiography using a wealth of clips from her films and eight different-looking actresses impersonating her to narrate. Perhaps his taste in clips is a little too Catholic at times, using fiction to illustrate fact, but the effect is stimulating. The Q&A was interesting too. She almost won an Oscar playing an alcoholic actress in Truffaut's Day for Night but Ingrid Begman unfairly beat her; Bergman and Truffaut (in accepting Best Foreign Oscar for the film) acknowledged her fine performance. She worked also with Jules Dassin, Robert Wise, Antonioni, Fellini - and got Harvey Weinstein'd by Daryl Zanuck.

[Chris Knipp]

NOME DI DONNA (Marco Tullio Giordana 2018)

A timely drama about sexual harassment of a nursing home worker successfully taken to court. I outline its good points and weaknesses.

[Chris Knipp]

CRATER (Silvia Luzi, Luca Bellino 2017)

Some Italian viewers have, like me, been put off by the style of this high-concept effort about a 13-year-old girl who likes to sing "neo-melodic" Neapolitan songs - and her dad who tries to turn her into a paid performer. The cinematography literally focuses on these two and a few others to the visual exclusion of all else, with the camera up so close you can hardly see anything, all backgrounds blurred-out. These non-actors might have used more skillful direction, but one of many problems is the vague line between fiction and fact.

[Chris Knipp]

NAPLES IN VEILS/NAPOLI VELATA (Ferzan Özpetek 2017)

Departing from his usual bright Roman settings, Özpetek turns to a lush, glamorous Napes full of danger and mystery in this inconclusive, but sexy and enjoyable murder mystery starring Giovanna Mezzogiorno of Muccin's Last Kiss and his own Facing Windows along with hot young actor Alessandro Borghi. No mafia in sight, and this might make you want to include Naples in your next trip to Italy.

[Chris Knipp]

EQUILIBRIUM/L'EQUILIBRIO (Vincenzo Marra 2017)

A priest, formerly a missionary in Africa, asks to be transferred from his post in Rome because of love for a coworker, and is sent to his native Campania near Naples, the "Land of Fires" where Camorra corruption causes widespread pollution from waste mismanagement, including constant burning of toxic waste. He gets into something much more complicated: standing up to the dominance of the criminal clan. Mostly non-actors are used. A small but passionate film that seemed to me the most exciting I'd seen in the series so far. Marra himself was present, proving also to be a modest but passionate man, with a sense of humor and a sense of mission.