Mario Martone is one of the main Italian directors, he is invited to the most important international festivals despite his cinema being profoundly Italian, if not regional, and
certainly not easily exportable (see Noi Crederiamo or Qui rido io).
With Nostalgia he tries to convey a state of mind right from the choice of the title. By telling the story of a man who returns to his hometown after forty years, Martone tries to create a mood in which reality and memories mix seamlessly, but with people who have inevitably changed due to the environment and experiences.
Different, more compact cinematographic format for memories, as if in some way memory obscured their truthfulness, sweetened the content for a difficult focus. Because Nostalgia is a dark film, with a protagonist who wanders silently through the dark alleys of the Sanità district of Naples, one of the most dangerous, more or less consciously looking for his alter ego, his nemesis.
There is a lot, perhaps even too much in this work, with a beautiful initial part in which Martone gives us a touching scene between a son and a mother, a sort of Pietà with reversed characters in a dry and essential photography. Touching. There is the Camorra, there is the relationship with faith and the Church, there is the search for one's roots despite everything, there is youth and mature age.
Past in competition at Cannes where, however, it did not collect anything Nostalgia is a good film which however suffers two essential points: the inevitability of the development of the plot (which unfortunately makes it blatantly predictable) and the excessive coldness of Martone's style. It's probably a problem for the writer, but the Neapolitan director's style has always seemed uninvolving to me. Still a film worth seeing.
certainly not easily exportable (see Noi Crederiamo or Qui rido io).
With Nostalgia he tries to convey a state of mind right from the choice of the title. By telling the story of a man who returns to his hometown after forty years, Martone tries to create a mood in which reality and memories mix seamlessly, but with people who have inevitably changed due to the environment and experiences.
Different, more compact cinematographic format for memories, as if in some way memory obscured their truthfulness, sweetened the content for a difficult focus. Because Nostalgia is a dark film, with a protagonist who wanders silently through the dark alleys of the Sanità district of Naples, one of the most dangerous, more or less consciously looking for his alter ego, his nemesis.
There is a lot, perhaps even too much in this work, with a beautiful initial part in which Martone gives us a touching scene between a son and a mother, a sort of Pietà with reversed characters in a dry and essential photography. Touching. There is the Camorra, there is the relationship with faith and the Church, there is the search for one's roots despite everything, there is youth and mature age.
Past in competition at Cannes where, however, it did not collect anything Nostalgia is a good film which however suffers two essential points: the inevitability of the development of the plot (which unfortunately makes it blatantly predictable) and the excessive coldness of Martone's style. It's probably a problem for the writer, but the Neapolitan director's style has always seemed uninvolving to me. Still a film worth seeing.
