Year: 2021 Rated R Genre: Coming-of-Age Language: Italian Runtime: 2:10:00 Director: Paolo Sorrentino ★ Main Cast: Fillipo Scotti ☆, Toni Servillo ☆, Teresa Saponangelo ★, Luisa Ranieri ☆
Notable Mentions: Paolo Sorrentino's Direction
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Italy is always beautiful. Every film set in Italy is beautiful. Call Me by Your Name. The Talented Mr. Ripley. To name a few.
This is my first Paolo Sorrentino film and Sorrentino blew me away. Every frame was beautiful. And not because of Italy. Sorrentino is a perfectionist. I can tell. He sets up every scene like a photo. He's thinking about composition. Where to place his actors. Negative space. I see him. Sorrentino, standing next to his cameraman. He checks the camera screen to make sure the frame perfectly captures his vision. Sometimes he asks the cameraman to switch to a wide angle lens. Wide angle lens gives a slight fisheye effect. Fisheye effects feel dramatic. Once he's satisfied with the composition, he instructs the cameraman to lock the frame and the actors to enter. Sorrentino often likes to place his actors, or the object of interest, at the center of the frame. You'll see that a lot in this film. If the background is symmetrical, Sorrentino adjusts the frame to be centered on that symmetrical object. When it's necessary to move the camera, Sorrentino lays out a path for his cameraman. The camera moves steadily, following the path. Each moving frame remains a perfect photo.
Sorrentino has inspired me to be a filmmaker.
A beautiful picture aside, I was expecting a sadder second half of the film following Fabietto's parents' death. The second half of the film, however, fell flat. It reads on Wikipedia, "due to this [Fabietto's parents' death], Fabietto comes of age in a cruel and brutal manner." I saw neither "cruel" nor "brutal".
