Davide Gentile’s first work, Denti da squalo, combines coming-of-age (with a certain Niccolo Ammaniti) and a crime film, resulting in an imperfect yet captivating whole. The work is not always in the center and at times not very believable, but certainly with an interesting look.
Reality that bites
Among the Italian debuts of a certain significance released this 2023, this one deserves some attention. shark teeth, the debut work of director (with a background in commercials and short films) David Gentile. A work that can count on the production of Goon Films by Gabriele Mainetti – here also a co-composer of the music – to guarantee an approach to the subject (a crime film to which the film does not hide its affiliation) that promises originality and freshness. . And it’s certainly unusual, the angle Gentile’s film approaches the trend, starting with a (pre-)adolescent look that colors the story in the colors of a modern fairy tale: the protagonist is a thirteen-year-old Walter, a recently orphaned father who decides to infiltrate an apparently uninhabited villa that belonged to the legendary outlaw Corsair. A little boy, to his great surprise, finds a shark in the pool, from which he miraculously escapes; but, above all, he stumbles upon Carlo, an older boy who initially threatens him by claiming to be the caretaker of the villa and later befriends him. The strange company of Carlo will open an unknown world for Walter, whose charm will make him forget for a moment the pain of losing his father. Anthonyas well as the incapacity of his mother Rita establish a dialogue with him.
From fairy tale to noir
The fairy tale approach seems to be an increasingly favored stylistic code by which young filmmakers approach certain types of stories, especially more complex ones: a recent example was Huntingthe second work of Marco Bocci, and this is a case in point, albeit in a different vein. shark teeth. Directed by David Gentile, the film is told entirely through the eyes of a young boy, laced with a childlike gaze, captured moments before the transition to adolescence and also immediately after the trauma of premature grief. Everything is flooded with colors and the dazzling light of summer, which, when childhood is over, will inevitably cease to be the same; a brilliance dotted with bike rides, dives and adventurous explorations of abandoned villas that will slowly fade into the dark night of clubs, in encounters with uncomprehending people to whom Carlo will introduce the protagonist, and in the seething intoxication of the premature formation of a criminal. So the film’s approach to coming of age has something of Niccolò Ammaniti from I’m not afraid – whose look, in turn, was indebted to that of the best Stephen King – with perhaps an even more dreamlike approach embodied in the protagonist’s encounters with the ghost of his father, played by the spectacular Claudius Santamaria.
“Borderline” mood
The first part works very well. shark teethwith an atmosphere left more to the actions of the characters and the charm of the environment than to the dialogue, reduced to the bone and almost disfigured by the protagonist. Tiziano Menichelli in the effective Roman dialect. A design that also benefits from the efficiency of another young protagonist, one Stephen Roshi who finds the right balance between bravado, fragility and curiosity, making friendships naturally in which the roles are soon and unpredictably reversed. Gentile’s film works and captivates where it maintains a “boundary” mood, in which the fairy tale has not yet given way to reality, and the elements that suggest the story of the protagonist are still few and fragmentary. The same idea of a shark, a symbolic and programmatically taken out of context element in the pool of a luxurious residence, is a strong reference – a little blatant, but effective – to the reality of the adult world that can bite: an element that is at the same time part of a fabulous construction (with its reference to ancient pirate stories, also inspired by Carlo’s tale of the corsair, and the same encounter with the latter, theatrical but sensitive Edward Fish) and a warning about the inevitable meeting/collision with a reality that can do harm. Which theoretically could also kill.
Limits of amalgam
When, however, shark teeth approaches its second component, more criminal and realistic, its whole construction eventually loses its edge, which is also punished by the imperfect combination of stories and character backstories, as well as the incredible evolution of the story itself. There is no necessary harmony and gradualness in the entry of the protagonist into the criminal world of the Roman coast, who would like to be reminded – without having the necessary expressive power – the idea of the criminal universe Don’t be naughty Claudio Caligari; the film, in particular, finds its weakest moments in the interludes involving the protagonist’s mother, played by Virginia Rafael. It is the nature of the latter, vague in the description, that gives life to small, plausible interludes—as in the dinner sequence with Walter and his friend Carlo, and subsequent interactions with the latter—ending up leading the story into an apparently implausible scenario. . Throughout the second half of his at least interesting debut, the director seems to be unable to find the right balance between the tenderness of a story about childhood and the cruelty of a criminal case, staging either too sharp a contrast or an insufficient characterization. atmosphere in both senses. Suffering from a problematic setting of the story in its coherence – and atmosphere – shark teeth nevertheless, it is characterized as a promising debut, whose individual visual and narrative intuitions are not difficult to recall even in the still partially flawed overall structure.
Form
Original name: shark teeth
Director: David Gentile
Country/year: Italy / 2023
Duration: 104′
Type: Dramatic
Throw: Edoardo Pesce, Claudio Santamaria, Virginia Raffaele, Matteo Scattaretico, Stefano Roshi, Tiziano Menicelli
Screenplay: Valerio Cilio, Gianluca Leonchini
Photo: Ivan Casalgrandi
Assembly: Thomas Gallone
Music: Michael Braga
Director: Claudio Saraceni, Jacopo Saraceni, Federico Saraceni, Andrea Occhipinti, Gabriele Mainetti, Mattia Guerra, Stefano Massenzi
Production house: Goon Films, Ideacinema, Lucky Red
Distribution: Lucky Red
Release date: 08/06/2023
Trailer
