Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
So... here’s a film that Miramax has snatched up, and the question must be asked: what are they going to do with it? Is this going to be one of the films they give the star treatment and release soon? Or is this going to get cut up and stuck on a shelf? It’s impossible to tell with these guys, so let’s at least see what our scooper thought of the film:
Hiya.
Long time reader, first submission.
Sent this to Rob Bernocchi, got no reply, the film should be coming your way soon seen as it was snapped up by Miramax at Berlin.
I got to catch Gabriele Salvatores' "I'm not scared" (Io Non Ho Paura) last night, which premiered at Berlin and won't be in the States for some time so I thought I'd write a review.
The film is based on an eponymous bestselling novel by Niccolò Ammanniti. The novel is short, simple and powerful. It had been originally conceived as a low budget film, which is why it's hardly surprising that it should make a good, tight script, especially with the novelist on board as a screenwriter. The story is that of a ten year old boy called Michele who lives in a minute community, hidden away amongst vast yellow oceans of wheat in Italy's rural south in the late seventies. He hangs with a crew of other kids, all aged between 6 and 10. They play games that are occasionally cruel , but always kind of innocent, they chase each other across the wheatfields and basically are just waiting to grow up and leave the place. Despite the fact that the village is made up of a grand total of some four houses, the children are quite separate from their parents who merely get to call them in for dinner. It's a great setting and the macguffin is plausible and interesting: while exploring the countryside surrounding the village, Michele discovers a hole in the ground that leads to a dark cavity. Within this cavity there is a body, it's another ten year old child, he's alive and he is in chains. This child is the victim of a kidnapping-for-ransom scheme cooked up by some of the grownups in the village, among them Michele's dad, a good man whom Michele rightly loves.
The film develops from there describing the relationship between Michele and the kidnapped boy, who has started to lose his mind after months in the hole, as well as Michele's quest to find out what's happening and stop his dad and his mates from having to kill the kidnapped boy. We also see the parents side of it: desperate, well-rounded characters forced to band together into an evil enterprise. By current Italian standards, it's a great movie, it has a good story, great setting, great photography, highly competent direction from Oscar-winner Salvatores, and a truly marvellous cast of kids. Having read the book however, I have to say that I don't think Salvatores has made the most of what he had. There is a brutal quality to the book which has been somewhat softened in the film. The cluster of houses chosen to portray the poor southern town of "Acqua Traverse", are actually quite beautiful and picturesque, to the extent of appearing almost removed from the reality of Italy in the seventies, which was pretty dire. In the novel, the village was only comforting insofar as it was recognizable, otherwise it was pretty squalid. The set here looks a little like the set of Salvatores' "Sud" (1993): yellow stone buildings, yellow dust, bleached out photography. The other bone I have to pick is that the novel focused, from the title onwards, onto Michele's struggle with his own fears. In my view, the film goes a little lightly on this. It does show some of the mantras Michele repeats to himself to scare his fears away, but it never really delves into the pitted battle between him and what he's afraid of. To make an example, the shot of Haley Joel Osment torn between having to pee and being terrified of the apparitions he sees, conveyed that same struggle very rapidly and powerfully. Here, we get the impression that Michele is pretty much fearless from the word go, whereas in my opinion it would have made the film more wrenching if we saw that Michele was teetering on the border between panic and bravery. The actor certainly could have handled it, and indeed he's such a charming kid that he makes up in empathy what the direction lacks in psychological insight. There are many successful visual flourishes, and a couple of good scares (the first one somewhat dimished by slack editing).
There is an element of comedy which works because the kids are nasty and fun, but is in my opinion overused to the detriment of the tension. The music is very nice though by the end you know the two themes off by heart and it's not because they are so spectacularly good. *minor spoiler below* In my view, there is only one scene which is a real letdown, and it is the scene in which Michele is going to save the kidnapped kid from getting shot. As he rides his bike down the path through the fields, we see in some order, a snake, a mouse, a frog, an owl and another owl. Because Michele doesn't seem to notice these animals, which I imagine represent danger and his childlike fears of it, it just ends up looking like he's cycling through a cooky country zoo. To counter we have a great game of "Un Due Tre Stella!" played by the kids (go watch it, I can't explain), great stuff with eyes not used to light, with helicopters and with combine harvesters. We have a thoughtful use of accents (irrelevant outside of Italy), and we have an overall attention to detail and respect for the source material which is really, really, really rare for this country.
To sum up this super long review, the film is a cross between "Stand By Me", "Signs" (for the location, more than anything) and something like "A Simple Plan". It's not as good as "A Simple Plan", because I reckon it's a little too cute. Still, so far it's my favourite Italian film of 2003. Salvatores could have made it slightly longer, slightly nastier and slightly dryer, but he flinched. That he did probably means better box office for the film and good stuff abroad where everybody loves postcards from Italy, so all in all I really can't complain. All the best.
If you use this, can I be Peachy Carnehan?
Of course you can, Peachy, and thanks for writing in.
"Moriarty" out.
