Cento Domeniche – Italian cineclub

Italian Cineclub

Samen met L’Istituto Italiano di Cultura en de Italian Cineclub presenteren we recente Italiaanse cinema.

Flavio Aulino on the movie he selected for this month: 

THE REBIRTH OF THE SOCIAL CINEMA HAS BEGUN

Not only Cortellesi (soon on our screens) is reviving Italian social cinema. This small, big film by Antonio Albanese came out shortly after the Cortellesi phenomenon, and perhaps because of that, it did not receive the attention it deserved; still, it is a gem in the Italian production of the last year.

Albanese, also the film’s director, plays Antonio Riva, an early-retired worker who has remained in the factory to teach newcomers his profession. He has a quiet life, is on good terms with his ex-wife, has a lover, and cares for his ailing mother. One day, however, his daughter announces to him that she is getting married. He is overjoyed: it is his lifelong dream come true, and he decides to follow tradition by paying the wedding expenses. However, when he goes to the bank to withdraw the necessary money, the manager advises him to take out a loan rather than sell his stocks, which are currently going ‘very well’… The problem is that Antonio had not even realized that he had changed, on the advice of the financial consultant, the safe bonds he owned into risky stocks. He had trusted signed, and now the stock turns out to be a bad investment.

Albanese narrates with a particular passion that small, respectable Italy that no one protects and that succumbs defenselessly to the ruthless logic of the market and to the shady and fraudulent maneuvers of banks and credit institutions, whose sole purpose is to maximize profits without any regard for the interests of account holders. Antonio’s quiet little world crumbles little by little, leaving him prey to a system that has no mercy for anyone and favors the rich and powerful while annihilating the weak and defenseless. The whole is told in a sober, essential style that has made many critics speak of an Italian-style Ken Loach.