The exhibition begins with a strong and clear message from Edoardo De Angelis about the “law of the sea”. Transported (literally) from a more complex work than it might seem, and supported by its very good protagonist.
Photo: Enrico De Luigi/01 Distribution
The strike of actors and screenwriters that devastated Hollywood seemed to be the political act that, gaining momentum, became a characteristic feature of the new Venice Film Festival. Instead, there’s an introductory movie Commander Edoardo De Angelis to tell us what political cinema, think of you, we still know how to do it; and follow the path between patriotism and i blame – which here, lately, no one has done in such a frightening way.
Commander Venice 80 will open (it will hit theaters on November 1) instead of originally scheduled Applicants Luca Guadagnino, tennis triangle starring Zendaya postponed the performance precisely because of the strike. This is the first of six Italian films in the competition, too many for some, but maybe it’s the right number to sum up what we can do and tell – if the next ones are the same, then the balance will be great. .
Salvatore Todaro (as usual, very good Pierfrancesco Favino, who returns to the Venetian accent El Alamein who in 2002 definitely made everyone think: but he cannot remain a character actor for life) – a titled commander, an ambiguous figure a la Oppenheimer, who – I will be brief – drove the Capellini submarine in cloudy water 1940 Having sunk a Belgian merchant ship near the Atlantic, which opened fire on the Italians, he decided to save the shipwrecked people of this country, which soon allied with England (hence, against them, against us). “This is the law of the sea,” we repeat several times.
This is the mantra of the film, this is a strong and clear message of a work that does not abandon the greatness of the author, but has a clear goal of historical and social distribution, even pop music. Italian good people, even if they are fascists? No, fortunately, there are more nuances here, because the script (by the director and Sandro Veronesi) at the same time smoothes and complicates the story, criticizes it and caresses it, making it still the living material of cinema – ours – which, because looking forward no longer wants to go back: it requires too much effort, and here instead you want to take on all the effort.
De Angelis, dedicated writer right in Venice with a dazzling indivisible (it was 2016), perhaps the most elegant director we have in Italy. Elegance, however, is never formal, always essential, which defies aestheticism, but makes the effort of visual composition – here also the proudly muscular effort between watery, nocturnal, dynamic shots, even when intimate – the very ethic of his cinema. .
A scene from the movie Commander. Photo: Enrico De Luigi/01 Distribution
Commander it is a film of prophecies, good and more often bad wishes, prayers, lists (Veronesi’s touch), lives and destinies, people and myths. A film of closed space and an open look, which, like the route of a submarine, develops in small movements, for two hours conveying one mantra, one message, that idea that the “great illusion” is possible (Renoir’s quote is not so risky) of brotherhood in difficult times, yesterday and today.
There are, in Commandersigns of Sisyphus and gnocchi, when you need to celebrate something beautiful, I only want you for an hour and Eduardo’s lesson (very well televised by De Angelis in the Paradise trilogy written by Christmas at Cupiello’s house, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. AND I don’t cry for you). There is a miracle and there is a horror, understood as Terrorthat is still a wonderful marine series, looking into the abyss of man.
But here, inside the abyss, we want to see the light: a plate of fried potatoes that can be shared by everyone, a little girl who will be called Marina, the promise of a fairer Italy. In these turbulent times and for cinema, hopefully this is one of the good omen.