Open Roads: New Italian Cinema At Lincoln Center 2024

[Chris Knipp]

ALB A ROHRWACHER AND CHILD ACTOR IN TE L'AVEVO DETTO

GINEVRA ELKANN: I TOLD YOU SO/TE L'AVEVO DETTO (2023)


In Rome, on edge

The Italian film website "Sentieri Selvaggi" (Wild Pathways) points to a trend in Italian treatments of Rome as a cinematic background lately:

A section of Italian cinema seems to have realized that it no longer makes sense to stage Rome in a clean, simple, naked manner. It does not matter if it is in an apocalyptic key like Virzì's Siccità/Dry, or like the grotesque and monstrous Vietnam of Castellitto's Enea, or even like the Capitoline moon landing of An Endless Sunday/Una sterminata domenica by newcomer Parroni. The city is filtered and transfigured, every reference distorted and rethought, as in the video game open world of Gipo Fasano's Le Eumenidi ("The Eumenides"). For her second film as director entitled Te l'avevo detto/I told you so, Ginevra Elkann decides to envelop Rome and its protagonists in a sandy cloud that grows and weighs down the atmosphere as the minutes pass. Director of photography Vladan Radovic creates a striking visual concept, playing with ochre tones and various close-ups drenched in sweat. This particular visual ecosystem goes perfectly with the pastel color palette that characterizes the universe of Pupa, by far the most iconic character in the film...

For this sophomore effort as director, Ginevra ElKann, the London-born granddaughter of Gianni Agnelli who has done a lot of producing, has assembled a gathering of stars including Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Valeria Golino, Alba Rohrwacher, Riccardo Scamarcio, Greta Scacchi, and Danny Huston and gives us yet another tale, or collection of intertwined tales, of Rome under siege, this time in what the blurb calls "an apocalyptic January heatwave." Everyone is "al borde de un ataque de nervios," as Almodóvar would put it. You may simply enjoy watching all these thespians do their thing, with very little apparent restraint from the director. But while there is much that is amusing and distracting here it all adds up to much ado about nothing, a frantic effort to hold our attention when most of the characters are more shticks than people.

A Letterboxd comment: "I've never seen people wear so much clothing in a heat wave." This is something hard to forget as we watch. It's supposed to be 120º, and they're wearing leggings and layers and cardigans. The hazy, pastel look, a stylized way of evoking extreme heat (and maybe also pending apocalypse), is striking and beautiful and a thing in itself - so much so that it may be all we remember when all the excitement has subsided and the closing credits roll.

The TIFF summary describes Gianna (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) as "honing a decade-long obsession "amid the bustling streets and piazzas," with her ex–best friend Pupa (Valeria Golino, described in Cineeuropa review as "fully Botoxed"), an aging, bankrupt porn star from the Eighties "desperately clutching to her golden days" who is headed for a special occasion where she will be celebrated by her many fans and perform. Apparently angry and jealous, Gianna follows her. Meanwhile Gianna depends - or "mostly codepends" on her "sweet daughter" Mila (Sofia Panizzi), who "dotingly" cares for a "housebound older woman (Marisa Borani) while herself trapped in a cycle of bingeing and purging . The food delivery guy, an attractive young person of color (not identified in cast lists), is unaware of any problem and is attracted to Mila and longing for a kiss. Gianna also depends on her priest, Father Bill (Danny Huston), a half-Italian, half-American former heroin addict, whose sister (Greta Scacchi) has come to town from America with an urn of their mother's ashes to bury them in the cemetery she wanted. After they realize what a "stronza" she was, they decide to dispose of her ashes in more summary fashion.

Father Bill also "is a true piece of work," the Toronto summary goes on, though he remains a committed sponsor in recovery to Caterina (Alba Rohrwacher), an artist struggling with alcoholism, who recently lost custody of her little boy to her heartbroken ex (Riccardo Scamarcio). She kidnaps the boy and spends the day with him and then there is, surprisingly, a warm reunion with her estranged husband at the end. Note: she has not, as she claims, stopped drinking, even this day. Everyone ends peaceful, or dead, and we can go home, none the wiser, and another operatic Italian film has ended.

I Told You So/Te l'avevo detto 100 mins., debuted at Toronto Sept. 8, 2023. The Match Factory has picked it up for US release. Screened for this review as part of the Open Roads: New Italian Cinema series at Lincoln Center (May 30-Jun. 6, 2024). Showtimes at the Walter Reade Theater:
Friday, May 31 at 9:00pm – Q&A with Ginevra Elkann
Wednesday, June 5 at 8:45 PM