Well-intentioned films about marginalized people face the pitfall of reducing characters’ lives to their experience of persecution. Black characters in Hollywood’s anti-racist parables tend to stand in for a monolithic Black experience, while gay characters have often been defined solely by their sexuality. Emanuele Crialese’s autobiographical L’Immensita, a drama about a transgender preteen, Adri (Luana Giuliani), in early-’70s Italy, skirts this trap by capturing the textures and tensions of a life that’s not defined solely by anti-trans oppression.
As the film depicts with a certain resigned whimsy, Adri not only copes with routine teenage angst, but is also caught within a web of intersecting inequities, including domestic abuse, sexual harassment, and class prejudice. By turns wry and tragic, but never glib or mawkish, this is a visually rich and evocative drama about navigating the often treacherous path to adulthood.
Giuliani’s character was born Adriana. He tells his adoring mother,...
As the film depicts with a certain resigned whimsy, Adri not only copes with routine teenage angst, but is also caught within a web of intersecting inequities, including domestic abuse, sexual harassment, and class prejudice. By turns wry and tragic, but never glib or mawkish, this is a visually rich and evocative drama about navigating the often treacherous path to adulthood.
Giuliani’s character was born Adriana. He tells his adoring mother,...
- 5/13/2023
- by Pat Brown
- Slant Magazine
In films like Volver, Parallel Mothers, Everybody Knows, and now L’immensità, Penélope Cruz has cornered the market on playing mother figures that are both larger than life and movingly earthy. As Clara, the loving Spaniard expatriate trying to raise her children while staying married to an unfaithful man in 1970s Rome, Cruz does some of the best work of her already incredible, multilingual career.
To say director Emanuele Crialese’s camera falls in love with Cruz would be an understatement. She is lovingly shot and framed (even her Sophia Loren bob brings attention to her expressive eyes) and we don’t even need to hear her speak to know whoever’s gaze she’s under has completely fallen under her spell.
This adoration takes on a heartbreaking twist when we realize the camera is acting as a surrogate for Clara’s eldest, Adriana (Luana Giuliani) who was assigned female at birth,...
To say director Emanuele Crialese’s camera falls in love with Cruz would be an understatement. She is lovingly shot and framed (even her Sophia Loren bob brings attention to her expressive eyes) and we don’t even need to hear her speak to know whoever’s gaze she’s under has completely fallen under her spell.
This adoration takes on a heartbreaking twist when we realize the camera is acting as a surrogate for Clara’s eldest, Adriana (Luana Giuliani) who was assigned female at birth,...
- 1/31/2023
- by Jose Solís
- The Film Stage
[This October is "Gialloween" on Daily Dead, as we celebrate the Halloween season by diving into the macabre mysteries, creepy kills, and eccentric characters found in some of our favorite giallo films! Keep checking back on Daily Dead this month for more retrospectives on classic, cult, and altogether unforgettable gialli, and visit our online hub to catch up on all of our Gialloween special features!]
If there's one immediate connection one can establish between the Italian giallo and the traditional American slasher, it's that both have been on the end of pointedly barbed criticism. Popularity, of course, has never been an issue, but cultural gatekeepers have had their knives out for the slasher from day one, while the giallo has often been decried as nothing but violent misogynism told through incoherent plots. Even the original Mondadori novels from which the genre takes its name were denounced by Mussolini's fascist government—you couldn't ask for a better recommendation. But the other connection? Music.
In contemporary times and the advent of the DVD and more advanced Blu-ray, audiences have had access to the giallo like never before, meaning they can not only see these pictures almost for the first time, but also hear them, both of which have contributed to a reassessment of the giallo as art.
If there's one immediate connection one can establish between the Italian giallo and the traditional American slasher, it's that both have been on the end of pointedly barbed criticism. Popularity, of course, has never been an issue, but cultural gatekeepers have had their knives out for the slasher from day one, while the giallo has often been decried as nothing but violent misogynism told through incoherent plots. Even the original Mondadori novels from which the genre takes its name were denounced by Mussolini's fascist government—you couldn't ask for a better recommendation. But the other connection? Music.
In contemporary times and the advent of the DVD and more advanced Blu-ray, audiences have had access to the giallo like never before, meaning they can not only see these pictures almost for the first time, but also hear them, both of which have contributed to a reassessment of the giallo as art.
- 10/26/2020
- by Charlie Brigden
- DailyDead
Everyone’s spending more time indoors amid the spread of Covid-19. And the music we’re seeking out is changing.
Numbers from Alpha Data (the analytics company that powers the Rolling Stone Charts) and data from streaming services show that listeners in America and abroad are tuning into chiller, more mood-oriented music — while children’s music has seen the biggest spike in listening.
Spotify has noticed more “chill” music on users’ playlists in general, as people add songs that are noticeably more acoustic, less danceable, and have lower energy than...
Numbers from Alpha Data (the analytics company that powers the Rolling Stone Charts) and data from streaming services show that listeners in America and abroad are tuning into chiller, more mood-oriented music — while children’s music has seen the biggest spike in listening.
Spotify has noticed more “chill” music on users’ playlists in general, as people add songs that are noticeably more acoustic, less danceable, and have lower energy than...
- 4/7/2020
- by Samantha Hissong
- Rollingstone.com
At least the title of the documentary Life as a B-Movie: Piero Vivarelli is well chosen. Not only did Vivarelli, who died in 2010, write several hit songs, including two sung by Adriano Celentano, he was also responsible for the screenplay of B-movie treasures including Quentin Tarantino favorite Django, by Sergio Corbucci, and directed a whole bunch of genre movies including several erotic films that are ready for their cultural reappraisal. He was also obsessed with women, to the point of having his wife and two other actresses he was dating on the set of the same film all vying for ...
- 9/18/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
At least the title of the documentary Life as a B-Movie: Piero Vivarelli is well chosen. Not only did Vivarelli, who died in 2010, write several hit songs, including two sung by Adriano Celentano, he was also responsible for the screenplay of B-movie treasures including Quentin Tarantino favorite Django, by Sergio Corbucci, and directed a whole bunch of genre movies including several erotic films that are ready for their cultural reappraisal. He was also obsessed with women, to the point of having his wife and two other actresses he was dating on the set of the same film all vying for ...
- 9/18/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Many—maybe too many, looking at this bunch of bone-tired warriors of Av-virtue—were the travels the Ferroni Brigade embarked on all through 2011: oftentimes for festivals all over Europe, sometimes for visits to this archive or that as part of our programming arbeit (to be read with a Japanese drawl). During those months in the dark, we saw a lot—some of which chimed and rhymed with new works we encountered in this multiplex back home or that gallery abroad, on this collector's Steenbeck or in that producer's private projection room (they still exist).
On one of those trips, we were joined by our main Mubi-man, His Kasness a.k.a. the Kasest with whom we plunged one evening into a brainstorming on what The Festival would look and feel like (truth be told: it was more like a communal delirium—but what do you expect from folks sitting...
On one of those trips, we were joined by our main Mubi-man, His Kasness a.k.a. the Kasest with whom we plunged one evening into a brainstorming on what The Festival would look and feel like (truth be told: it was more like a communal delirium—but what do you expect from folks sitting...
- 1/5/2012
- MUBI
Ethan and Joel Coen’s crime comedy “Burn After Reading” will open the 65th edition of the Venice Film Festival, which will run Aug. 27-Sept. 6, 2008.
With only five of 22 films competing for the prestigious Golden Lion, Hollywood is not as strongly represented as usual. Those five include Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler,” Guillermo Arriaga’s “The Burning Plain,” Kathryn Bigelow’s “Hurt Locker,” Jonathan Demme’s “Rachel Getting Married” and Amir Naderi’s “Vegas: Based on a True Story.”
Italy has three films competing for the top award, including Pupi Avati’s “Il Papa di Giovanna” and Marco Bechis’ “Birdwatchers.” In the out of competition category, Italy’s seclection includes Adriano Celentano ”Yuppi Du” and Paolo Benvenuti’s “Puccini e la fanciulla.”
The competition jury will be presided by Wim Wenders, who’s joined by Juriy Arabov, Douglas Gordon, John Landis, Lucrecia Martel and Johnnie To.
Tito Schipa Jr.’s...
With only five of 22 films competing for the prestigious Golden Lion, Hollywood is not as strongly represented as usual. Those five include Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler,” Guillermo Arriaga’s “The Burning Plain,” Kathryn Bigelow’s “Hurt Locker,” Jonathan Demme’s “Rachel Getting Married” and Amir Naderi’s “Vegas: Based on a True Story.”
Italy has three films competing for the top award, including Pupi Avati’s “Il Papa di Giovanna” and Marco Bechis’ “Birdwatchers.” In the out of competition category, Italy’s seclection includes Adriano Celentano ”Yuppi Du” and Paolo Benvenuti’s “Puccini e la fanciulla.”
The competition jury will be presided by Wim Wenders, who’s joined by Juriy Arabov, Douglas Gordon, John Landis, Lucrecia Martel and Johnnie To.
Tito Schipa Jr.’s...
- 7/30/2008
- by Franck Tabouring
- screeninglog.com
TAORMINA, Italy -- Legendary Italian singer Adriano Celentano will be on hand at the 65th annual Venice Film Festival to present the career Golden Lion award to Italian director Ermanno Olmi, festival organizers said Friday.
The ceremony, to take place Sept. 4, will feature a screening of "Yuppi Du", a 1975 experimental film directed by Celentano -- a part-time director and actor -- and two early documentaries made by Olmi.
Although they have never worked together, Celentano, 70, and Olmi, 76, have had among the most enduring and visible careers in modern Italy.
The ceremony, to take place Sept. 4, will feature a screening of "Yuppi Du", a 1975 experimental film directed by Celentano -- a part-time director and actor -- and two early documentaries made by Olmi.
Although they have never worked together, Celentano, 70, and Olmi, 76, have had among the most enduring and visible careers in modern Italy.
- 6/20/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
ROME -- Italian Prime Minister and media mogul Silvio Berlusconi denied Monday that he has drawn up a "blacklist" of comedians and television commentators critical of him and his center-right coalition. Berlusconi was put on the defensive Monday after he made comments regarding Adriano Celentano and his new hit political talk show Rockpolitik in the Italian press. Berlusconi called the show and Celentano "the latest in a line of shows which unfairly attack Berlusconi." The prime minister then rattled off the names of six other comedians that fit this mold, including comedian Sabina Guzzanti who's satirical show RaiOt was abruptly cancelled in 2003. Events surrounding that show and its cancellation are the subject of Guzzanti's current hit documentary "Viva Zapatero!"...
- 10/24/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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