A film by Franco Maresco
With: Umberto Cantone, Franco Maresco, Francesco Conticelli, Marco Alessi, Bernardo Greco, Francesco Puma, Saverio D’Amico, Toti Mancuso, Giuseppe Lo Piccolo, Riccardo Eggshell
Filming on Franco Maresco’s film about Carmelo Bene is abruptly halted after yet another on-set accident. Producer Andrea Occhipinti pulls the plug, exasperated by the endless takes and repeated delays. Angered, the director simply disappears. Maresco’s friend, Umberto Cantone, attempts to mend the rift by calling witnesses from all those involved in the project, in an investigation that offers an opportunity to retrace the personality and ideas of the most corrosive and apocalyptic auteur in Italian cinema.
Our rate 1: *
A film reminiscent of Terry Gilliam, but with excessive confidence and without the earthiness of Monty Python. This film, which mocks the ambitions of directors (in a self-deprecating way), makes its director both a legend and a sacred monster, who embarks on a nightmarish project, so close to Ed Wood. Relatively mild, the film ultimately focuses too much on itself, and while a few Don Quixote-esque ideas liven up the mockumentary a little, we don’t really care much about the character or the reportage that is made about him (any resemblance to a genius Italian director being, of course, purely coincidental), and this television image, which is ultimately quite far removed from the medium of cinema, even if, of course, this film, made to do good, tells us a little about cinema.
Our rate 2: ***
Be First to Comment