L'Ultimo Capodanno (ITA) Die Entfesselte Silvesternacht (GER) The Last New Year's Eve (ENG)
I've seen it written on movie posters. I've seen 'quote whore critics' use it on the back of DVD cases. I hear the trailer voice-over guys use it all the time. I've never much cared for the phrase. I have never once, in any of my many reviews, used it to describe a film.
Nope, I am not talking about "tour-de-force". I am not talking about "gay romp". I am definitely not talking about "truimph of the human spirit".
However, "L'Ultimo Capodanno" is an UPROARIOUS COMEDY!!!
Here is another first... I watched this film in Italian with German subtitles. I don't understand much Italian and I definitely don't know how to read much German. But somehow, with the two combined, I managed to get about 90% of what I was watching.
Why was I doing this? Well, "L'Ultimo Capodanno" is a pretty damn obscure film and I had no choice. I wanted to see it as part of my mission to see every film that one of my favorite actresses, Monica Bellucci, has ever done -- and so this would have to do until I get my hands on an English-subtitled version.
Frankly, I had fun trying to keep up. It was a great experiment in language recognition. Occasionally, I paused it and went back to see if I could catch something that went too fast. And for the most part... I figured it out. I only ever had real trouble with a handful of lengthy conversations.
The many stories take place on New Year's Eve. There is a dude dressed in a bird outfit hassling man driving a Jeep. There is a lost notebook. There is a suicide attempt. There are some hallucinating stoners with sticks of dynamite. There is an aging countess who entertains younger male escorts. There is a beautiful young woman who, while wearing only a bra, discovers her husband is cheating on her via the answering machine. There is a strangely happy family obsessing about a vintage car. There is a prostitute getting kinky with a married business man who is into assless leather chaps, high-heels and nipple-clamps. There are three gangsters, one of which looks like a Sean Penn, Elvis Presley and Lyle Lovett combo. There are urine fetishes, paint-sniffing highs and ghosts of dead mothers, severed hands, crossbow shootings, falling Christmas trees & firework fatalities. Come to think of it, this film has at least one of everything that your imagination can conjour up.
Somehow, all the stories and characters intertwine. Every damn one of them is seemingly headed for disaster as the night winds down!
If Robert Altman & Paul Thomas Anderson teamed up for a crazy comedy, this is what it would look like. Multiple story lines. A random hodgepodge of oddball characters. Moments of cinematic brilliance -- most notably a ferocious glare from Monica Bellucci & an inspired comedic moment with a wig.
I am willing to bet that more than 99% of people who will ever read this review will never come across this movie in a video store or on TV. To watch it, you'd probably have to go out of your way to buy it -- but it is worth the effort. It was a surreal and tremendously enjoyable experience -- I can't wait to get the English-subbed version someday so I can catch up on all the details I missed this time around.
You might question my reviewing this film. But you know what, even if I did understand all the dialogue, this film is so weird, wild and wacky that I still wouldn't understand half of what I was watching. It is a crazy flick with an absurdly over-the-top ending -- and I dug everything about it.
TC Candler IndependentCritics.com
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