The review of Stranizza d’amuri: ardor and adolescence in a tragic and vital bildungsroman, which marks the directorial debut of Giuseppe Fiorello. Starring the talented Gabriele Pizzurro and Samuele Segreto.
There is a very specific idea in the directorial debut of Joseph Fiorello. The intent, and we understand it as the film takes shape and takes shape, is not to “denounce”, nor to be (too much) the protagonist of a bildungsroman cracked by a dramatic climate, in which the surrounding environment – we are in Sicily in 1982, which almost seems like a sort of rural Texas – dictates the medieval laws of a faded time. A time then suspended, punctuated by the cicadas that fill the hot air of a summer electrified by Tardelli’s goals, and refreshed by the foam, hastily consumed in a bar overlooking the square. The background of the director, who wrote the film together with Andrea Cedrola and Carlo Salsa, comes out strong. In some ways personal and close to his chords, the strong visual emotion is translated into images, straddling thematic and poetic, bringing back to the public a lively and pulsating feeling.
Because in Strangeness of love there is a theme, strong and structured, and there is the poetic correlation that envelops it as if it were an embrace, free and light as only adolescence can be. Therefore, if the tie is the free inspiration to the terrible true story of the Crime of Giarre (still unsolved), Strangeness of love will end up expanding the glacial chronicle into a film with many nuances, held together by Beppe Fiorello’s primary need: to tell a story, observing the universe from half a step away, without the desire to “give messages”, which could take over when crossing some borders. Imagine a directorial debut. Precisely this lightness, intelligent and balanced, will be able to fill the natural ripples of the film, making us take the two wonderful (and tragic) protagonists by the hand.
Stranizza d’amuri: the love between Nino and Gianni
And then, while the color televisions crowded outside the houses, and the Azzurri began the ride towards the top of the world, Beppe Fiorello’s double attention ends up resting on Nino (Gabriel Pizzuro) and on Gianni (Secret Samuel) who, meeting by chance or by fate among the sunny fields of Sicily, will discover what it means to love. A crystal clear, pure and very sweet love, however capable of generating a strong ongoing conflict, assisted by the prejudice of the town and their respective families: Nino and Gianni, suspended between instinct and fear, pulled by two different families (but not even then too much) are the mirror of throbbing and true adolescence, archetypal figures linked to harsh reality, yet dreamy elements of an imaginative journey even before being real. Indeed, there is a dream and there is a need behind the plot of Strangeness of lovewhich overcomes, with open arms, any superstructure and any type of stylistic quirk.
An inspired and sensitive film
Because then it’s clear: when there is heart in a film, reason itself (and therefore technique) may not be the decisive tip in the balance. Of course, Stranizza d’amuri, in the writing and directing phases, would have gained an extra tone if it had been dried by about ten minutes. Minutes which then would have made the changes of pace less marked, dictated both by the protagonists – Gabriele Pizzurro and Samuele Segreto, also practically debuting, are very good – as well as by the extraordinary counter-chorus which will alter (poisoning it) the cosmos of Nino and Gianni, made of fireworks, swimming in the river, riding a noisy Hello.
After all, Beppe Fiorello’s film is full of details (the wet towel wrapped around the scooter seat, for example), assonances and opposites (even musical, just think of the entrance “on stage” by Franco Battiato or the Pooh), but never loses sight of the human and empathic centrality of Nino and Gianni, always at the center of the image, always at the center of the engine that drives the director’s visual and narrative choices. Neuralgic and warm choices, polite and inspired. Transporting us to a world a handful of decades away, yet still terribly close. Last note, a dispassionate applause to the interpreters who make up the crib of Nino and Gianni, in which the concept of victim and perpetrator fades into a social dimension: from Fabrizia Sacchi to Simona Malato (the maternal figures), from Antonio De Matteo to Giuditta Vasile, up to Enrico Roccaforte, Roberto Salemi, Giuseppe Spata, Anita Pomario, Alessio Simonetti and the small (but fundamental in the economy of the film) Raffaele Cordiano.
Conclusions
Net of a fluctuating pace, which does not support the overall duration (in short, ten minutes less would have helped) we can conclude the review of Stranizza d’amuri by praising the inspiration and directorial moods of Beppe Fiorello (in his debut), at grappled with the need to tell a story as vital as it was painful.
Because we like it
- The inspired direction of Beppe Fiorello, who doesn’t overdo it.
- The two leading actors.
- The surrounding environment, detailed and explanatory.
- History.
What’s wrong
- The pace, in many parts, suffers.
- Ten minutes too long.
