Author's judgement:
There are topics that it is not easy to place in a given context, nor to enclose them within a particular category of existential reflections. Similarly, there are films that do not lend themselves well to being inserted in a certain vein or attributable to a codified genre. This week's theme is the third (or fourth) age of people's lives (the term old age is perhaps more convenient but could lend itself to a more modest, limited interpretation).
Readers will forgive us a quote from Cicero: "Great things are not achieved with strength or speed or agility of the body, but with wisdom, with authority, with prestige, virtues of which old age usually not only is it not lacking but indeed it is rich in it”. All this is talked about in the film that we offer you this week: Lucky, directed directorial debut by John Carroll Lynch (no relation to the better known David) and starring a great absolute Harry dean stanton, recently passed away.
It is one of those films that should be seen with pen and paper in hand due to the many ideas, reflections, impressions that are captured and are worth remembering. The story is simple, naked and raw: the protagonist is on the threshold of 90 years and is doing it very well. He is in excellent physical and mental health, smokes like a Turk, walks and does regular gymnastic exercises. One day he faints slightly and he falls to the ground without damage. This little incident opens up a chasm of deep reflections on the meaning of his life, his relationship with other human beings, with the world around him. All expertly seasoned with dry images, thoughts and dialogues, as essential as they are effective and profound. A phrase of Lucky that deserves to be remembered: "Feeling alone and being alone are two completely different things".
The screenplay is entirely modeled on the protagonist who could hardly have had a better figure than Stanton, a character actor with a long and solid career behind him, able to express almost absolutely all the nuances, all the details, all the thousand facets in which the actor's profession can be understood. For the rest there are shots typical of a certain lost and deserted American province, dusty and anonymous already seen many times. It could also appear as a limit, a weakness in the presentation which, however, does not detract from the relevance of the subject, both in the filmic form and in the text. The film arouses emotion (the sequence of the party with the mariachi doll Mexicans) and, with the times that are all marked by daily, harsh and brutal dramatic events, it is welcome that even a film can dissolve some feelings. Luckily, cinema also offers us this possibility.
The Venice Film Festival is preparing to conclude its 75th edition. We are waiting to know if at least one of the three Italian films in competition (Suspiria by Luca Guadagnino, What You Gonna Do When The World's On Fire? by Roberto Minervini e Capri-Revolution by Mario Martone will be able to aspire to the prestigious award) as well as being able to see them in theaters in the coming weeks. There is also great expectation to see the TV miniseries produced by Paolo Sorrentino (directed by Saverio Costanzo) based on the best seller by Elena Ferrante, The brilliant friend. It will be seen on Rai screens starting from 30 October with two episodes a week until 14 November.
