Valerio Mastandrea's directorial feature debut, " Laughing (Ride)," deals with grief and loss and is most interesting when it focuses on the wife and mother of the story (Chiara Martegiani) who loved her husband, but cannot seem to mourn his death properly. The scenes between Rohrwacher and Hadas Yaron as the Madonna are priceless. Gianni Zanasi's " Lucia's Grace (Troppa Grazia)" stars a captivating Alba Rohrwacher ("Happy as Lazzaro," "I Am Love") as a befuddled land surveyor who becomes convinced that the Virgin Mary is speaking to her and ordering her (rather forcefully) to build a church on the land she is surveying. Three other worthwhile selections provide terrific showcases for their female leads:Įdoardo De Angelis's " The Vice of Hope (Il vizio della speranza)" is an absorbing film about a woman (a riveting Pina Turco) determined to alter her horrific criminal life, in which she aids her family in trafficking pregnant women for profit. "Sono Gassman! Vittorio re della commedia"įabrizio Corallo's reverential doc, " Sono Gassman! Vittorio re della commedia" will make you want to seek out the films of the great Vittorio Gassman, especially Dino Risi's masterpiece "Il Sorpasso," which truly captures an Italy on the verge of changing forever - and a film with its own homo-obvious elements. (The only hint of anything queer, btw, is two women having sex for the benefit of a man.) The second is a more intimate and penetrating portrait of a deeply corrupt, sexually warped, and delusional despot. The first involves a greed-mongering talent agent (played to the lunatic hilt by Riccardo Scamarcio, diving into his "straight" role with relish) who is desperate to get the former president's attention. Played with a wicked blend of pathos and maddening ego by Toni Servillo, "Loro" is like two different films in one. Having said that, it is a lot less homophobic compared to other Italian realities."Īnother impressive selection is " Loro" directed by Paolo Sorrentino ("The Great Beauty"), an ambitious and satiric (although very different from Virzì) "reimagining" of the fall and resurrection of Silvio Berlusconi, the Trump of Italy. Which is strange, because it's a very macho world, very chauvinistic, in which women are relegated to subordinate positions and the myth of the strong man is ever present. That's something they suggested." He added, "An interesting thing is that there's a scene where you see a transsexual person and that's very widely accepted there (in Naples) because in that culture a lot of those kids had their first sexual experience with what is called in that city 'femminiello' (a Neapolitan gender-fluid term that usually refers to gay males with feminine gender leanings). When asked if the gay sensibility and queer undertones were conscious choices, Giovannesi acknowledged the presence of "homosexual attraction," but said it manifested in a spontaneous manner that was not something he deliberately incorporated into "Piranhas." "All the kisses, it's not something that I asked them to do. And most everywhere you look onscreen you can find a pretty boy (interacting) with another pretty boy. And I haven't even mentioned Nicola's drag moment or his shaving his legs. And Giovannesi chooses to film Di Napoli in quite a sexualized manner, whether consciously or not. Sure, all the hugging, kissing and touching is a part of Italian culture, but Nicola seemed more into some of his male friends than he is his trophy girlfriend. The film is ostensibly about the ill-fated milieu these boys are born into (while riffing on "Wild in the Streets" in terms of the power and age dynamic), but homoerotic elements abound, especially in the interactions between the 15-year-old protagonist, Nicola (mesmerizing newcomer Francesco Di Napoli), and his mates. The Opening Night entry, Claudio Giovannesi's " Piranhas (La paranza dei bambini)", is adapted from the novel by "Gomorrah" scribe Roberto Saviano and centers on a gaggle of misguided teens living in the mob-infested world of Naples, and how they attempt to take over control of territory. Mastrandrea defended Golino's depiction, but when asked why an intimate same-sex moment wasn't included, even a kiss, he understood the point and, speaking to Italian cinema's fear of dealing with LGBTQ characters said, with hope, "I think that is the next step." We shall see.
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