Fond. Cinema Roma - Alice nella città

Directing débuts, shot with budgets so low that could be considered subterranean, with immature grace reveal the vitality of a free and authentic filming perspective that shuns all excess in order to identify and reveal all facets of growing up, identity and the determination to change the world. This happens when two film students just out of Sheridan College describe the inner worlds of a 13 year old from Toronto which they plumb in every direction (Amy George) or where the innocence of a mistake becomes a cue which leads to the description of an unlikely yet strong bond of friendship between the 11 year old son of an Imam in a Brooklyn mosque and his peer in the Jewish orthodox community (David). It doesn't really matter whether this gaze comes from the intimate battle engaged by an adolescent in the field of feelings and identity (Northsea Texas) or from the altruistic, trusting and all involving friendship to be found in a gesture (No et Moi). There's the search and the need to describe a very rich, flowing and unpredictable life that can be found in even the simplest of events (Kids story). Stories of disobedience and heroic behaviour (Little Glory), stories which like in the wheelchair road movie (Hasta la vista) by Geoffrey Enthoven, peel back the hide of reality and fuel the courage required to face up to things, as in the comics-drama (Death of a Superhero) by Ian Fitzgibbon where pain, limits, fragility, refusals, terror are seen as necessary ordeals that must be withstood if one is to manage to clasp a few brief moments which can save an entire life. Issues that tend to bring together all these characters into the same conceptual ecosystem: the intent of capturing a very paired down, authentic acting style, devoid of all gratuitous  grimaces, clichés or excessive emotions, leading to effects of overwhelming participation and disconcerting, cruel, naked beauty (Le diable dans la peau). The idea of infancy, that guides the hand of these directors, would seem to descend in a straight line from a literary tradition. Portraits that bring to mind certain female fairy tale characters. Of the real fairy tales, those with characters so extraordinary they can span a few centuries unscathed. What struck us most about these amazing film children is the tenderness of an angel of a child (Foster) and the exhilarating family intrigue set up by Julia Roberts (Jesus Henry Christ), in which Toni Collette manages to provide two interpretations of mother figures precariously perched between sanity and folly. We very much appreciated the serious, intense and believable faces displayed by Sarah – played by an inspired Christa Theret - (La Brindille) reminiscent of the steely, fiercely passionate women described by George Eliot -  and the moving expressions of Manuela (En el nombre de la hija) who in portraying an eccentric little girl with the purest of wits, somehow carries us into the moods found in Truman Capote. We have let ourselves be won over by the fascinating atmospheres to be experienced during a period of transition in the new film by the studio Ghibli (Kokurikozaka kara), and the same can be said of the 3D rendering of a cartoon classic such as The Lion King 3D and the new and naive adventures of La Guerre des boutons by Christophe Barratier, which becomes a Special Event and a tribute to the book by Louis Pergaud, the creator of memorable characters which have become known thanks to the magnetic personality of Yves Robert's children. There's one sentence which would seem to clear the board and give meaning to this year's efforts.  We have no way of knowing whether Peppino Impastato actually said such very poignant words or whether they are the work of some amazing scriptwriter.  Whether he said them or he just inspired them, they give us another reason to miss him:  “Beauty, beauty is very important, it all stems from there”.

Gianluca Giannelli

Curator of “Alice nella città”