Paolo Sorrentino – We Are Movie Geeks

HAND OF GOD – Review

*(l-r) Filippo Scotti, Toni Servillo and Teresa Saponangelo, in THE HAND OF GOD by Paolo Sorrentino. Photo by Gianni Fiorito. Courtesy of Netflix.*

Memory can be a powerful thing. The vivid autobiographical tale from Oscar-winning writer/director Paolo Sorrentino, THE HAND OF GOD is a coming-of-age tale about an awkward teenage boy growing up in 1980s Naples, a sun-splashed, gritty, quirky place where he is surrounded by loving family and colorful characters, a place where the mundane and the magical exist side-by-side. Soccer and cinema are his obsessions but fate or luck – the hand of God – steps in and shapes the direction of his life.

Fabietto Schisa (Filippo Scotti) lives with his parents Saverio Schisa (Toni Servillo) and Maria Schisa (Teresa Saponangelo), older brother Marchino Schisa (Marlon Joubert) and a sister we never see because she is always in the bathroom, sharing an apartment near the the port city’s old harbor. They, and Fabietto’s extended family, are a talkative, entertaining lot, and the teen lives in a world of family and warmth filled with colorful characters, and the striking quirkiness of the place and the time.

Humor and heartbreak suffuse Sorrentino’s autobiographical film. THE HAND OF GOD is a glorious mix of joy tempered with tragedy, a story packed with colorful, out-sized characters, and filled with wild tales and warm family ones, all presented through ravishingly beautiful images by cinematographer Daria D’Antonio.

Sorrentino is famous for the bold cinematic style of his films, on full display in his Oscar-winning THE GREAT BEAUTY, IL DIVO and other films. In THE HAND OF GOD, Sorrentino’s most personal film, his usual flamboyant visual style is more muted, to put the focus on the characters. Muted but not absent, as there are plenty of moments of the magical.

An opening scene encapsulates some of the film’s mundane and magical dichotomy, with a sequence where a beautiful woman, waiting for a bus on a busy, nighttime street, is called over by a rotund man in a limo claiming to be San Gennero (Enzo Decaro), the patron saint of Naples. He is offering a ride and a promise to meet the “Little Monk,” a Neapolitan myth, and claims to know her secret sorrow, that she does not have a child. What follows feels like something out of Fellini, until she returns to the real world, dropped off on a dim street.

Reality or fantasy? The beautiful woman is Fabietto’s Aunt Patrizia (Luisa Ranieri), whom he adores. Patrizia is a sad, half-mad woman with an unconscious sexiness, who longs for a child and fears her abusive, jealous husband. Luisa Ranieri is haunting as Patrizia, whose unthinking sexiness and pervasive sadness, touches her sensitive nephew. Memorable characters, touching ones like the aunt or bizarre ones like to scornful mother-in-law who wears her fur coat to a picnic, populate this marvelous film.

And what characters they are, starting with Fabietto’s parents. Teresa Saponangelo is wonderful as the teen’s playful mother Maria, a prankster prone to practical jokes and occasionally juggling. She and Fabietto’s father Saverio, played with charm and dignity by Toni Servillo, are still in love, and whistle to each other in a distinctive way as an expression of that love.

The teen is close to his older brother, played masterfully by Marlon Joubert. Fabietto’s handsome, outgoing brother Marchino longs to be an actor, even trying out for a role as an extra for Federico Fellini at one point, but he seems to lose energy as time goes on. Betty Pedrazzi is marvelous as the Baronessa, the family’s imperious older neighbor. Biagio Manna’s bold speedboat-driving smuggler Armando zooms into the picture and takes Fabietto for a wild ride.

There are crazy scenes and quiet ones, and the story unfolds in a rambling style as does real life. One highlight is a sequence where the extended family gathers for a summer-time picnic, and all manner of craziness happens. The delightful comic sequence has the flavor of a oft-told family tale.

Fabietto is obsessed with movies, soccer and, of course, sex. In the 1980s, everyone in Naples is obsessed with soccer and with legendary soccer star Diego Maradona, who is rumored to be considering a move to the more working class city’s more modest team. At one point, the boy meets a filmmaker, Antonio Capuano (Ciro Carpano), who was Sorrentino’s actual mentor, but not until much later, after a tragic event provides a turning point in the boy’s life. Both the director and the soccer star play pivotal roles in the boy’s life, as he heads towards adult life.

While some parts of this tale are based on real events, the director cautions us that the line is blurred between fact and fiction, This is the world as he imagines it, as he wants to remember it, narrative fiction, not documentary. Fact or fiction, or some of both, THE HAND OF GOD certainly is a marvelous experience, one of the director’s best and perhaps his most accessible.

THE HAND OF GOD, in Italian with English subtitles, opens nationally Friday, Dec. 3 in select theaters, Dec. 10 at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema and Dec. 15 streaming on Netflix.

RATING: 4 out of 4 stars

YOUTH – The Review

Photo by Gianni Fiorito. © 2015 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation All Rights Reserved

YOUTH centers on two life-long friends, both successful and famous, a film director and composer/orchestra conductor, who are vacationing together in a posh Swiss resort. Michael Caine plays the retired composer/conductor Fred Balinger and Harvey Keitel plays director Mick Boyle, who isn’t retired but is working on what he thinks may be his last important film.

This lushly beautiful, intelligent, and moving English-language film is directed and written by Paolo Sorrentino, who won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar for “The Great Beauty” last year. Besides that Oscar winner, Sorrentino also directed “Il Divo,” a chilling look inside Italian politics, and the comic and strange road movie “This Must Be The Place,” with Sean Penn as an aging rocker honoring his Jewish grandfather’s last request. Sorrentino’s skill as a director is widely acknowledged but his complex, beautiful, strangely dreamlike films are not for everyone. In any language, YOUTH is an intriguing film, a mix of comedy and drama that explores friendship, life, memory, and choices. The film has a European sensibility, with thoughtful, intelligent dialog, a slower pace and twists and revelations that come near the end. It is a film about transformations, which can come even late in life.

These two characters certainly are not young but YOUTH looks at how they think about their future as well as how they remember their youth. The odd title might be partly inspired by the old saying “youth is wasted on the young,” as these two accomplished men look back on their life choices and regrets, in light of what they know now. Fred is determinedly retired, and even seems to have given up on life. At the film’s start, Fred is determinately resisting pressure to leave retirement for a special concert request by the Queen of England, and particularly her request to play his most famous piece, which he has vowed to never perform again since his soprano wife can no longer sing it. Mick, on the other hand, is firmly resisting any thought of retiring, although he feels his best work is behind him. Working on a film he hopes will be his masterpiece, he is struggling with the script despite the help of a team of young scriptwriters he has brought along to the Swiss resort. The film is set to feature his longtime star, Brenda Morel, a fading beauty whose career he helped launch.

Although these two old friends are the main characters, the film also explores the idea of youth from the viewpoint of some younger characters in the film, primarily the ones played by Rachel Weisz and Paul Dano.

Music figures heavily in this film – Fred is a composer after all – and the music is provided by renowned composer David Lang. Much of the film’s appeal rests with the interaction between Caine and Keitel as the longtime best friends. They play around, prank, kid, lie, tell stories, reminisce and generally talk, as only long-time friends can. Both are master storytellers and competitive, as they remember the past and look back on choices of their youth. Caine, an acclaimed 82-year-old Englishman, plays another acclaimed 82-year-old Englishman which adds a curious twist to his scenes. As the actor notes, the film is less about the conventional anguish of growing old as being in the more-unexpected place of having grown old.

But YOUTH is not just about remembered youth but those who have lives ahead. The film weaves in the stories of younger people, reflecting on what they have done and trying to figure out where they are going. Accompanying Fred is his daughter/assistant Lena (Rachel Weisz), who is trying to recover from the collapse of her marriage, and a famous actor Jimmy Tree (Paul Dano) preparing for his latest role, which is a secret at this point. Jimmy is trying to establish himself as a serious actor but a silly but iconic action movie role that first brought him fame continues to dog him. Also at this exclusive mountain resort are the recent winner of the Miss Universe beauty pageant, a once-legendary soccer star now overweight and barely able to move, numerous other wealthy and famous people, and a host of supporting characters. Jane Fonda plays Mick’s star and muse Brenda, once a movie star beauty who still holds onto her fame if not her legendary looks. In the course of the film, all these people work out their various fears and ambitions. Despite the difference in their age, Jimmy and Fred form a bond.

The gorgeous Swiss mountain views and historic hotel give a timelessness and sense of contemplation to these discussions. The dialog is intriguing as the two friends spare verbally, contemplative in their moments of solitude and touching when it focuses on the younger characters. The landscape sets the mood but also is the setting for solitary fantasy sequences where Fred and Mick recall their long careers.

Towards the end of this dreamy, languid, beautiful film in an insular world, it takes a sharp turn with the arrival of Jane Fonda as aging movie goddess Brenda Morel. Heavily made-up and dressed in a tight, over-the-top outfit, Fonda’s Brenda is a tiger, a tough survivor of Hollywood. Fonda and Keitel have a riveting scene that strips all the otherworldly dreaminess and delivers a lightning bolt. It is a part of a series of transformations and revelations that break the cocoon that has surrounded everyone at the resort.

Sorrentino’s attention to detail and skill as a filmmaker are unquestioned but YOUTH is not a film for every taste. Whether you like YOUTH might depend on how you feel about the director’s previous films, or this kind of visually lush, contemplative film where the characters seem trapped in their own purgatories. For some, it is a wonderful experience but for others, it will not suit.

YOUTH opens in St. Louis on Friday, December 18th, 2015.

OVERALL RATING: 5 OUT OF 5 STARS

See Michael Caine And Rachel Weisz In New Clip From YOUTH

From Paolo Sorrentino, the director of Italy’s Oscar foreign language winner THE GREAT BEAUTY comes YOUTH, about two longtime friends vacationing in the Swiss Alps.

Oscar winning actor Michael Caine plays Fred, an acclaimed composer and conductor, who brings along his daughter (Rachel Weisz) and best friend Mick (Harvey Keitel), a renowned filmmaker.

While Mick scrambles to finish the screenplay for what he imagines will be his last important film, Fred has no intention of resuming his musical career. The two men reflect on their past, each finding that some of the most important experiences can come later in life.

Fox Searchlight has released an emotional new clip from the upcoming movie.

The film features an original score by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang, who first met Sorrentino when his composition “I Lie” was used in THE GREAT BEAUTY.

Fred’s most popular composition, “Simple Song #3,” is also written by Lang. Referred to throughout the film, it is the piece that the Queen has asked him to conduct – a piece he has vowed never to perform again. “Fred Ballinger wrote this beautiful music for his wife,” Lang explains. “It’s clearly a love song, but only Fred is aware of its history. The Queen of England wants to hear it is because of what it means to her personally, but Fred can only hear what it means to him.”

Not all of the music that Lang contributed to the movie was written for a traditional orchestra. Some of the most original and unconventional compositions came about as a way to reveal a bit of Fred’s essence. “For a composer, every sound is available to be sculpted,” explains Lang. “When he eats a candy and he crumples the wrapper, that’s music. There is a powerful moment where he goes out into the forest and conducts what we call the ‘wood symphony.’ He hears sounds of the birds, the trees and the cowbells and that’s an opportunity for him to imagine that he is at the center of the sonic universe. He has told everyone that he does not make music anymore, but in that scene he allows himself to play only for himself.”

The filmmaking team includes director of photography Luca Bigazzi, editor Cristiano Travaglioli, production designer Ludovica Ferrario, set decorator Giulia Busnengo, composer David Lang, and costume designer Carlo Poggioli.

Watch the trailer here.

YOUTH opens in select theaters December 2015.

Michael Caine, Harvey Keitel and Rachel Weisz Shine In YOUTH Trailer

Showing in September at the Toronto International Film Festival, watch the first trailer for director Paolo Sorrentino’s YOUTH.

The movie previously screened in May at the Cannes Film Festival where it received a standing ovation. Jay Weissberg (Variety) wrote, “Shot in English, with leads Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel bringing lifetimes of depth to their roles, the film could become Sorrentino’s biggest box office hit yet.”

From Paolo Sorrentino, the internationally renowned writer and director of Italy’s Oscar-winning foreign language film The Great Beauty, comes YOUTH – a poignant tale of how we each find our own passion in life.

Starring Academy Award winner Michael Caine as Fred and Academy Award nominee Harvey Keitel as Mick, YOUTH explores the lifelong bond between two friends vacationing in a luxury Swiss Alps lodge as they ponder retirement.

While Fred has no plans to resume his musical career despite the urging of his loving daughter Lena (Academy Award winner Rachel Weisz), Mick is intent on finishing the screenplay for what may be his last important film for his muse Brenda (Academy Award winner Jane Fonda). And where will inspiration lead their younger friend Jimmy (Paul Dano), an actor grasping to make sense of his next performance?

Set against a sprawling landscape of unforgettable sights and intoxicating music, YOUTH asks if our most important and life-changing experiences can come at any time – even late – in life.

© 2015 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation All Rights Reserved

“The movie is optimistic,” says Sorrentino. “Everybody can find a moment of freedom because the future is the freedom.”

For more on the film, check out Deadline’s interview with Harvey Keitel & Paolo Sorrentino HERE.

YOUTH will open in theaters December 4, 2015

facebook.com/youthmovie2015

THE GREAT BEAUTY – The Review

Enough with this “polar vortex”! After the brutal arctic pounding at the start of 2014 you may very well be in need of a change of venue. If you can’t afford to fly, then indulge in a cinematic tour of Italy, Rome to be exact, courtesy of director Paolo Sorrentino’s love letter to the land of fashion and pasta, THE GREAT BEAUTY. It’s a visual rush of cobblestone streets, drifting canals, and breath-taking art and architecture. As the film opens, we’re watching the sunny cityscapes yawning to life as Japanese tourists are guided through the streets and a ladies’ choir sings heavenly tunes from a tall tower. And then we’re plunged into the partying nightlife. It seems the town is electrified when the sun sets. Dozens of colorfully coiffed and garbed locals of all ages gyrate with no inhibitions to the pulsing music beat. Finally we discover the reason for the celebration: it’s the sixty-fifth birthday of celebrated literary journalist/interviewer Jeb Gambardella (Toni Servillo). He makes his way through the throngs, oogling the ladies, and leading an almost never-ending dance train line. As the sun rises once more we learn that Jeb had written one highly acclaimed novel many years ago, but never got the inspiration for another so he dallies for a high-class magazines submitting articles about conceptual artists. When the typing is done he’s off to more parties, dinners, and high society conquests. But during the quiet times Jeb reflects on long-lost loves and wonders if he can find meaning and true love as the clock of his life quickly clicks away.

Servillo carries the film with an air of old-fashioned charm reminding us of Mastroianni in several Fellini classics fifty years ago, even as his constant chain-smoking becomes annoying (never wakes up with a hacking cough…really?!!). The guy is believable as a ladies man thanks, in part, to his impeccably tailored suits (kudos to the costume designers). Trouble is that his character just glides in and out of scenes with very little impact on his way of life. We think he may have connected with an old friend’s aging stripper daughter, but the subplot evaporates and he’s back to square (or party) one. A third act story involving an elderly nun who might be made a saint doesn’t pay off. And too often Sorrentino resorts to heavily made-up grotesque faces screaming into the camera lens during those big group dance numbers. No noise complaints over there! Fortunately he rewards us with beautiful shots of the statues and fountains. And Jeb’s lush apartment has a great view of the coliseum, plus one’s of his pals has the keys to some incredible hidden-away art galleries. THE GREAT BEAUTY is indeed a beautiful travelogue of that fabled land across the sea, but it’s a shame that the script meanders in search of a dramatic destination.

2.5 Out of 5

THE GREAT BEAUTY opens everywhere and screens exclusively in the St. Louis area at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinemas

Sean Penn in THIS MUST BE THE PLACE

Thanks to Sasha Stone at Awards Daily, here’s a first look at Sean Penn in THIS MUST BE THE PLACE. Wow! Shooting on the indie for Indigo Films began in Ireland on August 16th and will continue for the next few weeks. This is the first English language film for Italian director Paolo Sorrentino (IL DIVO).

Plot summary from imdb:

Cheyenne, a wealthy former rock star (Penn), now bored and jaded in his retirement embarks on a quest to find his father’s persecutor, an ex-Nazi war criminal now hiding out in the U.S. Learning his father is close to death, he travels to New York in the hope of being reconciled with him during his final hours, only to arrive too late. Having been estranged for over 30 years, it is only now in death that he learns the true extent of his father’s humiliation in Auschwitz at the hands of former SS Officer Aloise Muller – an event he is determined to avenge. So begins a life-altering journey across the heartland of America to track down and confront his father’s nemesis. As his quest unfolds, Cheyenne is reawakened by the people he encounters and his journey is transformed into one of reconciliation and self discovery. As his date with destiny arrives and he tracks down Muller, Cheyenne must finally decide if it is redemption he seeks ….or revenge. Starring two time Academy Award winner Sean Penn and marking the much-anticipated English-language debut of acclaimed director Paolo Sorrentino, THIS MUST BE THE PLACE is a gripping examination of a man on the precipice of obsession.

ohnotheydidnt said:

Here’s a grouch-faced Sean Penn on the Dublin set of This Must Be The Place looking like someone just butt sneezed in his favorite red lipstick. Sean plays a retired rock star who puts on his Detective La Toya monocle to track down the Nazi war criminal responsible for torturing his father at Auschwitz. The Academy is already engraving Sean’s name on an Oscar statute just in case…

I know Sean is trying to give us “post-Biggest Loser Robert Smith” but dude looks more like the crazy cat lady from The Simpsons after sexing herself up for a hot date with a cardboard cutout of Moe.

Review: ‘Il Divo’

ildivomovie

What constraints should a filmmaker put upon themselves in the act of creating a biographical film? In my opinion, the term “based on a true story” is most fitting. To be “based” on truth is by definition the taking of truth and incorporating creative commentary to produce a work of artistic perspective. That’s a lot of words, so here’s the gist of what I’m saying… IL DIVO is a biographical film that juxtaposes viewpoints outside the boundaries of truth and fiction.

IL DIVO was written and directed by Paolo Sorrentino (L’amico di famiglia, aka FRIEND OF THE FAMILY). It is a film that chronicles the prominent chapters of Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, who was elected to Italy’s Parliament seven times since 1946. Andreotti, given many nicknames including The Black Pope, Beelzebub and Il Divo, was allegedly and infamously connected to the Italian mafia, indirectly associated with numerous political murders and scandals, yet never once served one day in prison despite several unsuccessful attempts to convict him of wrong-doings. It’s all about who you know.

What the film does that is intriguing is that, while conveying the factual portions of Andreotti’s political career, IL DIVO also blurs the lines between biography and commentary with the use of satire and psychology. Subtle humor is represented in the film when Sorrentino pokes fun at the awkwardly emotionless little gremlin of a man, emphasizing the character’s quirkiness in appearance and mannerisms. The film also attempts to study Andreotti psychologically, seemingly toying at the inner workings of the man.

Sorrentino uses the camera and performance from Toni Servillo as Andreotti to delve into the mind and soul of the character. The film often feels like there’s some attempt to make sense of the man, like research scientists poking and prodding at the exposed brain of an extra-terrestrial. Servillo (GOMORRAH) delivers a fantastic performance, devoid of outward emotion but rich in facial exposition and enunciated body language.

Giulio Andreotti, as depicted in IL DIVO, is the type of despicable character we know we should hate and loath, but we find ourselves strangely accepting the character regardless of the terrible things he has involved himself with. Andreotti considers himself a religious man, both publicly and privately. He is repeatedly quoted as saying he does not believe in chance, but in the will of God. Curiously, this belief of his perhaps perpetuates itself within Andreotti’s mind ever more with each reprieve from justice that he is served.

IL DIVO is one of those rare stories that open the eyes of otherwise unaware audiences to significant figures in history. However, there’s much more to be appreciated about IL DIVO than the historical importance. The film feels, in my opinion, like a mellowed-out Guy Ritchie was possessed by Stanley Kubrick’s spirit and made THE GODFATHER as if Don Corleone was a corrupt politician. Let me break that down. The story and the mood of the film feels similar in many ways to THE GODFATHER, including the character of Giulio Andreotti, whom as it turns out was the inspiration for the fictional Don Licio Lucchesi character from Coppola’s THE GODFATHER PART III.

The carefully constructed and precisely executed staging of the actors and the camera, creating distinct angles and compositions that speak volumes of the character and of the storyteller’s intention are reminiscent of Kubrick’s masterful eye and attention to detail. Likewise, the brilliant use of music that often would otherwise feel out of place is implemented to conjure a slightly skewed or enhanced amplification of a scene. Guy Ritchie is a bit of a wild card here, but there’s the occasional but prevalent use of energetic camera movement and slightly extreme angles that remind me of Ritchie’s unique films.

While applause should not be overlooked for Luca Bigazzi’s (BREAD & TULIPS) cinematography, a moment spent on the music is also necessary, as the soundtrack for IL DIVO is an unexpected pleasure. An eclectic combination of operatic, classical and contemporary music is woven throughout IL DIVO to superb effect.

As much as I praise the film, it is not without flaw. IL DIVO successfully grabs hold and doesn’t let go for the first 45 minutes or so, but somewhere around the one hour mark the film begins to drag at a slower pace through to the end, nearly risking the film’s overall appeal. Fortunately, IL DIVO survives and still garners high recommendation. Besides, the film has received 14 awards, including the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, and an additional 14 nominations. That says a lot.

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OVERALL RATING: 5 OUT OF 5 STARS

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