The lost opportunities of Italian cinema. Once again we are led to propose this title to underline the state of health of the major national cultural industry which on the magical night of the Oscars 2019 in Los Angeles he found only a small but significant recognition with the award a Sarah Picelli, in the group of designers of Spiderman. For all the other prizes, and there are many, there are no traces of Italians.
Important titles were awarded with the Oscars 2019: best movie a Peter Farrelly's Green Book (distributed in Italy by Leone Film Group). A surprise acknowledgment compared to Roma di Alfonso Cuaron, is it was also very popular for this award, although it was well rewarded with three statuettes: best direction, cinematography and best foreign film.
The Oscars for best leading actors a Olivia Colman for superb acting in the film La Favorita signed by the Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos ea Rami Malek for the deserved success achieved with Bohemian Rhapsody. Meanwhile we observe that FIRSTonline had already "awarded" them with their own stars and all the winning films of the five main awards had an appreciation confirmed not only by the Oscars but also by their success at the box office.
Let's start from this last fact: in Italy the number of people who usually go to the cinema and pay for the ticket is less and less. 2018 recorded the worst collection compared to the previous 10 years, with a total of around 555 million compared to 736 in 2010. There are many good reasons that allow us to understand why this happens and we have also written about it several times in this newspaper. Among these, we mention one writing crisis, lack of themes and contents capable of supporting a film market which, at least for large numbers, speaks a language that can be understood on all continents and is distributed on all platforms. It is no coincidence that one of the most Oscar-winning films is Roma by Cuaron, produced and distributed by Netflix.
So, why didn't any Italian film even enter the five for nominations? Let's see which ones could have merit instead. The first that comes to mind is the award-winning Dogman by Matteo Garrone (Cannes, Venice, Silver Ribbon, European Film Awards etc). What did he lack to aspire to the most prestigious international scene (although one could argue on this issue)? In our personal opinion, nothing was missing but we must admit that it is a product that is very, perhaps too close to our cinematographic languages capable of observing and describing very well our events, our recent and distant stories, which however fail to assume that way of narrating, of cinematically scripting, places and people appreciable in the rest of the world. In many ways, the glory of our cinema is a great boon for our writers, actors and producers, but it often leads us to rest on our laurels and laziness in the search for new proposals.
READ MORE: Cinema: Dogman, the canary of Magliana according to Garrone
See also the case of Call me with your name di Luca Guadagnino (released in Italian theaters in January 2018 and nominated for four Oscars) which also had all the trappings to aspire to win an Oscar: a universal theme, excellent screenplay, the only one awarded with the statuette, high-level acting, great quality direction , international production. There were many good ingredients and above all the signature of an Italian director who deserves great appreciation except then having to see him sign a product like Suspiria, remake of the well-known film by Dario Argento, which does not seem to have been much appreciated by critics and the public.
For the rest, 2018 for Italian cinema was a mixed fry of the usual Italian comedy in a revised sauce and updated by the "hot" themes that our country experiences: the drama of migrants, social integration, organized crime or of the biography of the well-known political figure (see Loro 1 e 2 by Paolo Sorrentino). Among the 21 films of last year that were in the running to represent Italian cinema at the Academy, they deserve mention Happy Lazarus by Alice Rohrwacher Ella & John - The Leisure Seeker the first American film by Paolo Virzì, The land of enough of the young 29-year-old brothers Damiano and Fabio D'Innocenzo and little more. For the rest, all too little, all too "Italian" and so much already seen on the screen where a problem is added: on the screen always the usual suspects, the same company that occupies all the important spaces and leaves the crumbs to the new and young actors who also have talent.
Just this week we saw the film, in theaters for a few days, The Front Runner – The Vice of Power a political thriller signed by Jason Reitman and referring to the true story of the democratic candidate who in 1987 lost the race to the White House due to a sex scandal. The story is also interesting for a major trend in US cinema: the complex and difficult relationship between the press and political power. It is a trend that in Italy is almost unknown and yet there would be more to write and tell on the big screen.
Unfortunately, we are forced to admit that there are no authors and titles on the horizon that in the now distant past gave an infinite and grandiose light to national cinematography. Let's not bother with names like Fellini, Bertolucci, Benigni just to name a few. The crisis of Italian cinema doesn't really seem to be, as some believe, the invasion of the body snatchers of video-television streaming as much as in models of production, realization and diffusion in theaters perhaps too obsessed with the amount of money pocketed easily (also thanks to a ministerial subsidy system to be reviewed) rather than by quality which, in the end, is the only well-paid commodity appreciated by viewers.
