Sfondo nero, assolo di batteria. Campo lungo su un ragazzo che si sta esercitando in una stanza in fondo al corridoio. La macchina da presa lentamente si avvicina.
È così che inizia Whiplash di Damien Chazelle. Il ragazzo in fondo al corridoio è Andrew (Miles Teller) e il suo obiettivo è quello di diventare uno dei più grandi batteristi del secolo. Non è un tipo modesto, ma d’altronde per tenere testa a Terence Fletcher (J. K. Simmons), l’insegnante che dirige la jazz band dello Shaffer Conservatory, il più prestigioso d’America, ci vuole stoffa, spina dorsale e soprattutto talento. Fletcher è infatti famoso per i suoi metodi d’insegnamento poco ortodossi: tirare uno schiaffo o un piatto in faccia a uno studente non è infatti una prassi inusuale nella sua classe. In caso di polemiche ha la giustificazione sempre pronta: Charlie “Bird” Parker non sarebbe diventato un grandissimo sassofonista se durante una sessione di prove, quando era ancora giovane, Jo Jones, un famoso batterista jazz, non gli avesse tirato, appunto, un piatto in faccia, per rendergli l’idea di quanto ancora potesse migliorare. Fletcher è fermamente convinto che una persona dotata di talento non si farebbe scoraggiare dai suoi folli metodi. “A dirigere è bravo qualunque coglione, cazzo basta muovere le dita a tempo, io sono qui per spingere le persone oltre le loro aspettative”.
Normandia, Francia. Una coppia di novelli sposi si trasferisce in un piccolo paese in cerca di pace, serenità e tutte le altre promesse della vita di campagna. Lei si chiama Gemma, Gemma Bovery (Gemma Arterton), pronuncia all’inglese. La monotona vita del loro vicino di casa, il panettiere Martin Joubert (Fabrice Luchini), viene improvvisamente sconvolta dall’arrivo di quella che potrebbe essere l’incarnazione della suo personaggio letterario preferito. La fantasia del fornaio si scatena: come non leggere nel nome, nei modi e persino nel destino della donna un fantasma dell’eroina di Flaubert?
Anne Fontaine at the press conference of November 22nd in Turin
Article by: Bianca Beonio
Translation by: Giulia Magazzù
Normandy, France. A newlywed couple moves to a small town looking for peace, serenity and all the other things that country life can offer. Her name is Gemma, Gemma Bovery (Arterton), English pronunciation. The monotonous life of their neighbour, the baker Martin Joubert (Luchini), is suddenly turned upside down by the arrival of what could be the incarnation of his favourite literary character. The fantasy of the baker is unleashed: how could he not see the ghost of the heroine of Flaubert in the name, in the manners and even in the fate of that woman?
Gemma Arterton e Fabrice Luchini in “Gemma Bovery”
After Coco avant Chanel and Two Mothers, the French director deals with a graphic novel by Posy Simmonds, author of Tamara Drewe (similarly taken from Far from the Madding Crowd), whose film version stars the same actress.
Adaptations of Madame Bovary are as countless as various. Jean Renoir, Vincente Minnelli, Claude Chabrol are just some of the directors that dealt with the book, up to the very recent and still not distributed version of Sophie Barthes with Mia Wasikowska.
But this is the first film being directed by a woman. It is a curious case, since almost every shot — at least those including magnetic Arterton — are viewed and filtered through the eyes of Martin. During the press conference of November 22nd in Turin, the director explained how our gaze is encouraged to merge with that of the baker. The simplest gestures, like eating a piece of bread, smelling its crust and mixing the dough become brief moments of delight. The actress is amazing: we never doubt the attractive force she exerts, almost unconsciously, on every man that crosses her path, gravitating around her. Luchini’s eyes widen as he only knows how to do, stunned in front of the sensual movements of the woman. And we are stunned as much as he is.
This is a light and brilliant comedy, but from the beginning we have an inkling of the tragedy. We anxiously follow the life of Gemma, convinced that the tragic fate of Madame Bovary would inescapable fall on her. We flinch at the word “arsenic”. We sigh during the date with the young lover. We delude ourselves that it can end up differently.
Like Martin, we are forced to watch powerless the gradual unfolding of a story that is already written and that we cannot change. The clumsy attempts of the baker to separate Gemma from her lover — not to mention those aimed to protect and warn her — are, in fact, useless.
Anne Fontaine modernizes the timeless story of a bored woman, successfully delves her character in what it has become an archetype.
The film is genuine, funny, gentle. The portrait of a woman of incredible beauty.
We are once again in France in the 1920s, but Allen takes us to the French Riviera instead of Paris.
Wei Ling Soo is the most famous magician of the moment, but when he takes the clothes of illusionist off is in fact Stanley Crawford (Colin Firth), a young arrogant Englishman who hates those who boast of having special skills as mediums. Howard, a longtime friend of his, convinces him to go to France to learn and reveal the truth of the prophecies of the young and beautiful Sophie Baker (Emma Stone). Will Stanley manage to unmask the girl? What happens in Catledge is a real series of magical events that will involve all the characters.
Magic in the Moonlight is a romantic comedy, with all the personal and professional complications that hail from it.
Luxury settings, a good care in the choice of the location, the typical clothes of the “jazz age“, all these are perfect elements for the great success of this new film. Stanley has the typical features of a Woody Allen character: he is extravagant and in constant search for love and for a stable and satisfying relationship.
Allen is well known for his comedies full of irony and their brilliant lines and, even in this work, he does not spare us laughs and twists. He portraits a very romantic Europe, that is full of stereotypes and grotesque elements that we appreciate so much and that we have seen in previous works like Midnight in Paris and Vicky Cristina Barcelona.
The soundtrack is perfectly in tune with the landscapes of the French Riviera, giving the idea of a union that amuses and involves us from the beginning until the ninety-eighth minute of the film.
Ancora una volta Woody Allen ci porta nella nella Francia degli anni Venti, ma anziché a Parigi,in Costa Azzurra.
Wei Ling Soo è il più celebre mago del momento, ma tolte le vesti di illusionista è Stanley Crawford (Colin Firth), un giovane inglese un po’ arrogante che nutre molta avversione per chi si vanta di avere doti particolari da medium. Un amico di vecchia data, Howard, lo convince a recarsi in Francia per conoscere e smascherare la giovane e bella “veggente” Sophie Baker (Emma Stone). Riuscirà Stanley a sbugiardare la ragazza? Quello che succede nella residenza Catledge è una vera e propria serie di eventi magici che coinvolgerà tutti i personaggi.
Il Torino Film Festival non è solamente anteprime ed esordienti ma anche celebrazioni di grandi classici della storia del cinema: la kermesse è da sempre attenta al panorama internazionale e quest’anno ha scelto di omaggiare la cinematografia tedesca proponendo tre titoli cardine del cinema d’Oltralpe.
The eggs for breakfast, the sound of the wind chimes when exiting the house, the tea preparation, the naps on the three chairs during the work shift… All these things mark the days for Marat, a young security watchman. In “Priklyuchenie – Adventure” there’s very little adventure: the events in the shy watchman’s life recur in a routine marked by few images, useful for understanding his loneliness
Besides the screenings of previews and first works, the Turin Film Festival also celebrates the classics of cinematographic history. The film exhibition has always had a special consideration for the international review; this year it has decided to pay homage to the German cinematography by promoting three of its most relevant films.
Le uova della colazione, il suono del cacciaspiriti all’uscita di casa, la preparazione del té, le dormite su tre sedie durante il turno di lavoro scandiscono le giornate di Marat, giovane guardiano notturno. In Priklyuchenie – Adventure c’è ben poco di avventuroso: gli avvenimenti della vita del protagonista si ripetono in una ritualità scandita da poche immagini, utili per comprendere la sua solitudine.
Dopo anni di assenza, Volker Schlöndorff, uno dei massimi esponenti del Nuovo Cinema tedesco, ritorna nelle sale italiane con Diplomacy – Una notte per salvare Parigi, adattamento di una pièce teatrale di Cyril Gely. Dopo La mer à l’aube, il regista tedesco porta sullo schermo un episodio realmente accaduto durante la Seconda guerra mondiale.
After years of absence, Volker Schlöndorff, leading exponent of the New German Cinema, makes his comeback in Italian cinemas with ‘Diplomacy- A night to save Paris’, which is an adaptation of the play by CyrilGely. The German director chooses again the Second World War’s theme after ‘La mer à l’aube’, bringing to the big screen an episode that really happened.
Voleker Schlondorff with Emanuela Martini
Volker Schlöndorff and Emanuela Martini during the presentation of ‘Diplomacy- A night to save Paris’ (Photo by Bianca Brocchieri).
The action takes place over the night between 24 and 25 August 1944, when the Allies entered in Paris finally ending the war. Although the Nazis were aware of their imminent defeat, the Führer did not surrender and ordered at General Dietrich von Choltitz (played masterfully by Niels Arestrup) to burn Paris. However, with monuments and bridges mined and ready to explode, the order of Hitler, as we know, has never been executed. Even though the ending is obvious, Schlöndorff is able to create a captivating and pressing thriller thanks to the excellent interpretation of Niels Arestrup and André Dussollieras the Swedish console Raoul Nordling, and to the high skills of the director. The Maaurice Hôtel is the stage in which the duel between two star performers takes place: on one side there is Nordling, defender of humanity and symbol of a pacifist moral; on the other side, there is commander von Choltitz, faithful to the Nazi cause and obedient to each command given by his superiors. Proposing a reality as that of World War II, by now engraved on the collective memory, is the pretext that allows Schlöndorff to investigate the nature of the human soul, divided between political duty and a silent reminder of brotherhood. This particular episode has already been brought to the big screen in 1966 by René Clément in ‘Paris brûle-t-il?’, but the German director treats it in an innovative way by avoiding captions and illustrative style, and also combining cleverly evocative pictures of repertory with digital reconstructions of magical Parisian skyline.
The traditional idea of Christmas as a day of meeting with your own partner’s family has already been used and abused. However, the originality added by the authors of Boris (a famous Italian tv series), Giacomo Ciarrapico, Mattia Torre, and Luca Vendruscolo, is the vision of Christmas as a celebration of darkness, doomed to end in tragedy, since the ancient times. It’s as if Murphy’s Law was stubbornly unleashed every year, the same (and cursed) day.
Gli autori di Boris Luca Vendruscolo, Giacomo Ciarrapico, Mattia Torre ci offrono una visione del Natale come festa delle tenebre destinata a finire in tragedia, come se la legge di Murphy si scatenasse ostinatamente ogni anno sempre il medesimo (e maledetto) giorno.
“World’s largest cedar bucket”, il più grande secchio di cedro del mondo. Così si apre Big Significant Things, un film che racconta il viaggio di un ragazzo di ventisei anni che sembra evadere dal suo futuro. Ad attenderlo a San Francisco è la sua ragazza, di cui non conosciamo il volto, ma solo la voce che sentiamo dalle loro continue telefonate.
“WORLD’S LARGEST CEDAR BUCKET”. It is the opening of the film “Big Significant Things”, which tells the journey of a twenty-six-year-old boy escaping from his future. In San Francisco, waiting for him there is his girlfriend. We never see her face, but we only hear her voice through their several phone calls.
Eau Zoo, della regista belga Emilie Verhamme, è un’opera prima tanto affascinante, quanto contorta. Fa parte della sezione Festa Mobile, una delle più ampie e varie di tutto il Festival.
“Eau zoo”, a film by Belgian director Emilie Verhamme, is certainly a both fascinating and intricate work. It belongs to the section “Festa Mobile”, one of the widest and most various of the Festival.
La straordinaria performance diretta dall’artista newyorkese Josephine Decker inaugura la nuova collaborazione della Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo (da anni attenta alla promozione di giovani artisti contemporanei e alla contaminazione di linguaggi tra le arti) con il Torino Film Festival, che a riconoscimento del nuovo legame le ha intitolato il 2º Premio del Concorso (7000 euro).
The amazing performance directed by New Yorker Josephine Decker launches the new cooperation between the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation (which has long been paying attention to the promotion of young contemporary artists and to the contamination of artistic languages) and the Torino Film Festival, which entitled the 2nd Prize of Competition (7000 euros) to the Foundation, in acknowledgement of this new bond.
Emanuela Martini is a practical person, focused on the substance of things and not interested in any glamour related to the festival. This is partially why the 32nd edition of the Torino Film Festival has suffered some financial cuts, does not have any big acclaimed stars, nor a red carpet or a godmother of the festival. (although there will be an anti-godmother: Anna Mazzamauro). Therefore, this attitude will perfectly match the personality of the new festival director, who proves to be capable of making these cuts her strong point and an opportunity to prove that, other than films, everything is boredom
